Nope.
So much happened.
Longest week of the year mileage wise. Thanks in part to an all day ride with Russ, I was going to link his blog report here but I feel better... mostly because he hasn't either.
Hit the smackdown. Temps were good but I was underdressed for the ride home and was actually colder Tuesday night than I was on Monday after spending the day oustide in sub-freezing temps.
But managed to pedal everyday. even got a decent haul of seasoned burnable wood one of the days in the trailer. Picked Friday to do that and had a really stupid headwind to go along with the brilliant idea of loading the trailer a bit on the way IN, and then adding more on the way home.
Of note i did cut up the motherfufking tree that ended my CX season early.
That's all but the very top of it. I cut up to where I could still see the busted branches from my impact with the top. Still green so I'll have to wait to extract the BTUs of revenge until next year. BUT it felt good to get that length of a small tree in the trailer on the way home.
Now Monday's 113 miles was pretty crazy. 17-19°F at the start... got maybe to the mid 20s but was starting to get cold again by the time I headed home.
Breifly I left my house, Russ left his and we planned to meet at Zanc's shop which we discovered was pretty much 35 miles away from each of us. Russ managed to get out the door a few minutes before I did and I had a nice tailwind. I had not much wind to deal with but I did have to go uphill all the way from Providence. I was boring and elected to stick to Douglas Pike/Ave/Rt 7 until it ended there on Rt 16. Then wiggled up to the shop. But yeah, was uphill, was cold, I was not going terribly fast and Russ was already there.
We rolled out and I missed one turn and we had to re-calculate a bit (I meant to hop back over to 16 but wound up on Lackey Dam Rd instead). But we crossed 146 and I ran Russ into the first of a double pothole as I looked over to the right on Lackey Pond to the south. No flat but it pushed his bars down and gave me a chance to figure out how to get 'back on track.'
we wound up back on my planned route. Route to where? Patriot Place of course. Why not? Was a waypoint that worked for getting us a length of riding together, and we had decent odds of finding a place to grab some food and hell why not, better than a random city I suppose. This ride doesn't makes sense so why did this have to? It made enough sense in that it was pretty much an equal leg of the ride. 35, 35, and supposedly 35. That's the plan. I think that adds up to more than 100. So it worked.
We stopped for a quick coffee (I was running on one bottle of coffee instead of normal two, needed some) and yes we stopped at DD. Meh hot black Dunkin is better than mostly frozen water and a caffienate gel.
headed back out and wound up on the wrong side of Patriot place. Missed it. oops. Wound up going back around on the backside and up and through the boardwalk place and then rolled up looking for some grub and well... Five Guys was there. Last year's May ride that stuff worked for me and Russ like the sounds of it. So hey lets fuel up.
To this point the only calories I'd had were from my Chocolate peanut butter cookies that I've now figured out how to make into a nice bar shape. Works well. The recipe now has been made two times in a row with the youngest's help and attention to detail so I didn't freelance and add extra bits of this or not measure that. EXACT. and the batch was the same. Good consistency, not too dry, not to soft, not to brittle not too hard. Good balance and a good ratio of fat protein and sugar (recipe to come later).
Anyway. we ate, nice and topped up, rode out of there and up 115, when we hit 1A we went our separate ways. 1A actually sucks giant donkey balls. But I was only on it from 115 to 121. Not terrible. Meanwhile Nick was trying to sort out figuring out how to meet up with me. Weather was almost 30, dry and sunny, better than rollers no? I thought so. Plan was to meet somewhere on the Blackstone Bikepath. I was looking forward to a nice quiet ride w/o cars to kind of wrap the day and chat with Nick. I get down to the path and it looks a bit snowy (but clear to the north there). And okay cool. Then one section that is all ice. But short. But each short section kept getting longer. Until I got to one and kept going. No studded tires makes it very dicey.
Mile Post 13 and I was trapped in a sea of snow and ice either direction. Bailed. Told nick. he was somewhere not so far away.
But in our attempt to meet up he went up Old River Road as I was coming down New River Road. I got to School street w/o seeing him. Called. "Are you on New River Road or Old river road?" Old.... oops... "so Nick have you passed School street?" Yeah a long time ago...
So...
If you've been on New River Road at School street. You'll know that it is a wee little climb from there up to Old River. No big deal. Other than 95 miles already in the legs and close to 5k of climbing in temps below freezing.
Looks like this, At the left turn there I waited. At that top... which was good. Because it took all I had at that moment to get to the top
But it wasn't much of a big deal. Just painful. Hung out for a while, Nick rolled up. And we cruised back home.
Killer day riding with Russ. Talk about super smooth sewing machine cadences... I'm kind of a masher as of late, slow torquey riding with the trailer and all that mostly isn't good for high cadence. No velosprints this winter, so I haven't been pushing the rpms into the 250s in a while. Nicky was even more mashy than me. Granted we were going slow. I was pretty cooked. But outweighing him a good 40-50 pounds mean I was rolling up on him on the downhills... and predictably every time it wasn't flat... well he floated away from me. I think he was coasting up hills going faster than me at that point. But hey. It was the little carrot i needed to get home. Dropped him off at the top of College hill and I floated home. Not much of a headwind even for the bike path.
A long day in the saddle at least. Felt great.
Tuesday smackdown? Yup did that too. Holy smokes did that hurt. But I was a bit closer in contact on Hillside than before, but I also pretty much stayed off the front as much as I could. No sprint victories but hey, it was a victory just getting out there. Happy enough with that.
Saturday I got the stuff done I needed to do and then home in time to take down the Adroit, put some pedals on it and air up the tires and out and caught up with a couple awesome friends and noodled and strolled around on the path for a bit. That bike is FUN. Not so much fun in the rock gardens but the swoopy stuff? FUN. Was a really good time. Weather was fanastic too. After Monday's subzero ride Shorts and a T-shirt were great on Saturday.
Sunday was another nice day and I had thought maybe i'd get a little run in but i decided i'd better take advantage of the weather and get the yard work sorted out. Had to rejuviante a few bushes and I cut up the seasoned trailer wood with the sawzall until the pruning blade broke (damn black locust and cherry and oak and paper birch) and raked and stuff. Beat myself up to the point where I decided a run would be counter productive and after a record mileage week taking a day off may not be the worst idea. Maybe I'll feel like running mid-week.
No trailer today... really tried to relax on the ride in. But IT WAS IN THE TEENS. okay 18 is barely in the teens but 18 seemed no bid deal anymore, but while I don't even bother with a balaclava or anything extra until the temp gets int he single digits anymore, it would still be nice if we'd get some more moderate temps at sometime. BUT.
I'd still rather have 18 and below freezing all day than 30-40 and rain.
Esp since all my front fenders seem to have self destructed, need to see if i can make ONE of them work, at least before we start to get that kind of weather.
fod yn rhyfeddol
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