[Backdated, 'cause I've been slacking in my postings]
So, due to scheduling pressure and being a frickin' moron, I ended up committing to lead a Dirty Dozen training ride, for the first four hills, the day after riding a 200K populaire. Yeesh. What a maroon.
Long story short, I barely made it up Center, and gratefully handed off ride leader duties to Fred Klehm. The fatigue from the prior day's ride was, surprisingly, not a real factor; the vicious cough and fever, on the other hand, were less than helpful. Regardless of the excuses, the end result was that I wussed out big time.
I feebly wobbled my way up Parker over to Millvale, then hung out at the BP for a while, nursing coffee and waiting for medication to take effect. That was fun. :-(
On a related note, I'm a little disturbed by a recent trend in ride failures; I've bailed on three in the last two weeks, when I normally don't bail under any circumstances short of family emergency. I'm not sure why, but it seems much easier to find reasons not to ride hard right now. Perhaps I'm a little burnt out, after the rando season.
Showing posts with label Sunday ride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday ride. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Weekend round-up, highlights and lowlights
Friday: After work, I popped over to the Ambridge Bike Shop, in order to try out a Surly Cross Check and Long Haul Trucker. They had a 54 cm CC (upper limit for my inseam on that model) and several LHTs, ranging from "just barely fit" at 57 cm to "you're joking, and I'm singing soprano" at 60cm and above.
Gary got the bikes set up and roughly fitted, and I took them each for a short spin along the highways and byways of scenic Ambridge. Interesting, very interesting. I had this preconceived notion that I was going to really dig the Cross Check; I did, but found that the Trucker, with the longer wheel base and (relatively) fat 26" tires, had me riding much more confidently.
I also now far better understand why many people like STIs, rather than down-tube or bar-end shifters. Speaking as a highly inexperienced drop-bar rider, the death grip on the drops made moving the hand all the way to the bar-ends to shift a more intimidating prospect. Doable, but I finally grok why STIs are so nice. I do wonder about interference with handlebar bags and whatnot, but I'm sure such can be overcome.
Saturday: Loaded Owen in the trailer, and went for a spin down toDancing Goats Crazy Mocha in the South Side Works. It's a nice routine; we do about 10 miles while he reads or watches for trains, then stop for a cup of coffee (me!) and to share a Cookie As Big As Your Head. Chill for a couple of minutes, then back down the river, parallel to the tracks for more trainspotting opportunities, and a nice sweaty grind up the hill to home. I'm just pleased that his tolerance for rides is now well over the 2-hour mark, and can easily approach 3-4 if we have at least one extended break in the middle. He'll be a good little stoke-monkey in a few more years. :-)
Sunday: As further proof that the boy enjoys our rides, he asked to go for another, even with grey skies and spitting rain. Same drill, except that we swung by REI for Heed and Gu packs for next weekend's scouting ride.
Later that day, I accompanied Annie on her Django, in order to scout out her potential commute route. As she lives near the Ohio River Trail, getting from there to downtown and back should be no big deal, except for the #$%^ing casino construction. So, I took her on a tour of the construction, the posted detour, and my preferred variations on said detour. With any luck, she'll be commuting to the office before crap weather sets in.
Commuter thoughts: Hrmph. I'm growing up. Poop.
I've been planning to sell off the Rocket, so as to partially finance the purchase of a decent upright all-rounder for use in crappy winter weather. Thusly, the Surly investigations. However, upon reflection, it looks like it'd make better fiscal sense to at least try to make the Rocket more winter-worthy, and go upright this winter only if the Rocket just doesn't work at all.
So, I'll look into tweaking what I've got, instead of buying new toys and learning new skills. *sigh*
Gary got the bikes set up and roughly fitted, and I took them each for a short spin along the highways and byways of scenic Ambridge. Interesting, very interesting. I had this preconceived notion that I was going to really dig the Cross Check; I did, but found that the Trucker, with the longer wheel base and (relatively) fat 26" tires, had me riding much more confidently.
I also now far better understand why many people like STIs, rather than down-tube or bar-end shifters. Speaking as a highly inexperienced drop-bar rider, the death grip on the drops made moving the hand all the way to the bar-ends to shift a more intimidating prospect. Doable, but I finally grok why STIs are so nice. I do wonder about interference with handlebar bags and whatnot, but I'm sure such can be overcome.
Saturday: Loaded Owen in the trailer, and went for a spin down to
Sunday: As further proof that the boy enjoys our rides, he asked to go for another, even with grey skies and spitting rain. Same drill, except that we swung by REI for Heed and Gu packs for next weekend's scouting ride.
Later that day, I accompanied Annie on her Django, in order to scout out her potential commute route. As she lives near the Ohio River Trail, getting from there to downtown and back should be no big deal, except for the #$%^ing casino construction. So, I took her on a tour of the construction, the posted detour, and my preferred variations on said detour. With any luck, she'll be commuting to the office before crap weather sets in.
