Milford (Vietnam) Ride

So I had hoped to go back to Nathan Hale this past Sunday and do that ride again while it was still fresh in my mind.  But then I had a mountain bike Christmas Party at my house Friday.  That places me in direct contact with copious amounts of beer and squadrons of mountain bikers.  I think by the end of the evening I had committed to three different rides.  If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that intoxicated Rob is not a good planner.  If you ever want anything from me though, the Christmas party is a good time to hit me up.

Anyhow, I awoke Saturday morning and realized I had to make a choice for Sunday's ride.  I decided to go with the Vietnam option.  It had literally been a couple of years since my last visit and I was eager to check it out again.

It was arranged that we would meet at College Rock Park at 10:00 am.  So Saturday day was super busy and I never got around to cleaning my bike from the Nathan Hale ride the week before.  Then I spent the evening at Armsby Abbey and the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, watching the new Warren Miller film.  I got home a little late and hit the hay, saving the bike clean up for the morning.

I did manage to get up pretty early Sunday and get down and clean the mud off the bike.  Nathan Hale had been SUPER muddy in spots, so it was caked on pretty thick.  After a half hour or so though, I was in pretty good shape with a sparkly drive train.  I got on the road with plenty of time, realizing half way there that I forgot the GPS for the car and this was my first time starting from College Rock Park.  Fortunately, I'd gone online and checked out where it was and was thus able to navigate adequately from memory.  I got to the lot about 9:45 and Jess and another guy were already there.  That other guy's name is Ron.  He's a friend/business acquaintance of Glen Zygmuntowicz. He's in the tile business.  Since we already have another Ron, who you are about to find out was also at the ride, I'm going to call this guy Tile Ron.  Old Ron is Piano Ron.  Or maybe Truck Driver Ron.  Talk to him for ten minutes and you'll see why the latter is a good nickname.

Tile Ron is down from NH for his first trip to Milford.  He's riding a free ride style bike.  A shiny new Santa Cruz Nomad with all the fixins.  He's somewhat new into the free ride business, but is looking to hit some stuff.  People who are new to the fee ride business are generally 15.  Tile Ron is three times better the man (in three days).  Happy Birthday Tile Ron!

So Piano Ron rolls into the lot just after 10 and we're off onto the trails.  We're following the trail that Laura Zimmer marked with twist off soda bottle or water bottle caps and some arrows.  Except a lot of them are missing.  We're figuring it out though, with a little discussion between Piano and Jess. 

I mentioned earlier that College Rock was a new starting spot for me.  We used to start from the power lines, either parking at Wendy's or the soccer fields.  This place is better.  Much better.  The power line climb is nothing short of a lung buster.  This ride started off with a great descent.  Not so big that you were cursing as you left, but exponentially better than sapping all your strength in the first ten minutes of the ride.

Jess flatted in the first 15 minutes or so of the ride.  He was running tubeless, but the hole in the tire was large enough that the sealant wouldn't self-repair the tire. So then he was done running tubeless for the rest of the day.  After getting the tire inflated, he was putting it back together when he realized he had lost the nut off the end of his wheel skewer.  Big trouble little China.  No joke, the four of us probably spent five or ten minutes leafing through the dead leaves in search of that nut.  Jess is the one who eventually found it.

Jess, oblivious to the tragic loss of his right nut

About six miles or so in we made it to the power lines.  There were some rocks there that were worth playing with for a minute or two.  Here's Tile Ron going off the drop:

Here's some guy who fancies himself a mountain biker, but I think bears more in common with the Wicked Witch of the West.  Check out his four legged riding friend!

"I'll get you my pretties."

After playing on the power lines for several minutes, we crossed over to the other side of them and rode some fun trail replete with numerous steeps.  While over there, we stopped and snacked atop a cliff while watching traffic whir by on Route 495.  Not quite sure why, but I really liked the feeling of resting in the middle of my mountain bike ride to gawk at traffic.

I'm sitting on a hilltop looking at a traffic jam
Laughin' at the people as they drive as fast as they can
But five miles an hour won't get them very far
They’ll still be sitting in their car

Okay, maybe the Yonder lyrics aren't exactly appropriate since it's not really a traffic jam, but just traffic.  And yes, I did drive my car an hour, alone, to get to this ride, so I'm not entitled to any real look-down-my-nosery, but somehow I like the feeling of riding to a place like this and feeling removed from it all.

