Archive for December, 2006
Group ride, yay!
It’s been many weeks, and it felt really good. Group rides are such a rush. The camaraderie, the smooth workings of a group as a single unit. Well, a single unit, more or less. ‘Til we get split up at the first big hill.
It was a great turnout for this time of year–about a dozen. Many of the usual suspects turned up. John, Kyle, Craig, and Bob (who joined us a couple miles in–he thought it started a half-hour later). Joe Martin lead this 30 mile ride.
The easier pace allowed more conversation than normal. I learned a couple things. One, that our intrepid UPS delivery man, Craig, had a gun pulled on him on his route this week. He was in the truck and the culprit was crossing the street in front of him. He said he was in a better position and that his weapon would have been his gas pedal. Four years from retiring with pension and he’s practically counting the days ’til he can do Daddy Daycare and ride every day.
Kyle picked up another Fiat for $50. Doesn’t run, but doesn’t matter. He’s already stripped it down to the frame and is enjoying parting it back together with care and precision. He runs the Keeler Dealership’s repair shop so he’s pretty handy with stuff like that. I warned him I may be taking advantage of his tools and skills in the next couple of weeks for a brake job on my Toyota. I wonder if a nice couples’ dinner out is enough for bartering?
Brian admitted to slacking off on the bike (as have I) in the last few weeks. No post-work daylight and low ambition being the greatest reasons. He also mentioned an ultra-endurance cyclist who won RAAM and some other events. This guy wrote a couple pages on why he does it and I’m looking forward to getting a copy from Brian. I’m thinking it was Tinker Juarez, but am not sure.
I felt better than I expected. Perceived exertion was a lot less than the average heart rate indicates. I’d always rather have that ratio than the opposite one. When I’m sick the perceived is greater than actual–and to complete the equation, it equals frustration. A day later just one muscle aches. The tibialis anterior, I think. Yeah, the name doesn’t mean much to me either. Anyway it’s the muscle on the outside of your shin between ankle and knee. Mostly the left one, not so much the right. I can’t imagine how it got sore unless I worked the few climbs a little harder than usual or pushed a little harder on the flat and fast sections. Still it’s not a muscle that I ever noticed get sore before.
Speaking of flat and fast. There’s a stretch, actually two, on this course that gets covered frequently in our group rides that is just that. Fast. A little bit of descent helps make ‘em that way. If you don’t pay attention and stay up front, it’s easy to get dropped in the flurry of activity. I’ve been dropped here two or three times in the past. The first time, I had eased up momentarily after the briefest of climbs when I noticed the riders ahead of me start to make a gap. That gap never closed until the stop sign at the end of the stretch. These two stretches are a way for us to get a taste of what the pros must experience. Short bursts of speed (I got to about 31.5) with cruising speeds of 28 between. It only lasts for a couple of miles, but it’s quite a treat. Western Ave to Sacandaga Road.
There was a rider that I seemed to draft behind frequently today. Not really by choice, more by chance. And I never felt comfortable behind him, partially because I didn’t know his skill level and partly because he seemed a tad erratic. You gotta keep your line. Don’t make sudden movements. These are mantras of riding the pace line. I was forced to slow suddenly because he did and felt bad for whoever was behind me.
Technical difficulties of the non-bike-type abounded. The crapcam crapped out on me. The tiny LCD numeric display is nearly gone and I don’t know if it takes photos anymore. (edit- Turns out the pre-ride pic actually came out–the one at the top of this post.) My GPS batteries ran out about a quarter mile from the finish. That’s why the tiny gap in the Google map on the lower right.
Statistics
Altitude gained: 1050′
Uphill distance: 6.54 miles
Effort index (from TopoFusion): 25.8 (which is a scant 11% of the ADK540 to put it in perspective!)
Avg/Max HR: 166/199
Perceived effort: not nearly as bad as those numbers reflect
NYC in December
With an aborted attempt the previous weekend by Nick, Tif, and Liane, a new attempt was made this weekend. Luckily we got to join this time ’round and also dragged along AJ.
Reader’s Digest version: Drive to Nick & Tif’s and carpool with them down to New Paltz to pickup AJ. From there to the train station in Poughkeepsie. Had a little trouble finding the station and missed our planned departure time. No biggie, just caught the next one. Train down to Grand Central Station.
Lunch at Junior’s after giving up at Hard Rock Cafe. We were very impressed by the efficiency of the staff at Junior’s.
Rockefeller Center tree. Hershey’s, M&M’s stores, FAO Schwartz, Bryant Park ice skating rest stop. Macy’s store visit by Nicholle and Liane. Long tiring ride on train with no seating for 3/4 of trip.
Statistics
4.54 miles walked.
About 3 hours total walking time, 3 1/2 stopped/browsing time.
342 photos taken. (About a dozen really good ones. 75 or so suitable for sharing on Flickr, and the rest crap.)