Commuter thoughts: Hrmph. I'm growing up. Poop.
I've been planning to sell off the Rocket, so as to partially finance the purchase of a decent upright all-rounder for use in crappy winter weather. Thusly, the Surly investigations. However, upon reflection, it looks like it'd make better fiscal sense to at least try to make the Rocket more winter-worthy, and go upright this winter only if the Rocket just doesn't work at all.
So, I'll look into tweaking what I've got, instead of buying new toys and learning new skills. *sigh*
Sunday, September 7, 2008
WPW Fally Rally
Smashing success, apparently. I couldn't tell, 'cause I was too busy pushing for my first seven-hour century. Sadly, I ended up at 7:10, but a lot of that was due to encouraging/BSing with other riders and spending w-a-a-y too much time at the rest stops.
The day started with vast quantities of waffles, plus a cream-filled donut and bottle of Gatorade from the Sheetz up on 19 in Perrysville. After a leisurely pedal to North Park, I made the brilliant decision to stand around and freeze for half-an-hour, nicely negating all benefit of pre-warming the muscles before the century ride kicked off at 7.
Not the most formal of starts, nor what you'd call "Massed"; more of a dribble of departing riders. Those of us who gave a rat's patoot about time rapidly sorted ourselves into "five of us" and "everyone else", via the nice relaxing climb up Babcock, which functioned admirably as a Potter-esque Sorting Hat in that regard. We headed out to Valencia, then Mars/Evans City Rd as far as Callery, until bearing off into the hinterlands via Walters Station Rd. Eventually, the group of 5 became a group of two, a group of me, and a group of two, in that order, and in rapidly expanding anti-proximity.
The first 35-mile loop brought us back to North Park, where the plan called for a quick refuel and off onto the metric loop. The metric was the classic fall rally route, with a couple of slight detours due to construction: Franklin Rd out to Evans City, then Harmony, Zelienople, and out to Riverside High School for the first rest stop. Elwood City, River Rd, and a delightful detour on Gillen near the Fox Run golf course, then the usual climb up Bologne Valley/Foster/Glendale and down to Brush Creek Park for the second rest stop. Finally, the always-delightful hammer back to Cranberry along Brush Creek/Glen Eden/Unionville/Graham School, then meandering through Thorn Hill to the Red Belt and back to the park.
Things of note: we had about 100(!) attendees, of which 50(!) were new members. COOL. Also, there were four-count-'em-four recumbents on the ride; myself, John Strait, and Sean Monaghan, as well as a gentleman whose name perpetually eludes me, but who just picked up a nice Giro 20 at Rob's shop.
Good fun. If I hadn't spent so much time messing about at rest stops, I could easily have brought it in around 6:45; this leads me to think interesting thoughts about sub-6 hour centuries.
The day started with vast quantities of waffles, plus a cream-filled donut and bottle of Gatorade from the Sheetz up on 19 in Perrysville. After a leisurely pedal to North Park, I made the brilliant decision to stand around and freeze for half-an-hour, nicely negating all benefit of pre-warming the muscles before the century ride kicked off at 7.
Not the most formal of starts, nor what you'd call "Massed"; more of a dribble of departing riders. Those of us who gave a rat's patoot about time rapidly sorted ourselves into "five of us" and "everyone else", via the nice relaxing climb up Babcock, which functioned admirably as a Potter-esque Sorting Hat in that regard. We headed out to Valencia, then Mars/Evans City Rd as far as Callery, until bearing off into the hinterlands via Walters Station Rd. Eventually, the group of 5 became a group of two, a group of me, and a group of two, in that order, and in rapidly expanding anti-proximity.
The first 35-mile loop brought us back to North Park, where the plan called for a quick refuel and off onto the metric loop. The metric was the classic fall rally route, with a couple of slight detours due to construction: Franklin Rd out to Evans City, then Harmony, Zelienople, and out to Riverside High School for the first rest stop. Elwood City, River Rd, and a delightful detour on Gillen near the Fox Run golf course, then the usual climb up Bologne Valley/Foster/Glendale and down to Brush Creek Park for the second rest stop. Finally, the always-delightful hammer back to Cranberry along Brush Creek/Glen Eden/Unionville/Graham School, then meandering through Thorn Hill to the Red Belt and back to the park.
Things of note: we had about 100(!) attendees, of which 50(!) were new members. COOL. Also, there were four-count-'em-four recumbents on the ride; myself, John Strait, and Sean Monaghan, as well as a gentleman whose name perpetually eludes me, but who just picked up a nice Giro 20 at Rob's shop.
Good fun. If I hadn't spent so much time messing about at rest stops, I could easily have brought it in around 6:45; this leads me to think interesting thoughts about sub-6 hour centuries.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Abortive Strongland scouting attempt
The plan was perfect; leave the house around nine, punch up to the Vandergrift/Apollo area via 380 and sundry back roads, ride the 21-mile course, then back to town via New Kensington and over to Jim's for the Pittsburgh Randonneurs (rando-nerds?) meeting. What could go wrong?