So we finished our refuel and finished up the 495 side of the power lines before heading over to the NEMBA maintained area.  That's where the real fun started.  This place is a veritable playground for mountain bikers.  Feature after feature.  Some big.  Some small.  Anything really treacherous with a tame go around for pansy-assed cross country riders like me.  I'm willing to hit anything with a roller or a 12 - 15 inch drop, but anything bigger than that and I'm all set.  I'll watch that stuff all day long though.  Here are some of the clips and shots of various features getting Tiled (and sometimes Blyed).

What goes up must come down
spinning wheel got to go round

Blimey!

Is Tile Ron Hitting the pipe again?
Tell him to save some for the kids!

  Focus

Pretty cool, huh?  And the place was just one after the other.  As we finished the loop, I realized I had a low tire.  By the time I pulled out the pump, I realized low was flat.  Yes!  Now I get to try out my new CO2.  As it turns out, it's pretty flippin' awesome.  Pumpin' is for chumps.  If you're still doing it, you're a pump chump.

One more small area of really cool stuff.  I forget what Jess called it.  Maybe the jump run or something?  Lots of fun though.  Pretty much down hill over roller and roller after jump after jump.  We ran that twice.

The NEMBA Placard

After getting out of the NEMBA area we started to wend our way out.  We hit a couple more cool areas - the Three Sisters and the Spider ring a bell.

  

 

 All in all, I had a great time catching up with Vietnam.  Still bigger hits than I need, but lots of great stuff for me as well.  And a blast watching all the young kids hit the jumps.  And the old kids.  Really glad I went out.  In the end we rode 13.75 miles of pure joy.

Recycling: Our November Stats

What a beautiful month we had for riding in November!  Ironically, I have ridden every weekend since my "end of season" ride as we were blessed with perfect weather each weekend for another bonus ride!  That will come to screeching halt as we are full swing into celebrating the Christmas season.  Rob did not get in many miles this month as he had to serve on a jury for a Federal criminal case that ended up going for 13 days in Hartford.  The change of schedule made riding nearly impossible for him, although he squeaked in a couple of rides at new (to him) venues.

Our mileage:  150.45 miles

Rob rode 64.81 miles in the woods.
Cori rode 85.64 miles on the road.
Harry took this month off and did not log any miles.

Random Stats:

# of races:  Zero.  Phew.  Sometimes it is nice to just ride without the pressure of racing.
# of states ridden in:  3 - we were faithful to the old standbys (CT, MA and RI).
# of new trail systems explored:  2 (West Hartford and Nathan Hale Homestead).
# of bike commutes:  Zero.  I got a new job this month, so Rob and I are no longer able to carpool.  This will drastically reduce any chances of bike commuting.  Sadly.
# of flat tires:  None that I know of.  I guess that it is the benefit of not riding often.  No mechanical issues either.


Coming in December:

-a most definite drop in mileage!
-a festive post on a fun holiday biking tradition at the Paton household.
-the history of "the box."
-a trail review or 2 from Rob.

Have a great holiday season!!!
~Cori

Borderland State Park Review

I had an opportunity to ride Borderland in North Easton, MA, on Thanksgiving.  It was my third or fourth trip to Borderland, but the first in a couple of years.  I got to the park at about 2:15 in the afternoon knowing that the park closed at 4:30 and not being out in time results in a $25 fine. It'd have to be a quick ride.  I went to the kiosk to grab a map, but there weren't any left.  That was a little worrisome given my time constraints, but I figured worst case, I'd retrace my tracks back out.

I headed in from the visitor's center on the West Side Trail.  At my first intersection I was reminded that the lack of trail maps wouldn't have any negative impact.  All the intersections have a trail map in plexiglass with a "you are here" arrow.  Things were looking up.  The trails were not blown, but they were clear of any blowdowns.  Some recent rain had made for a few wet spots, but the trail was firm under the water.  Just slowed down to keep from throwing up too much water and all was fine.

Slipping the French Trail some tongue!

By the end of my ride, I'd hit just about everything on the map.  There are a few really cool trails that are worth commenting on.  There is one trail called the Ridge Trail that follows over a series of ledge outcroppings.  It was a blast, probably more so since the rocks were dry and super grippy.  I can see them being treacherous when under moister conditions.