Work & Windy
It was 64 degrees. Only three degrees off a record high for the last day of November. We even have a higher temperature than Phoenix, AZ, (headquarters of my company). Seems like a good time to take a day off and ride. In spite of the wind.
Even though I got a late start at about 10:45, I had a ride-packed day. The muscles felt tired, a smidgeon of achey, and a dash of burning afterwards. Just the way they should. The Achilles feel like the rope on a door caught in a stiff wind. My range of motion has decreased quite a bit in the last few years of riding–and with no other complementary exercises. My leg’s tendons only move as far as they need to on the cranks. And that ain’t much. Some stretching might be in order. But stretching is like flossing, you know you should do it, but you never really want to.
I forgot to put my GPS on the bike. Well, actually I did think about it but was planning on just doing two or three loops of the 12/24 course–which doesn’t warrant any recording. So after a couple miles out to Gansevoort I figured I’d do the course in reverse since the wind was so strong from the south and West River Road would be so much more fun with a tail-wind. After passing the mansion on Peters Road and then descending to the river, I realized I chopped off a good 10 miles or so of the loop by taking Peters Rd. Doh! I had pulled off the course onto Peters for a moment to check my phone for messages since it was around my department meeting time. There was a message, but not from work, rather from Liane. Texted her back a quick response and continued in the direction I was facing… Peters Rd, instead of getting back on.
Well after getting the original route plan all messed up I decided to go to Fort Edward and loop back south on the eastern side of the river. I rarely cross the river on my shorter rides, so it would seem fresh. Fresh it was. In fact, too fresh, what with the strong southerly winds, my average speed dropped from 18.5 mph to 15.5 mph once I finished the entire southern stretch of roads from Ft. Edward to Stillwater.
I wonder what story those balloons in the tree have to tell. Did they get snagged on their way up to the heavens, released from a passing family fan? Or did they have a long and dangerous flight across the country finally loosing their lift and coming to rest high in these trees to gaze upon the mighty Hudson River? Or maybe they’re just breaking for lunch.
After slogging my way through the wind, a rest stop was in order a the Stillwater Stewarts by the bridge. When I was checking out in the store, the worker said “Did you get gas?” then looked up at me and said with a chuckle “Oh, you have a helmet, then no you didn’t.” After I paid and walked out to the bench, I thought of the clever comeback “All my gas is here on the counter.” Need to be a little quicker there, Kurt. Anyway, a bottle of Gatorade Rain, a Red Bull, Snickers bar, Damn Good Jerkey (hot n’ spicy) and the remains of my 2nd water bottle were lunch. 
Notice a change in the handling of photos? Flickr enters the picture. (um, pun intended.)
Now, I’m not a big fan of making a visitor leave my site to do something else, so I think I’ll post links to any Flickr related items like slideshows, at the END of posts. Otherwise I fear my internet-ADD-challenged friends may leave the post before finishing reading and commenting to go look at a photo of mine, end up flipping photos for the next 37 minutes then forget to come back. Given that… the silky smooth Flickr supplied slideshow (say that five times fast!) of photos for this ride is accessible here (which is a link AWAY from this site).
An unfortunate hiccup in the Flickr upload was how my photos got uploaded in reverse chronological order. I used the Flickr Uploadr to batch copy and tag the 16 pictures at once. I’ll have to do a little digging and see if I can prevent that.
One of the neatest features to get added to Flickr’s repertoire is geo-locating. You can drag your photos onto a map and place the photos where they were taken. Pretty useful in my case for this site. Click on the “Map” link next to any of the photos to pull up the map (while you’re actually ON flickr… the link doesn’t seem to be available when you view the photos on my site). Then click “See more photos here.” to see what other people have posted in the same area. Here is the photo-map link for the above image.
There are also some notes on the photos. Just hover the cursor over a photo to see if a note exists.
Fun stuff. While looking around I stumbled across a photo of an amazing sunset that I remembered from a week and a half ago.
My heart rate was higher than normal still, averaging 162. However, my perceived exertion wasn’t correspondingly high (good thing). The longer I rode, the better I felt, so it was disappointing to finish at 72 because I ran out of time and daylight. Well, not TOO disappointing, since I got a good soak in the hot tub before picking up Steph from work. I also had time to e-mail a couple friends directly from the tub and rub it in a little that I got a nice big ride in on a workday. Anthony was suitably miffed.
I was supposed to cook dinner tonight and after running an errand or two after picking up Steph, I didn’t really have the energy or enthusiasm to make anything. Oh well, steak at Ruby Tuesday’s made a suitable substitute. I generally don’t care for Ruby’s–don’t like their salad bar, and don’t like their burgers–but the steak was good. ‘Course I was eating it through ride-weary-colored glasses, so most food tastes fabulous.
My crapcam only holds 25 shots, and I ran out in Mechanicville, so the last 25 miles go undocumented.
This was a great day not go in to work. Mork out. Na-No Na-No.