In a departure from my usual style of ride report, let me start with the Lessons Learned, as, well, they kinda paint a picture of the day.
Lessons Learned
Dancing Goats Crazy Mocha, then home for a quick shower before wussing out and driving ye olde infernal combustion device over to Jim's place in Shaler.
All in all, it was a nice ride; just wish I'd actually accomplished what I set out to do.
In a departure from my usual style of ride report, let me start with the Lessons Learned, as, well, they kinda paint a picture of the day.
Lessons Learned
- First and Foremost. Don't eat a big meal at Wendy's, then immediately hop on the bike and pretend you're a road racer. Let's just say my digestive system, metaphorically speaking, sent in some big guys named Guido and Nunzio to explain to me the error of my ways. For about an hour of, shall we say, less than stellar pedaling performance.
- Listen to your Gut. Okay, this one has nothing to do with the Wendy's-related problem. When the little voice in the back of your head says "Hmm, this is kinda narrow and high-traffic. Seems odd.", there's probably a reason. When it subsequently points out that there's been what, to the bike-racing naïf, seems like an excessive amount of up, PAY ATTENTION. That way, you may avoid going off curse[sic, yet apropos] before even hitting the course proper.
- Don't be a Hero. Assuming one has more-or-less recovered from digestive mishaps, and one has consequently made it back to town in relatively good order, choosing to climb High St/Seavey Rd as the most direct route after riding a good, hilly metric century is unwise. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it bloody painful, not to mention mildly embarrassing.
All in all, it was a nice ride; just wish I'd actually accomplished what I set out to do.
Monday, July 28, 2008
East Liverpool
Easy century on Sunday the 27th, as I didn't want to abuse myself too much prior to the Eastern PA 1000K this coming weekend.
Interesting shifts in participants; we started with six, lost two and gained one in the first 30 miles, then split into two groups and gained another rider up in Beaver. All told, the tally included myself, Jim Logan, Phil Stewart, Brian, Heather, Ed, Don, and Al Gaburri, at various points in the ride.
East Liverpool is one of my favorite easy routes; almost all of the climbing (and there ain't much!) is loaded into the first 40 miles; once you hit East Liverpool, the entire latter half of the ride is flat roads paralleling the Ohio River. There's a couple of moderate climbs, with the long slog up 151 chief among them, but, for the most part, it's easy cruising. For the most part; as usual, the return leg along Rt 51 from Monaca resulted in my inner hammerhead surging to the fore. I had it all under control, until Phil (on his tri bike) dropped into the bars and decided to throw down a little, so I had no choice but to provide a demonstration of recumbent aerodynamics. Roughly 5 miles at 25 mph later, we had to slow down for the turn onto the Ambridge bridge, and to let the old guys catch up ;-)
(On a side note, I really should try redlining it on the P-38 and the Baron one of these days; I'm curious as to what I can sustain on a long straightaway if I put my heart into it. I bet I could push high 20s on the Baron for a few miles at least...)
Fun route, decent speed: 90 miles of "official" ride at 16 mph rolling average, plus an extra 11 miles round trip from home to the trail head. And the run to Bellevue to pick up pizza for dinner a couple hours later felt like I was on fresh legs, so I successfully avoided overdoing it.
Interesting shifts in participants; we started with six, lost two and gained one in the first 30 miles, then split into two groups and gained another rider up in Beaver. All told, the tally included myself, Jim Logan, Phil Stewart, Brian, Heather, Ed, Don, and Al Gaburri, at various points in the ride.
East Liverpool is one of my favorite easy routes; almost all of the climbing (and there ain't much!) is loaded into the first 40 miles; once you hit East Liverpool, the entire latter half of the ride is flat roads paralleling the Ohio River. There's a couple of moderate climbs, with the long slog up 151 chief among them, but, for the most part, it's easy cruising. For the most part; as usual, the return leg along Rt 51 from Monaca resulted in my inner hammerhead surging to the fore. I had it all under control, until Phil (on his tri bike) dropped into the bars and decided to throw down a little, so I had no choice but to provide a demonstration of recumbent aerodynamics. Roughly 5 miles at 25 mph later, we had to slow down for the turn onto the Ambridge bridge, and to let the old guys catch up ;-)
(On a side note, I really should try redlining it on the P-38 and the Baron one of these days; I'm curious as to what I can sustain on a long straightaway if I put my heart into it. I bet I could push high 20s on the Baron for a few miles at least...)
Fun route, decent speed: 90 miles of "official" ride at 16 mph rolling average, plus an extra 11 miles round trip from home to the trail head. And the run to Bellevue to pick up pizza for dinner a couple hours later felt like I was on fresh legs, so I successfully avoided overdoing it.