Descent down a section of the Ridge Trail

There was another cool area, although I don't recall which trail it was on, in which there were a couple of back to back very long sections over some wetlands which had 12" plank bridges over them. They were both pretty long and a good challenge as they zigged and zagged around the trees.

Skinny boards

Also worth commenting on was a trail called NEMBA trail.  As you can imagine it was designed to be ridden and was a boatload of fun to ride.  I wished I had remembered it a little better as not knowing some of the turns led me to dab more than I would have liked.

All in all, a great ride after stuffing myself full of turkey earlier.  I made it out for about 4:00 and even had time to get five holes in on the disc golf course (need to go back and play that whole course).

The skinny:

• Great trails with some really cool features
• Very well marked with maps at all the turns
• Get out before 4:30 this time of year or be prepared to pay a $25 fine
• $2.00 park entry fee year round - cash or credit cards accepted at kiosk
• Didn't see a soul in orange - maybe no hunting?
• After riding what appears almost everything according to the map, only 7.7 miles put on.
• Maybe could have gotten 10 miles of marked trail - maybe more unmarked?
• Borderland generally sees less snow than central Massachusetts

All in all, I'd recommend getting down and checking the trails out.  Give yourself some time and explore it all.  It's worth the trip.

Turkey Trot Weekend

What a whirlwind of a weekend.  For the past three years, I've had the pleasure of running in the Thompson Turkey Trot.  It's a pretty fantastic foot race put on by Thompson Rec and Thompson Trails with proceeds going to TEEG Food Bank and the Thompson Trails Committee.  The race has been primarily orchestrated by Mike Lajeunesse, whose commitment to our community has been beyond compare.  Unfortunately, this year Mike was simply unable to put together the race due to some personal issues.

I learned of this about a month ago when I reached out to the Thompson Rec Director, Renee Waldron.  The good news is that it looks like the race is back on for 2012 (11/11/12 - mark your calendars).

So with one of my favorite running events of the year canceled, it seemed like there was only one thing to do.  Go rogue!  I had already heard from several people that they were dismayed that the race wasn't being run this year and there was some definite interest right away.

So now I was putting together a small race.  Hmm.  How does one do that?  Well, my job was made easier by the fact that there were no shirts, no sponsors, no money, no water stops.  And I decided to follow the course laid out by Scott Deslongchamps for 2009 (rather than last year's course, which would necessitate a person manning a turnaround).  Hey, this race management stuff is pretty easy.

My biggest concern was getting the course marked.  And cleared.  Uncle Sam helped me with the latter.   Twelve straight days of jury duty stipends were spent on a super-cool toy.  My new Husqvarna 150BT backpack blower.

Here's me hitting the yard Saturday.

 So with leaf blower, chain saw and loppers in tow, I headed down to the 5K loop Saturday afternoon.  Blowing the trails was almost too easy.  Most places it was just walking down the path holding the blower in front of me.  A few places I had to sweep it back and forth, but WAY easier than raking. I cut back a few fallen trees and borrowed stones from a nearby stone wall to use as stepping stones through a marshy area on the trail.  I decided to save the trail marking for the next day to ensure no arrow stealing riff-raff ruined the race. 

I got up this morning and walked the course a for the second time in two days, placing fluorescent green arrows in all the strategic spots.  The course still looked great from the previous afternoon's work.  And the early morning weather was stellar.  Fifty, calm and sunny.  That would change a little as the day progressed.  By race time it would still be warm, but the wind would be heavier and the sun would be more out than in.  Still a great day for racing in the woods.

I finished up marking at 9:00 am, an hour before race time.  I met Scott Deslongchamps on the trail as I was wrapping up.  He was stretching his legs before the race.  Home quickly to change into some running gear and grab Cori (also running) and Harry (hanging out).  Made it back and by the 10 am start, we had 11 runners present.

Turkey Trot 2011 Crew

Michelle Aubin had offered to come down and time for us.  She brought her daughter, Jewelia, with her.  At just about 10 on the nose we were off and running.  I made it across the field and into the woods first.  I was pretty worried about Scott Deslongchamps.  For those who don't know him, he's super fast.  I was relieved to hear he'd raced a 4.3 mile race the day before in Providence and come in 4th over all.  I expected he had spent himself.  After having a good start, my big plan was to put enough of a gap on him to have him out of sight (and not reeling me in).  It worked.  I had a strong race and somehow managed first.

