UMASS MTB Race

Training is starting to pay off. I felt pretty good last weekend at the Orchard Assault race. I beat a few people that had beaten me previously. My training method of riding to work and one MTB ride on Wed night seems to be starting to payoff.

I also think that riding with Lars in the trailer up 7 mile climbs tends to help also! It also takes your personal best time on the climb and almost doubles it.

Looking forward there are some great events coming up. CTNEMBA is hosting a trail school on Saturday May 16th in Redding, CT. See www.ctnemba.com for the details. On Sunday is the Winsted Woods race. This is one of my favorite races. It has some great technical sections. The GT Zaskar Pro will handle them perfectly. I really love how nicely the lightweight carbon frame handles the technical terrain.

Tomorrow night is the CTNEMBA board meeting at CFPA headquarters in Rockfall, CT. See our website for details. We will be riding at Wadsworth falls before the meeting and then meeting around 7 pm.

Time flies

I can't believe that it has been two weeks since I last posted! It has been a busy two weeks. I have been doing the usual training by riding to work and the weekend family rides.

Last weekend I raced the Winding Trails race in Farmington, CT. Lars and I got there early to get a good spot for the Dirt Coalition tent. We were 100 feet or so from the start line. Once we got the tent set up we camped out under it and had lunch. As usual Lars used his outgoing personality and smile to draw people over to the tent. We talked to several NEMBA members about the goings on in their area of the state and fielded a bunch of questions about GT. As we reached the hottest point of the day (92 degrees!) I got ready for the race. When Mel arrived (she rode from home), I headed for a lap of the course. It was in good shape and would be a fast day. The race started out quickly. During the second lap of the race the heat started to take its toll on me. I was going through the usual thoughts of dropping out but that wasn't going to happen today. As I was descending one of the final hills of the course, I could see Mel and Lars in the corner and Lars yelled "Go Dada!" That is just what I needed to get remotivated and recharge for the remainder of the race. All in all I improved over my finish at Hopbrook. I came in 18th. If I can maintain my steady climb in finishing spots I should be in the top ten before the season is out.

Cat 1 Start H3 | Root 66 Bunny Hopbrook Dam on CyclingDirt

What a race! I guess that it is fitting that the Connecticut MTB season would start with an epic race. It was not epic by distance but by conditions. On Saturday night the forecast was calling for the rain to stop late morning. The forecasters really missed this one. The roads were almost dry mid morning and the rain started again just as we got to the race course. It was 43 degrees and pouring rain as the racers gathered!

About 25 racers lined up for the start in the Cat 1 30-39 age group. Even with the weather it looks like attendance will be up this year. I had heard rumors from others that MTB is getting more popular again.

You can see a video of the beginning of the course at the link below:

Cat 1 Start H3 Root 66 Bunny Hopbrook Dam on CyclingDirt

Posted using ShareThis

It didn't look to bad in the video but it got slicker and slicker. The soil on the course had a fair amount of clay in it making for a very slippery race. Considering the amount of high intensity training that I have had this year I felt pretty good. I ended up 21st. Now I have a baseline to improve upon. It has been several years since I last put in the miles necessary to finish in the top 5. I am now figuring out how to balance work, family with a young child, and riding. I can do it but I will have to manage my time well.

I have to compliment GT bicycles for making an awesome product. The Carbon Zaskar that they gave me when I signed on to the Dirt Coalition team handled flawlessly considering the conditions. I do not miss my full suspension bike one bit. It is extremely light and nimble. The carbon does a nice job of damping the bumps while still being stiff.

I did have one mechanical issue. The front Deore XT disc brake kept intermittently losing pressure. I have to look into this today. It slowed me a bit during the race but certainly my fitness is the limiting factor.

The next race is at Winding Trails in Farmington, CT. Come out and see the Dirt Coalition team members and check out an awesome venue for a MTB race.

Now with a beautiful day off from work I need to get outside for some active recovery.

Help my Dirt Coalition Clothes have been stolen

I did find the culprit!

recovery from hiking in the Whites

After the hike in the Whites I was pretty beat up. Carrying a 40lb pack and hiking is quite the departure from cycling. I did still manage to get right into my spring routine. I rode to and from work on Wednesday (45 mi.) as my first commute to work after the time change. It really changes your mindset when you get to ride home in the daylight. Even though I was tired when I got home I had certainly decompressed from a day of lengthy management meetings.