Monday, April 28, 2008
04/27/2008: 200k, plus a bit
As a means of prepping for the Eastern PA 300K in a couple of weeks, I went into this ride with one real goal: push myself a little, but finish up feeling strong. This worked out pretty well, as I was suffering from naught more than a little tiredness and some hot spots on my left foot at the end of a nominal 135 miles. Assuming I watch my hydration and nutrition as well as I did on this ride, I'm feeling pretty confident about the 300K.
The route was a bit of a hodge-podge; Freeport Rd, Russelton Rd, 908 Ext, Sun Mine Rd, Saxonburg, Butler, skirting Moraine to Cooper's Lake, Portersville, Ellwood City, Cranberry, Red Belt, Orange Belt, and Mt Nebo. This does not include a couple of detours; Gulf Lab Rd closure and a bit of cue sheet confusion on Sunset Drive. More on that later...
I left my place around 5:15, and plummeted down the hill to my friend's house for a brief errand of pet maintenance. Met up with Tim at the Science Center, then made our way over to Freeport Rd and caught up with Jim by Trizilla. A brief stop at the Giant Eagle Get-Go down the road for supplies and restroom, and we were off on the ride proper.
Side note: We made a fairly unusual riding group, as our steeds consisted of : Jim's carbon-fiber high-zoot Madone, with a Brooks B-17 (!) saddle; my production P-38 recumbent, festooned with lights and bags; and Tim's well-executed homebuilt dual big wheel stick recumbent. All we really needed was a folder and a British racing trike to complete the set...
Side note 2 : it became apparent that my cyclocomputer had lost its' mind, when it began stubbornly insisting that my average speed was 28.5 mph, and that I'd already covered over 800 miles. After a few failed attempts at rehabilitation, I gave up and turned it to face away on the bars; makes navigating in unfamiliar territory all the more interesting, when you don't actually know how far you've come at any given moment. Good practice for primitive way finding, though.
The original plan called for hopping off Freeport and picking up Gulf Lab over to Russelton Rd; however, it turned out that Gulf Lab had been shut down for construction. Fortunately, Jim was familiar with the area, and knew which side street would become Russelton Rd (Pearl, IIRC). A leisurely climb up Russelton was followed by the delightful descent down 908 Extension to Bull Creek, which led to the climb up Sun Mine Rd. (I might add that this climb was not nearly as bad as I recall; guess I'm not as much of a wimp as I used to be.) Sun Mine eventually becomes Westminster all the way up to 228; it's a set of moderately tough rollers, but is good fun to ride.
At 228, we jogged left over to Saxonburg Rd, then meandered through Saxonburg proper to find Butler Rd. More rollers ensued. We stopped briefly at a Sheetz (corner of Freeport Rd and Butler Saxonburg Rd), then dropped into downtown Butler and over to New Castle Road. A quick right on. and decent climb up, Mercer Rd, and we had left town again. Eventually, we picked up Sunset Drive, a nice little frontage road paralleling Rte 8. Unfortunately, this nice little frontage road had a bad habit of crossing Rte 8 on-grade repeatedly, which kind of robbed it of the traditional benefits of a nice little frontage road.
Even more unfortunately, one of the crossings led to a different road completely (Swamp Run Rd), with Sunset bearing off to the right in highly inconspicuous and unmarked fashion. Even MORE more unfortunately, I, in my bid to win the Christopher Columbus Award for Excellence in Navigation, specifically disregarded the more level-headed members of the party (i.e. both of them) when they pointed out the "No Outlet" sign on Swamp Run that should have given me pause for thought, or even *gasp* provoked map consultation. So, we found that Swamp Run (eventually becoming Chestnut) is an absolutely charming road, with the unfortunate disadvantage of ending in a pile of rubble deep enough in the backwoods that the strains of banjo music and screams of panicked canoers could be heard. That's where I checked the map, and found that yes, indeed, the road went no-where from here; in fact, our location on the map was surrounded by what looked remarkably like swamp markings, thusly discouraging the idea of striking out cross country through Moraine.
Once said navigational mishap was corrected, the rest of our ride through the wilds of Butler County was quite nice. We made our way through the town of Liberty (in theory; I don't actually recall any town, but maps don't lie, right?), then swung by Cooper's Lake Campground. The camp store was closed, so we hopped over to Rte 19 and stopped for lunch at the Subway/convenience store a mile down the road.
Picking up 488, we made our way down to Ellwood City, enjoying the welcome loss of elevation as we came down off the plateau. From there, we joined the traditional Wheelmen Fall Rally route to Brush Creek, then paralleled the Turnpike until we took 989 into the backwoods (such as they are in Cranberry). Jim and I parted company with Tim at Lovi Rd, as he decided to continue on 989 and visit his aunt in Economy.