Here are the overall results:

Rob Paton, 22:57, 7:15/mi
Scott Deslongchamps, 23:32, 7:36/mi
Roger Durant, 27:43, 8:57/mi
Chris, 28:35, 9:13/mi
Steve Gracia, 31:15, 10:05/mi
Madison, 31:32, 10:10/mi
Curtis, 32:39, 10:32/mi
Samantha Delp, 33:23, 10:46/mi
Hannah, 35:51, 11:34/mi
Denny, 35:54, 11:35/mi
Cori Paton, 37:04, 11:57/mi

All the trotters did a great job.  It's a tough course, replete with roots, rocks, steep climbs and stream crossings and intermingled with some disused paved road.  Everyone seemed pretty happy with the course and no one got lost, so I was really glad I had gone out and put the time in getting it ready.

After the race we hung around and shot the breeze for a bit.  Once everyone realized there really were no prizes, the shindig broke up.

I went home, changed back into work clothes and headed back down to the dam to perambulate the course and pull down the arrows.  My fourth time doing the full 5K course in less than 24 hours.   

And just to tie some biking into this Pedal Pushing Patons blog, I returned one more time and rode the Dam.  9.753 miles at 9.7 mph average.  And the day before the race, Cori rode 19.5 miles with a group of friends.

She came upon this scary guy on the closed bridge at Five Mile River Road in Putnam.

So naturally, she had to sit with him and take a picture.

And now sitting back, watching some football and enjoying some homemade brews courtesy of John "the Herminator" Herrmann.

Thanks for coming out everyone!  Looking forward to next year's officially sanctioned Turkey Trot.

~Rob

End of Season Road Ride

For about two months now, I have been planning the route for the end of season ride for our group.  We knew that the ride would start off by going past the castle, but after that, we had numerous options.  I elected to take us on a 27 mile squarish loop that took us past some really picturesque farms, some streams and ponds, a couple of Christmas tree farms and rolling countryside. 

A couple of us pre-rode the course a couple of weeks ago to make sure that the roads were in good condition (no broken pavement, decent shoulders, no sand) and check out how heavy the traffic would be for us.  Everyone agreed that it was a challenging but not over the top difficult course.  Only thing we had to worry about now was the weather.

We worried for nothing.  What a gorgeous fall day!

Eleven riders today!  Woo Hoo!!

We started as a group of eleven.  Most of us were dressed in neon lime/yellow jackets to make us more visible to drivers.  It seemed to work.  None of us got hit by cars.  I don't even think there were any close calls.  But the same can not be said for dogs.  We were still in a pretty close pack when someone yelled "dogs."  I happened to be taking pictures over my shoulders when someone behind me hit the little yippy dog that decided to run into the street.  Rider down.  Dog ran back to the house.  Everyone was okay.

Me realizing there is a rider down and Chuck checking back on everyone.

We made two quick stops to look at the castle and then to say hi to the zebra up the street.  Yes, that's right.  There is a zebra that lives up the street from the castle.  And a peacock.  And a 3 legged goat.  And a white tailed deer.  There might be more on the grounds of the castle, but that is all we saw today.

While the guys showed us how to attack the hills, I took the time to look around at what was left of the fall foliage.  While most of it is past, I noticed a few trees that still had some stunning red leaves.  Gorgeous.  The speed demons missed it, I'm sure.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  Some relentless uphills that transitioned into some sweet curvy downhills.  Some babbling brooks and glistening ponds.  And rolling countryside with fall colors around the edges.  All gorgeous.


We ended with 26.8 miles.  And then promptly started to replace those calories we had burned.  Great ride, great food, great friends and a fitting end to our riding season.  Can't wait to kick it off again next season!!

~Cori

Recycling: Our October Stats

Our Mileage:  220.26

1. Rob rocked out 106.03 miles on the trails and 42.26 miles on the road.
2. Cori rode 58.03 miles on the road and 4.47 miles on the trails.
3.  Harry rode 9.47 miles on the trails.

