Friday, May 16, 2008

MS Ride the Vineyard 2008 - May 3rd


The past several years the ride on the Vineyard the first Saturday in May has been beautiful. This year it was anything but beautiful. The forecast was for a cool, clear, and overcast ride. What we actually had was rain, cold, and wind. Though to be fair it didn't actually start raining until we were all out on the road, and up until that point I thought wearing just shorts was a fine plan. In any case I started the ride in high spirits, and planned to enjoy my first 100k on my road bike after suffering through it last year on the mountain bike.


By the end of the ride I was well soaked through. My knees, wrists, hands, and fingers were all numb. My legs were a marvelous shade of purple, and my energy was completely sapped. I completed the ride in 4 1/2 hours with stops, though I found after the first two stops that I really couldn't afford to waste anytime standing around. Every stop meant I wasn't moving, and my core temp would plummet. I think part of the reason I finished as fast as I did is I was pretty much just moving as fast as I could to keep warm for the last half of the ride. Many of the 100k riders dropped out, and I don't blame them. It was a really hard ride, and I feel I earned every last penny in the donations I received from Turbine and individual sponsors.


Once I had some food in me post ride I started to feel a little more human again, and I really enjoyed the rest of the trip. We camped out with the whole Folks on Spokes crew at May and Wally's yet again, and it was like a little family reunion. The trip as a whole is really a highlight every spring. The grilling team really outdid themselves this year. The post ride meal was just awesome, made even more awesome by the post ride nap just before.


Unfortunately I've been down and out the last two weeks with a horrible cold. I hate to blame the ride, but it really sapped me and I think it left an opening for the virus to get in and cause some real damage. My cough is still racking and deep. Hopefully it'll take its leave this weekend.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Spring Thaw

It has been spring for a while up here in Massachusetts, but the way the weather has been you could have fooled me. I've done the important yearly maintenance to my bike to get it in shape for the coming season. Including new road shoes and pedals to replace my mountain bike shoes and pedals. They were causing circulation issues on really long rides, so I'm hoping the new shoes will clear that up. To further complicate issues with finding time to ride I've been doing a mountain of work in my garden, which means when there is nice weather I have a tough choice as to what to do with my time. Since the garden has some tight deadlines over the next month for when beds need to be prepared for planting it has largely won out. Come early may, however, the heavy work in the garden should be largely complete and I should be able to get more riding in.

If the weather improves next week I'm hoping to be able to start riding my bike into work, though I know that's going to kick the crap out of me the first couple of times I do so. I ended up going out for a rather chilly 16.4 mile ride this afternoon. It let me know that I could make it into work if I wanted to give it a go. The hills were wicked, and really drove home how much work I have left to do before I'm back in shape again. Though I'm not exhausted the ride did drive home that I need to get some serious mileage in if I'm going to do the 100k MS Tour of the Vineyard on the 3rd of May.