Lovi Rd to the Red Belt to Ambridge to Sewickley was familiar enough that I registered very little; according to Jim, I ended up hammering pretty hard on the Belt, but, due to lack of computer, I didn't notice that I was pulling at 23.5 for several miles. Heh. I love the Red Belt in that stretch.
From Sewickley, I had gotten a bit sadistic when route planning; rather than the time-honored tradition of return via Coraopolis/Neville Island/McKees Rocks Bridge, I decided to wrap up the route with the dual climbs of Blackburn and Mt Nebo. This is a truly spectacular idea after well over 100 miles in the legs. But, again, training for brevets and all that...In any case, the final climbs were completed without undue agony, mostly because the gear range on the P-38 goes pretty darn low, and I have no shame about plumbing the very depths of said range.
A quick cruise along the ridge via Roosevelt, and we descended to The Street of Many Names (AKA Center/Church/Division/California/Lincoln/etc). I peeled off in Brighton Heights (coincidentally, the return route went two blocks from my house...wonder how that happened?), and Jim continued down the hill.
Lessons learned:
The route was a bit of a hodge-podge; Freeport Rd, Russelton Rd, 908 Ext, Sun Mine Rd, Saxonburg, Butler, skirting Moraine to Cooper's Lake, Portersville, Ellwood City, Cranberry, Red Belt, Orange Belt, and Mt Nebo. This does not include a couple of detours; Gulf Lab Rd closure and a bit of cue sheet confusion on Sunset Drive. More on that later...
I left my place around 5:15, and plummeted down the hill to my friend's house for a brief errand of pet maintenance. Met up with Tim at the Science Center, then made our way over to Freeport Rd and caught up with Jim by Trizilla. A brief stop at the Giant Eagle Get-Go down the road for supplies and restroom, and we were off on the ride proper.
Side note: We made a fairly unusual riding group, as our steeds consisted of : Jim's carbon-fiber high-zoot Madone, with a Brooks B-17 (!) saddle; my production P-38 recumbent, festooned with lights and bags; and Tim's well-executed homebuilt dual big wheel stick recumbent. All we really needed was a folder and a British racing trike to complete the set...
Side note 2 : it became apparent that my cyclocomputer had lost its' mind, when it began stubbornly insisting that my average speed was 28.5 mph, and that I'd already covered over 800 miles. After a few failed attempts at rehabilitation, I gave up and turned it to face away on the bars; makes navigating in unfamiliar territory all the more interesting, when you don't actually know how far you've come at any given moment. Good practice for primitive way finding, though.
The original plan called for hopping off Freeport and picking up Gulf Lab over to Russelton Rd; however, it turned out that Gulf Lab had been shut down for construction. Fortunately, Jim was familiar with the area, and knew which side street would become Russelton Rd (Pearl, IIRC). A leisurely climb up Russelton was followed by the delightful descent down 908 Extension to Bull Creek, which led to the climb up Sun Mine Rd. (I might add that this climb was not nearly as bad as I recall; guess I'm not as much of a wimp as I used to be.) Sun Mine eventually becomes Westminster all the way up to 228; it's a set of moderately tough rollers, but is good fun to ride.
At 228, we jogged left over to Saxonburg Rd, then meandered through Saxonburg proper to find Butler Rd. More rollers ensued. We stopped briefly at a Sheetz (corner of Freeport Rd and Butler Saxonburg Rd), then dropped into downtown Butler and over to New Castle Road. A quick right on. and decent climb up, Mercer Rd, and we had left town again. Eventually, we picked up Sunset Drive, a nice little frontage road paralleling Rte 8. Unfortunately, this nice little frontage road had a bad habit of crossing Rte 8 on-grade repeatedly, which kind of robbed it of the traditional benefits of a nice little frontage road.
Even more unfortunately, one of the crossings led to a different road completely (Swamp Run Rd), with Sunset bearing off to the right in highly inconspicuous and unmarked fashion. Even MORE more unfortunately, I, in my bid to win the Christopher Columbus Award for Excellence in Navigation, specifically disregarded the more level-headed members of the party (i.e. both of them) when they pointed out the "No Outlet" sign on Swamp Run that should have given me pause for thought, or even *gasp* provoked map consultation. So, we found that Swamp Run (eventually becoming Chestnut) is an absolutely charming road, with the unfortunate disadvantage of ending in a pile of rubble deep enough in the backwoods that the strains of banjo music and screams of panicked canoers could be heard. That's where I checked the map, and found that yes, indeed, the road went no-where from here; in fact, our location on the map was surrounded by what looked remarkably like swamp markings, thusly discouraging the idea of striking out cross country through Moraine.
Once said navigational mishap was corrected, the rest of our ride through the wilds of Butler County was quite nice. We made our way through the town of Liberty (in theory; I don't actually recall any town, but maps don't lie, right?), then swung by Cooper's Lake Campground. The camp store was closed, so we hopped over to Rte 19 and stopped for lunch at the Subway/convenience store a mile down the road.