Random Stats:

# of races done:  3 (Rob did the Pinnacle Challenge and TVR, Harry did the Youth Race at the TVR).
# of states ridden in: 3 (MA, CT and NH)
# of bike commutes: 2 (both by Rob.  I thought about it once, but it was windy out).
# of replaced part on Rob's Fisher:  9 (2 chain rings, 1 rock ring, 1 chain, 1 cassette, 1 link, 1 bottom bracket, 1 rear brake, 1 set of chain stays).  Doesn't that sound expensive?  Biking is not cheap.
# of rides on Tonry's Niner while parts were all being replaced:  5 (Thanks Mike!!)

Coming in November:

Cori's scenic year end ride with the triathlon training  group.  The beginning of night riding with lights for Rob and his riding group.  Maybe even an explanation of Rob's woes with his Fisher.  We'll see.  No races on the docket this month.

Are you planning on pedaling once daylight savings time hits or is that your end of season?  Let  us know!!

Happy November!
~Cori

Treasure Valley Rally 2011

The Treasure Valley Rally is the finale in the EFTA race series and is organized by the bike team to which I belong, Team Bums.  This year the race was slated to take place on 8/28/11.  Irene, however, had other ideas.  She tore through New England, striking down on us with great vengeance and furious anger.  The race was postponed a day or two before it was supposed to happen.  On the bright side, we had the pleasure of learning what it was like to live without electricity for a week, so it was a fair trade.

After some frantic message board conversations, it was decided the race would be rescheduled to 10/16.  Almost unbelievably, this was the next available weekend that didn't step on the toes of an integral player or go head to head with a competing race.

Brett Russ, the race director, spends countless hours getting this thing ready.  He oversees trail maintenance, organizes with the scouts (Treasure Valley is a scout reservation), works to have shirts made (big nod to Scott Nelson, artist extraordinaire), lines up sponsors for prizes, etc, etc, etc.  I met Brett the day before the race this year to help set up for a few hours.

I helped stake out the starting area and then we headed up to a stream crossing where a bridge had washed out with the storms and built a new bridge, put it in and gapped the shortage with rocks. 



Luke Luck might like lakes but Brett builds bombproof bridges



Wheel-ready!



Once the bridge was built and in, we headed down to the field to stake and tape an area of crossing traffic.  From there I grabbed a leaf blower and blew the section of trail back down to the start, ate a delicious Italian grinder (thanks Brett!) and then leaf blew the section back up to the same field (in the rain - ugh!).  That was the end of my trail work day.  Back home to rest up for the race the following day.

I got to bed early following some carb-laden American chop suey (thanks Cori!) and was up early the next day and headed back up to Treasure Valley with Cori and Harry.  I helped stake out the staging area and finishing chute before getting myself race ready.  My race was slated to start shortly after 11 am.  I did a little pre-riding and then saw Harry's race go off at 10 am.  He moved up from the kids race to the youth race, which was two miles replete with double bridgeless stream crossings and a few tough climbs.  He did great!!!

Listen up!  I want to see a fair fight.  No nunchucks, no knives. Now kick some butt!

Nearing the finish!

After the youth race, we had our racers meeting.  Despite Brett seemingly having hit puberty while giving his big speech, we all got the point and were ready to roll!

Racers' Meeting

I had cracked the support between my chain stays on my Fisher (new rear triangle expected this week - a big thanks to Ben at Bicycle Concepts!).  I called Mike Tonry three days before the race and he answered the phone, "You need a bike?"  Before the day was out I had a beautifully equipped Niner Jet 9 in my possession (THANKS MIKE TONRY!!!!!). 

One Fish, Two Fish, Cracked Fish, Blue Fish

Nothing could be finer than to be on Tonry's Niner in the moooornin'

The Elites went off followed by the Experts, then my Sport group and finally the Novices, with all but the Elites in waves grouped by age.  My age group in Sport was the largest wave in the entire race.  There were 27 racers in it including me and it's pretty competitive.  As usual, I did a bad job queuing up and ended up in the second to last row with maybe two or three rows in front of me.  I did score an outside position, so I was lined up to do some passing on the right side of the pack.  

They only gave the 30 - 39 year old group in front of us a one minute lead before they sent us off, so when we started, I had a good stretch of passing going on for probably the first quarter of the first of two laps.  The course crossed the same two stream crossings that Harry went across.  I got across both pedaling all the way through.  Not everyone was so lucky.

