Endurance races, ski trips, musings, and adventures on the East Coast.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

3 Sandwich Day

Ahhh....let's give a big cheer for "wintery mix" conditions in late April. Means I get to read my new book and drink massive amounts of coffee today instead of "exercising." Shucks. Anyway, yesterday was about as far from today weather wise as possible - I think I almost got sunburned. Nope, no mountain bike photos yet. The mountains are still a snowy wonderland, which meant there was really only one option for yesterday...

Yup, that there is some bluebird sky. A big thanks to Native for keeping my eyes protected and stylin' all day.

Plenty of mid-angle, untracked chutes awaited, with conditions varying from powder, to corn, to ice within each turn it seemed. All in all, it looked good going up...

...and skied even better on the way back down. We fell into a nice rhythm of eat, take the jacket off, climb (kick left, kick right, poles upslope, kick left, check out the view, kick right), eat, jackets on, ski, repeat.

The day's last chute was a good one. Through a choke point up high and then wide open to the base a thousand feet below.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Two a Days

Oh the dreaded two-a-day workouts. Actually, today was a big step up from the traditional back to high school in the fall suckiness. The morning was full of rad corn harvesting on the mountain with a good crew of folks. Lots of soft bumps, some good retro airs, and a bit of pole thwacking for good measure. All in all, super fun. Quads, not so stoked.

But, after a little R & R the 50 plus degree valley temps got me out with a friend for a sunset ride up past a local reservoir. The rivers are running high, the valley's are getting green, and the skiing is pretty rad: must be shoulder season in VT. See you out there.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Training blah blah blah Gravel Grinder Report

So what's new? I'm training and right now writing about training feels, well, pretty blah. Especially since it's 40 degrees and raining outside the window right now. Really makes me feel like I want to get after it....right, can you feel the inspiration bleeding through the typeface right now.

One of those weeks when the riding was rad and then Monday came i.e. work came and the energy went somewhere other than pedals...then it started raining. A lot of times work inspires me to ride more, not so much this week. Tonight I cooked tempura mainly because I wanted to fry stuff. Yum.

But this past weekend, the Gravel Grinder, the reason I started writing this post. The shoots were springing up in the front yard and we cruised up to Waterbury for the ride...it's not actually a race. I tried to back that sentiment up this year with some cut offs and my 35 pound rigid Surly with 2.5 tires. Awesome, except then I tried to be competitive anyway, which meant I worked really hard to hang with the lead group until the last climb which really, really hurt and then rode solo in because, well, I'm not sure...dumb move there. At least there was a snow biking section at the end, that part was rad. All in all a fun day and I'm right about where I want to be.

Garden coming around and a rad sunset yesterday. It's been a good week to get outside.
More sun and corn harvesting in the forecast. Hope everyone gets some good last turns in these next few weeks.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Toasting Spring

One last Sugarbush Triathlon picture...toasting to 2nd place with our new pint glasses. The warm sunny weather is finally here it seems...man am I ready for some good bike rides.

Gravel Grinder this weekend! Stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sugarbush Triathlon Race Report

First race done! Well, that was actually pretty rad. It was hard enough to feel like racing and to remind me that I do actually miss it in some perverse way, but it was short enough to feel, well, fun? Yup. The fact that I got to do it with three awesome friends is what really made the day - I wish every race were this much fun.

The Sugarbush Triathlon is actually four events: running, paddling, biking, and skiing; pretty much a great way to give shoulder season a nice big bear hug and a good excuse to hang out with cool people. Our team was pretty last minute in pulling things together. There were big plans for costumes that never happened. In the end we settled on a let's pick up some pbr and have fun strategy. That seemed to work okay. Nina ran a wicked fast running leg, passed off to Anne who raged the paddle in style despite a boat that was better suited to touring a lake than racing down a river. Oh well, plus she didn't know she was racing until the day before...good planning on my part. I did the bike leg, which went about how I'd hoped. There are some opening rollers along the Mad River which allow you to open things up and then recover on the backside. Then it's some big ring cruising at tempo through Waitsfield and up 17. That was the fun part; down in the aero bars goin' real fast. German Flats to Mt. Ellen is tough. A pretty solid climb and my 42t granny was making me work for it. Got the 5th overall split for the bike leg though, which is a good indicator that I'm about where I want to be right now. Pete brought it home on the ski leg. Sorry dude, that was by far the worst one. Nice soft pea soupy corn snow - perfect for brutal skate skiing. Fortunately, memories are short and I think everyone, even Pete, wants to go back next year.

In the team category, we killed it. We know, we're modest. Well, really we didn't think we were going to do well at all. Turns out we were 2nd in our class and got some rad pint glasses. So that was cool. Plus it was sunny all day, also cool. And it was just fun to hang out and eat some yummy chili with the legs up on the back deck of Mt. Ellen after the race. All around, a perfect way to start the season.
P.S. Sorry for the so-so images. I kind of failed on the photography front. But the kayak transition was a good representation of the race as a whole: lots of cool people coming out to embrace shoulder season and have a good time together. The Sugarbush Triathlon is super fun; hope to see you there next April.

Friday, April 1, 2011

First Race Coming Up...

Hard to believe it, but this Sunday is my first race of the year. The Sugarbush Triathlon is coming up this weekend, and it's always a great way to celebrate shoulder season and start the suffering off in a mostly fun way. The house got a team together - and I'm slated to ride a 10 mile hill climbish portion (there's also a run, paddle, and xc ski). How's it going to go? Not really sure. Despite the last weekend looking a lot like this...

...I did actually manage to get 4 training rides in this week. Short and face numbingly cold was the name of the game most of the week, but Wednesday was warm enough to get a solid hour of valley road cruising in. Tempo feels pretty good right now, accelerations not so much. As for Sunday, hopefully it will start cleaning out the cobwebs.

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In other news, the mountain bike season is coming together. Gear is arriving, the schedule is being finalized, reservations are being made, and I'm dialing in my camera set-up. Pretty psyched about the Zaboo frame that is coming my way in a week or two. Apparently they're weighing in at 2.5 lbs or so, and they're being raced at the Cape Epic right now (a pretty good testament to the durability from what I've heard).

More on the frame/bike as things come together in the coming weeks.