Picking up 488, we made our way down to Ellwood City, enjoying the welcome loss of elevation as we came down off the plateau. From there, we joined the traditional Wheelmen Fall Rally route to Brush Creek, then paralleled the Turnpike until we took 989 into the backwoods (such as they are in Cranberry). Jim and I parted company with Tim at Lovi Rd, as he decided to continue on 989 and visit his aunt in Economy.
Lovi Rd to the Red Belt to Ambridge to Sewickley was familiar enough that I registered very little; according to Jim, I ended up hammering pretty hard on the Belt, but, due to lack of computer, I didn't notice that I was pulling at 23.5 for several miles. Heh. I love the Red Belt in that stretch.
From Sewickley, I had gotten a bit sadistic when route planning; rather than the time-honored tradition of return via Coraopolis/Neville Island/McKees Rocks Bridge, I decided to wrap up the route with the dual climbs of Blackburn and Mt Nebo. This is a truly spectacular idea after well over 100 miles in the legs. But, again, training for brevets and all that...In any case, the final climbs were completed without undue agony, mostly because the gear range on the P-38 goes pretty darn low, and I have no shame about plumbing the very depths of said range.
A quick cruise along the ridge via Roosevelt, and we descended to The Street of Many Names (AKA Center/Church/Division/California/Lincoln/etc). I peeled off in Brighton Heights (coincidentally, the return route went two blocks from my house...wonder how that happened?), and Jim continued down the hill.
Lessons learned:
- I really like the Hammer Heed electrolyte drink; far less cloying and sweet than Gatorade or Powerade.
- I need to experiment with Perpetuem for the longer rides; I keep hearing glowing reports, and should really see if it works for me.
- (Also nutritional) I'm noticing that my stomach starts flipping a bit with heavier beverages as the weather gets warmer.
The route (official, that is; the Gulf Lab detour, and the extra couple of miles on Swamp Run and Chestnut, are not included).
Good fun...I think next weekend will be a nice, easy metric, so as to let the legs store up a bit of energy for the 300k.
Monday, April 7, 2008
04/06/2008 Easy 50
One last longer ride before the PA 200K next weekend. Nice route, good weather; shame my heart wasn't in it, or my legs, or something.
The route: Noblestown to Finks to Kelso, Old Steubenville to Potato Garden, 151 to 51 and home.
Thingies of note:
I dunno; it was a really nice ride, and I enjoyed myself, but I'm a little concerned about how well I'll do in the brevet next weekend. 13 hours is a L-O-O-O-N-G time to do 125 miles, even given the truly delightful elevation profile; but I've still got that nagging little voice in the back of my head. On the bright side, it looks like a lot of interesting people will be there, including both rookies like me and highly experienced randonneurs and anciens like Jim Logan and the DC crew. Besides, I'll be the first recumbent rider to complete Tom's 200K, so that's something to look forward to...
The route: Noblestown to Finks to Kelso, Old Steubenville to Potato Garden, 151 to 51 and home.
Thingies of note:
- I got tired of dinking around with the indexed 9-speed shifting (Side note: I have never had much luck with indexed 9-speed for some reason. 8-speed, sure, but 9-speed clicky bits and I just can't seem to reach an agreement.), so I threw the magic lever on the barcon and voila! Friction shifting! Now I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner.
- This was my second time on Potato Garden. Last time, I was delighted to be paced for a short distance by a blue heron that took off from the stream paralleling the road; this time, a year later, SAME THING. I'm starting to feel as if someone is sending me a message re: totemistic stuff, or at least what my first cycling-oriented tattoo should include. ;-)
I dunno; it was a really nice ride, and I enjoyed myself, but I'm a little concerned about how well I'll do in the brevet next weekend. 13 hours is a L-O-O-O-N-G time to do 125 miles, even given the truly delightful elevation profile; but I've still got that nagging little voice in the back of my head. On the bright side, it looks like a lot of interesting people will be there, including both rookies like me and highly experienced randonneurs and anciens like Jim Logan and the DC crew. Besides, I'll be the first recumbent rider to complete Tom's 200K, so that's something to look forward to...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Perryopolis Century+
So, after I biffed on the planned East Liverpool ride on Saturday (fear of crap weather that never materialized), I decided that I just couldn't bear to go an entire weekend without riding somewhere I've never been. I put together a route based on Oscar Swan's Perryopolis ride, but cut back on the usage of the Youghiogheny River Trail as much as was feasible. (and BOY was that the right choice...more on that subject later...)