Dirty mountain biker takes bath!

About to clean the second stream crossing

I break the course up into four sections in my head  

1. the climb up to the top of the Sampson's Pebble
2. the gnarly descent down to the lake
3. the torturous cart road climb back up to the Pebble
4. the what must be downhill but seems like more uphill back to the start

Sampson's Pebble

Things thinned out pretty well by the time I made the first climb up to the Pebble.  Mike Tonry was up there offering words of encouragement to everyone who rode by, although I suspect he was really there to check up on his Niner.  

Next was the downhill to the lake.  That was great.  If you race mountain bikes, you know that a lot of the stuff you don't clean is because the riders in front of you got hung up on it.  When you're on your own, you own everything, be it victory or defeat.  I was riding pretty well.  I got to the bottom and began the climb back up to the Pebble.  It's an unforgiving beast of a climb.  I made it up, said hi to Mike again and started down the Midstate.  

I soon figured out that the Novice groups who went out before us had skipped the down to the lake and climb back up to the Pebble and were now in front of me.  Man, oh man, passing on the Midstate is a task and a half.  I got down to the start to hit lap two.  I didn't really know what place I was in and couldn't hear the announcer through all the hubbub down there.  

Went back out and had a solid second lap.  Legs started cramping toward the end, but I was able to ride through it.  A quick brush with fame as I saw a blur fly by that was Mike Broderick, the 166th best mountain biker in the world.  I crashed into something on my way down on the last lap, but all in all it went really well.

I finished pretty strong.  Fifth of the 27 starters in my group and only seven minutes out of first.  Not bad for 19.5 grueling miles.  Total time 2:29:16.  

My hand was a little bashed up from whatever I crashed into.  The ambulance guys looked bored, so I let them clean it up and give me a band aid. 

Ouch.

 

Cori was at the finish line working with Beckie Beaupre to help with the time keeping.

For a good time...!

Hung around afterwards and watched the awards while having a pulled pork sandwich from the scouts' barbecue.   

Elite Men: Matt Boobar (3rd), Mike Broderick (1st), Paul Simoes (2nd) with race director Brett Russ

Karen Potter, 2nd Place Elite Female

Potter's pooch, Bruschi

 Really great showing from lots of my riding friends.  And a spectacular job by all the volunteers at the race.  And especially Brett.  Great race!

Columbus Day Weekend

What a winner of a weekend we had this past Columbus Day Weekend.  Anytime you can get three days of perfect sunny blue skies with temperatures in the 80's with beautiful fall foliage, you should get the heck outside and enjoy it!  Soak it up, because it won't last!

And soak it up, we did!  On Saturday, Rob played in a disc golf tournament with some friends.  Harry and I went to the local Little League fields to watch his friend play a game.  Afterwards, I set up the laptop on the back deck to watch the Ironman World Championships in Kona.  I was glued to it all day and still can't believe that Chrissy pulled off a win just two weeks after a major bike crash in Colorado.  She is amazing.

Sunday, Rob was out for two more rounds of tournament disc golf.  Harry and I spent the morning at a Creamery Brook Bison Farm.  It was great.  They had a small petting zoo with crazy emus, peacocks, bison, cows and donkeys.  You should've seen these emus chasing each other around the pen.  I thought that they were going to bust right out of the pen and come at us!  After checking out the petting zoo, we went up to the gates of the bison pastures.  The bison were far away, so the farmer started banging on the gate while yelling out and poured some feed down.  All of a sudden 50-60 bison just started charging toward us.  They were running super fast straight at us with only a thin electric fence between us.  It was sketchy.  But that farmer knows what he is doing and all was safe.  We finished our bison tour with a cup of bison chili.  Delicious!

After our walk with the bison, Harry and I headed home.  He hung out with his buddy outside while I went for a road ride with my friends.  I rode down to the dam to meet everyone and we did a familiar 15 mile loop.  At some point, we decided to add on a different road and went over a set of railroad tracks.  Bad news for one of our riders.  Flat tire that was beyond repair.  After three attempts at getting a new tube in, he decided to call it quits.  We then headed back to the dam and I rode on home.  I ended with 18.1 miles for the day.  We decided to close out the day with a bonfire.

But there's more.  Monday morning, Rob and Harry headed down to Candlewood Lake to help take out the dock.  While they were lakin', I went to work for a few hours.  We all got home around 2:30 and couldn't believe temperatures were still in the 80's.  And so we decided to do family mountain bike ride.  Rob brought us over to the back side of Douglas (BSOD, for those in the know) and we headed out.  First off, I have to say that riding MY mountain bike (with no fancy shocks or anything) is like riding a jack hammer.  My arms took a beating!  Secondly, mosquitos love this weather as much as we do.  They were out in full force, making it nearly impossible to stop and rest at any point.  So it was a fast 4.5 miles for us. 

All in all, it was a glorious fall weekend.  Hope you and yours were able to get out and enjoy it!  Next up:  Treasure Valley Rally.  Rob and Harry are both racing this weekend.  Happy pedaling!!

Race Review - The Pinnacle Challenge

October 2nd was the Pinnacle Challenge in Newport, NH.  I learned about this race at the 2010 Pinnacle mountain bike race at the same venue.  I had overheard a couple of guys talking after that race about another race that involved running and biking.  That pricked up my ears.  When they kept talking for another minute or so without mentioning swimming, I was very interested.  If god wanted us to swim competitively, he would have made silly little rubber caps and big thick neoprene suits for us to dress in while we did it.  Anyhow, I did the Pinnacle Challenge in October 2010 and had a great time, so went back for more this year.

The race is four events.  Last year's order was a 4.8 mile road run followed by a 13.75 mile road ride followed by a 5.5 mile mountain bike ride followed by a 3.65 mile trail run.  This year they mixed it up a little and swapped the bike rides.  The runs were done in the same order though.


I've been running and biking plenty throughout the past several months, but not together.  I forget how tricky it is switching modes.  I did a bunch of rides with runs on the tail end of them to prep for the race.  I think it paid off pretty well.

Leading up to the race we had a good weekend weather report as of midweek, but it deteriorated quickly as we drew closer.  We woke up in Sunapee Saturday morning to the steady thrum of rain on the motel windows.  The weather forecast for Sunday (race day) looked downright dismal.  But I was pre-regged and we were in NH already.  We made the best of the day (see Cori's blog) and went to bed still expecting heavy rain in the morning.

We woke up Sunday and were pleasantly surprised to see it wasn't raining yet.  I had packed up my stuff for each transition in plastic bags the night before so it would at least start off dry.  We packed up the car and headed over to the venue.  We were there about an hour before the race.  Plenty of time to get set up.  I picked up my number and super-sweet wicking shirt.

I changed up into my bibs and Fisher jersey.  I wasn't sure about what to wear, but thought I'd be happiest with a lightweight chamois for the biking portions.  Not perfect for running, but probably my best option.

I found my friend and co-worker, Glenn Converse, before the race and after the racers meeting we headed over to the start for the run.  Still no rain.

We were hanging out at the start and caught up in a conversation about movies when out of nowhere, we hear the gun.  Oh geesh.  Go!  I hit the start on my stopwatch and got my feet going.  I think it also happened last year that I wasn't quite ready for the starting gun. 

I was definitely toward the back of the starting pack, but moved up pretty quickly.

The course is a fairly flat for the first mile or so before it goes through a covered bridge and starts heading up a couple of small hills.  It's an out and back.  I was probably two to three minutes from the turnaround when the leader was coming at me and he was flying.  I like the out and back because I like seeing all of the other racers, whether they are before or after me.  Great way to gauge your position.  I made it up to the turnaround and started heading back.  Pretty uneventful.  I held my position for the last half.  I finished in 33:44, just a hair over 7 minute miles.  Still not raining!

Into transition.  I had to change shoes, put on my helmet and gloves and grab a quick snack.  Somehow I managed to do this slower than everyone else.  Literally everyone.  Out of the 26 solo entrants in the race, I came in 26th, spending 3:29 in the transition.  Hmm.  I'm doing something wrong.

Headed out on the mountain bike.  Within the first mile you have to shoulder your bike and climb a ridiculous flight of stairs that lead up to a ski jump.

This is the shot we took the day before.

I'd picked up my mountain bike from Bicycle Concepts in Putnam three days before with a whole new drivetrain.  It had been raining ever since and I literally hadn't taken a single pedal stroke on the new drivetrain before I started the race.  The course was pretty muddy, but not in as bad of shape as I would have expected given the amount of rain there had been recently.  The drivetrain held up well and I was able to gain quite a few spots on the ride.