The basic route was pretty simple; make my way to McKeesport via 2nd Avenue, then 837; shoot up the Mon River to Monessen, then hang a hard left and climb the hill up to Rte 51 and Perryopolis. Down the other side of the ridge to the Yough River in Layton, then wind my way through Banning to Smithton, pick up the trail to West Newton, then surface roads paralleling the river to Rte 48 and the Boston Bridge. Finally, wrap things up with 148 back through McKeesport, then pick up Bowman (AKA East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd, AKA "that big frickin' hill") across the ridge and down to Braddock, then home by following the river back to town. Here's the route for posterity: Perryopolis Low-Trail Alternate Route
The first stretch from Brighton Heights to McKeesport was uneventful, with the exception of several small bits of equipment deciding that they did not wish to remain firmly fastened; notably, the rear fender mount, front headlight, cyclocomputer, and both tailights. So, I spent at least 15 minutes in the first 1.5 hours fiddling with equipment; however, I suppose this is to be expected with a newly built-up bike. And I did label it a "shakedown ride", after all...
As usual, cruising up the Mon along the river was pretty darn straightforward; with the exception of a small climb in Elizabeth on Center, it's flat or gently rolling the whole way to Monessen. Nothing of note to report.
In Monessen, I encountered the first of several unmarked roads, by missing the left on Tyrol Blvd. (This was to prove a recurring theme of my day.) After correcting the navigational eccentricity, I spun my way up the hill, occasionally engaging in low-speed challenges to myself ("Okay, I can get it to 2.5 mph and stay upright; what about 2 mph?"); said challenges being significantly easier to meet than, say, sprinting for a PR to the top of the hill.
A few more directional disfunctionalities, a construction zone on Findley, and a creeping (and mostly inaccurate) sense of being utterly lost later, I finally made it to Perryopolis; unfortunately, as I was plummeting down the hill towards the Yough River at the time, I retain nothing but a blurred impression of nice old buildings and a horde of ne'r-do-well youth that were highly amused by my bike.
Crossing the river was quite simple; a charming one-lane tunnel and bridge led to the tiny hamlet of Layton, plus a gargantuan hill that had unaccountably sprouted up on my path. Wait...that wasn't supposed to be there! Turns out that, in my optimism, I had foolishly assumed that the roads between the quiet little riverside patch towns would actually follow the river, rather than veering alarmingly skyward into farm country on the other side of some rather sheer cliffs. This was to prove the first time (not the last, sad to say) that I fumbled for the granny gear out of actual need.
Once I had fought my embarrassingly slow way to Banning, the going became much easier. Following the river to Smithton, and another enactment of the "missing the unmarked left turn" ceremony, I finally made it to the Yough River trail. "Ah, time for six miles of blissfully easy riding," I thought to myself. "Perhaps I'll even stay on the trail all the way to McKeesport, if I'm feeling lazy" I thought. "This will be a nice change of pace." HAH, I say to that callow and naive young fool.
The funny thing about the combination of limestone trails that are sort of dry on the surface, but still pretty soaking wet underneath, and relatively skinny high pressure tires, is that it becomes similar to this: riding in glue. The most demoralizing and painful part of the entire trip, bar none, was six miles of peaceful riverside trail riding. By the time I arrived at West Newton, I was praying for dump trucks and flung beer bottles as being better than this sloppy, miserable mess.
The remainder of the ride was straightforward, with the exception of a few more missed turns and extra miles. All told, I ended up doing about 113 miles, with a rolling average of 14.2 mph; this sounds like a perfectly acceptable brevet pace. More importantly, I found that nothing really changed after about mile 75, in terms of weariness; this bodes well for the longer brevets, so long as I can remember to keep consistently eating and drinking.
What I did well:
The basic route was pretty simple; make my way to McKeesport via 2nd Avenue, then 837; shoot up the Mon River to Monessen, then hang a hard left and climb the hill up to Rte 51 and Perryopolis. Down the other side of the ridge to the Yough River in Layton, then wind my way through Banning to Smithton, pick up the trail to West Newton, then surface roads paralleling the river to Rte 48 and the Boston Bridge. Finally, wrap things up with 148 back through McKeesport, then pick up Bowman (AKA East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd, AKA "that big frickin' hill") across the ridge and down to Braddock, then home by following the river back to town. Here's the route for posterity: Perryopolis Low-Trail Alternate Route
The first stretch from Brighton Heights to McKeesport was uneventful, with the exception of several small bits of equipment deciding that they did not wish to remain firmly fastened; notably, the rear fender mount, front headlight, cyclocomputer, and both tailights. So, I spent at least 15 minutes in the first 1.5 hours fiddling with equipment; however, I suppose this is to be expected with a newly built-up bike. And I did label it a "shakedown ride", after all...
As usual, cruising up the Mon along the river was pretty darn straightforward; with the exception of a small climb in Elizabeth on Center, it's flat or gently rolling the whole way to Monessen. Nothing of note to report.
In Monessen, I encountered the first of several unmarked roads, by missing the left on Tyrol Blvd. (This was to prove a recurring theme of my day.) After correcting the navigational eccentricity, I spun my way up the hill, occasionally engaging in low-speed challenges to myself ("Okay, I can get it to 2.5 mph and stay upright; what about 2 mph?"); said challenges being significantly easier to meet than, say, sprinting for a PR to the top of the hill.