The course has a lot of steady climbing to the top (or Pinnacle) before it starts heading down.  Both were pretty hard in their own way.  The down was s-k-e-t-c-h-y.  Rocks and off camber roots that were really slick.  I didn't trust anything and was probably more tentative than I should have been through most of that stuff.  On the bright side, this was my fourth race at this venue, so I'm getting to know the trails pretty well.  That definitely helped with pacing myself.  I finished the 5.5 mile mountain bike course up the side of the mountain and back down in 40:56 for an 8.06 mph average and 9th of 26 on that stage.


I made it down to the bottom and headed back toward transition.  I had been at a triathlon a couple of weeks before and was pretty impressed with the fluid motion of getting off the bike and running into transition.  I unclipped my right foot and swung it over the saddle so I was just on my clipped left foot as I hit the transition mat.  I was looking super smooth.  And then I couldn't get my left foot unclipped and became a bumbling mess.  Fortunately, I didn't fall.  I made it into transition and did much better this time.  6th out of transition in 41 seconds.

Out on the road bike. And you know what?  STILL NOT RAINING!!!!  That was huge as I expected rain during the road ride to turn things treacherous. 

The road course is a solid 10 miles of FLAT riding along the river before taking a left and heading up a 3/4 mile hill and lollipopping around to finish on the same flat road.   The flat section was really nice and I was probably averaging between 19.5 and 21.0 mph.  Just cranking along.  I made myself rehydrate here because it was the easiest event to rehydrate on.  Just keep pushing the big ring.  The hill was almost comical.  As I turned on to it I saw about 20 riders strung out all over it.  It was truly a monster.  There were actually people riding the hill going back and forth traversing the road on the way up.  People in front of me, who I would have to guess must be pretty strong.

I made it up and then started the descent to get back to the flat road.  The descent was really nice with a couple of small rollers in it.  I was a little worried when I got toward the bottom and there was a church letting out.  The race had a dedicated traffic director there though and I was able to fly by the church at 31 mph without dying.

I lost a couple of spots to guys on pretty serious bikes on the return flat section.  They just had bigger engines.  I wasn't too worried though as most of them had ankle chips on, meaning that they were competing as a relay team, not solo.  I made it back to the transition area and, after my mountain bike dismounting fiasco, got off the road bike slowly and cleanly.  I finished the 13.75 mile road ride in 43:30, averaging 19 mph.  10th out of the 26 solo competitors.



My bike to run transition was slow again.  I took 2:20 to park the bike and gear up for running again.  That was 21st out of 26.

The last leg is the 3.65 mile trail run.  I came out of transition without any legs at all.  I had the form of running, but a 76 year old grandmother with a bad hip and a cane would probably have outpaced me.  I got to the (stupid) stairs again and had to walk up them.  No one else was running them either though.  I started to catch my stride a little, but was still not going fast enough for my liking.  I passed a couple of people, but heard a few others coming up on me.  Every once in a while you can see glimpses of those behind you through the woods.  I was definitely losing ground to what looked to be a pack.  As I was climbing the final ride to the highest point in the trail run, I looked back.  Unlike Orpheus, the woman I saw when I looked back did not fade back to Hades.  Instead she kept coming harder and stronger.    And with some guy on her heels.  They were like a freight train barreling through the woods.  That worried me.  How could they be running so fast?  I tried to make my legs move faster and they did something surprising.  They responded.  Nonetheless the girl blew by me a couple of minutes later.  I jumped on her coat tails and started down the hill with her.  I wasn't fast enough though.  I probably hung on a quarter mile, but then she started pulling away and the guy who had been following her ran past me as well and out of sight.  While I never saw them again, they were great for me.  I managed to keep my legs for the whole rest of the downhill and  finished the race strong.  My 3.65 mile trail run clocked in at 32:57 for a 9:01 pace and 10th of 26.
 
So my results in all the events were 9th and 10th places with some dismal transitions, but I still managed to snag 9th overall of the 26 solos and 4th in my age group.  Very pleased with the results.  Great awards ceremony in theNewport High School cafeteria afterwards while scarfing down a Newport Rotary Club BBQ.

And still not raining...

Great race.  Already looking forward to next year!