A few more directional disfunctionalities, a construction zone on Findley, and a creeping (and mostly inaccurate) sense of being utterly lost later, I finally made it to Perryopolis; unfortunately, as I was plummeting down the hill towards the Yough River at the time, I retain nothing but a blurred impression of nice old buildings and a horde of ne'r-do-well youth that were highly amused by my bike.
Crossing the river was quite simple; a charming one-lane tunnel and bridge led to the tiny hamlet of Layton, plus a gargantuan hill that had unaccountably sprouted up on my path. Wait...that wasn't supposed to be there! Turns out that, in my optimism, I had foolishly assumed that the roads between the quiet little riverside patch towns would actually follow the river, rather than veering alarmingly skyward into farm country on the other side of some rather sheer cliffs. This was to prove the first time (not the last, sad to say) that I fumbled for the granny gear out of actual need.
Once I had fought my embarrassingly slow way to Banning, the going became much easier. Following the river to Smithton, and another enactment of the "missing the unmarked left turn" ceremony, I finally made it to the Yough River trail. "Ah, time for six miles of blissfully easy riding," I thought to myself. "Perhaps I'll even stay on the trail all the way to McKeesport, if I'm feeling lazy" I thought. "This will be a nice change of pace." HAH, I say to that callow and naive young fool.
The funny thing about the combination of limestone trails that are sort of dry on the surface, but still pretty soaking wet underneath, and relatively skinny high pressure tires, is that it becomes similar to this: riding in glue. The most demoralizing and painful part of the entire trip, bar none, was six miles of peaceful riverside trail riding. By the time I arrived at West Newton, I was praying for dump trucks and flung beer bottles as being better than this sloppy, miserable mess.
The remainder of the ride was straightforward, with the exception of a few more missed turns and extra miles. All told, I ended up doing about 113 miles, with a rolling average of 14.2 mph; this sounds like a perfectly acceptable brevet pace. More importantly, I found that nothing really changed after about mile 75, in terms of weariness; this bodes well for the longer brevets, so long as I can remember to keep consistently eating and drinking.
What I did well:
- Nutrition seemed to work well. Hearty breakfast, gu packs every half hour or so, and solid food every couple of hours seems like a good working combination.
- Hill climbing. I managed not to get macho about it; as such, even the relatively unpleasant hills near the end of the ride, although taken slowly, were no big deal. I paced myself well.
What I did poorly:
- Too much time spent fiddling with equipment on-ride. I need to tighten everything down properly and hit it with Loctite.
- Too much time spent off-bike, for refreshment and potty breaks. I probably burned 45-60 minutes at various gas stations, convenience stores, etc.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
03/16/2008: Sunday Morning Ride, 50-ish miles, variable terrain
The route.
I repeated the McAleer/State Gamelands/989 route from a couple weeks ago, in order to compare relative performance of the old Rocket and the new P-38. Heh. Even though I suspect a 5% error in wheel size calibration on the P-38, the difference is quite surprising.
(As an aside, that basic route is rapidly becoming my favorite for a good Sunday morning training-oriented ride; some long climbs, some rollers, and some great scenery, plus wrapping it up with a fast flat stretch.)
I cobbled together a cue sheet holder from a couple of Twofish bike blocks and some plastic tubing, based on an idea from Barron over on 'BentriderOnline. Seems to work well, although the only tube I had (fluorescent light fixture protective cover) is 1.75" diameter, and I suspect something in the 2.5" diameter will be optimal.
Other mechanical issues: the mounts for the taillights (Yes, I have redundant taillights...whaddaya expect from a randonneur wannabee?) have a tendency to swivel downwards, so I'll need to add a bit of material to better fix them in place; ditto for the cyclocomputer. The underseat bottle cages are still a little tricky to use; I'm sure familiarity will help there.
I repeated the McAleer/State Gamelands/989 route from a couple weeks ago, in order to compare relative performance of the old Rocket and the new P-38. Heh. Even though I suspect a 5% error in wheel size calibration on the P-38, the difference is quite surprising.
(As an aside, that basic route is rapidly becoming my favorite for a good Sunday morning training-oriented ride; some long climbs, some rollers, and some great scenery, plus wrapping it up with a fast flat stretch.)
I cobbled together a cue sheet holder from a couple of Twofish bike blocks and some plastic tubing, based on an idea from Barron over on 'BentriderOnline. Seems to work well, although the only tube I had (fluorescent light fixture protective cover) is 1.75" diameter, and I suspect something in the 2.5" diameter will be optimal.
Other mechanical issues: the mounts for the taillights (Yes, I have redundant taillights...whaddaya expect from a randonneur wannabee?) have a tendency to swivel downwards, so I'll need to add a bit of material to better fix them in place; ditto for the cyclocomputer. The underseat bottle cages are still a little tricky to use; I'm sure familiarity will help there.
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