Friday night the GT clothing arrived and Lars promptly took his stab at wearing my clothing. The jersey was abit big but he seemed to like it.

Then on Sat morning at 7:29am the bike arrived! Not that I was tracking it at all. By 10 I was on the bike putting it through its paces. Nice bike! I will have to put a longer stem and riser bars on it to make it fit perfect. It sure did ride well.

On Sunday it was Lars and I together all day so we spent some time playing in the yard and cleaning the garage. After lunch we headed out for a good road ride. I put him in the trailer and spent nearly 4 hours pedaling. Great training. Nothing like an extra 40 pounds behind you as you are going up hill.

Tomorrow I will head out on the GT again to test the new bar combo.

Weekend in the White Mountains

Last weekend, a good friend of mine, Tim Rourke and I headed up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a weekend of backcountry hiking and camping. We both left work early on Friday and headed up to Pinkham Notch to stay at Joe Dodge lodge (one of the Appalachian Mountain Clubs lodges, http://www.outdoors.org/). Since Tim had never seen the Mountain Washington Hotel we made a quick stop there so he could see it. It is a pretty amazing hotel as well as being historically significant. It is the site of the Bretton Woods monetary conference in 1944 when the World Bank was created (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Hotel). After that we made a quick stop at the Highland Center in Crawford Notch. It is another of the AMC's lodges. It was built with the environment in mind. You can see more about it on the AMC website.

We eventually got to Joe Dodge lodge around 6:30 pm and checked into our room bunk room and went to dinner. After dinner we reviewed our gear one last time to make sure that we had everything and chatted with our roomate who had summited Mt. Washington and come back down in the same day. This is a strenuous hike in the summer let alone in the winter.

Saturday morning we went to breakfast at the lodge and then headed out on the trail. We chose to follow the Lost Pond trail from Pinkham Notch to the Wildcat Ridge trail which would take us up and over all 5 Wildcat peaks and eventually into Carter Notch where we would spend the night in a hut. The lost pond section of the trail was pretty mellow. That all changed as soon as we hit the Wildcat Ridge trail. We had to stop at the first pitch upward to put on our crampons. The snow is still about 5 ft deep with a crust that will sustain your weight on top. As we clawed our way up the first section of trail to Wildcat E we came across a group that was also climbing up except they also had their cocker spaniel. He had not problem with the steepness and ice!

Once we got over the first peak the trail rolls up and down for several miles with some great vistas of Mt. Washington and the rest of the Presidential range. It was strange to hike through the woods for several hours and them pop out at the top of the ski lift for Wildcat ski area. Not only was it strange but there is also an old lift house at the top of the mountain that looks like an abandoned building. Its too bad that it has not been taken down. We quickly got through this section on to more pleasant trails. After about 6 hours we got to a vista where we could see the Carter Notch Hut in the valley below. It is quite the sight as there is also a sizable rock slide called the Rampart almost next the the hut.

After hiking for several hours, the downhill to Carter was pretty tricky. The snow was extremely deep and both of us would occasionaly break through the crust and that leg would sink into the snow up the hip. This is called postholing. It gets old quickly... We made it down in one piece around 5pm. Just in time for dinner. The hut is full service in the summer. In the winter guests are free to use the stove to cook their own dinner. We had some wonderful pesto pasta that Tim had cooked up. The dining area is a great place to hang out after a long hike with a wood stove warming the area and all kinds of interesting people to talk to. One group had a whole gourmet dinner going complete with steak and tofu dishes and wine!

After a restful night sleep in the bunkhouse, we had some oatmeal and coffee, took a few pictures of the hut and the sunrise and headed down the 19mile brook trail. We opted for the easier hike out after our somewhat epic hike the day before. It took us about 2 hours to get to the trailhead on Route 16. Since there was no one around in the parking lot to hitch a ride up to Pinkham Notch with we started hitchhiking. After about an hour with no success, George who is the caretaker in Carter Notch came down the trail and gave us a ride back to Pinkham. Thanks George!

We got changed and then headed to the Flatbread Pizza Company in North Conway to top off our trip with some of the best pizza that I have ever had.

On the way home we drove the Kancamangus Highway over to I-91. The Kanc is a beautiful drive, especially in the winter. We saw a couple of cyclists working their way up the lengthy climb. Normally, I would have been a bit jealous but with miles of hiking behind us I didn't care.

In Woodsville, NH we stopped for a cup of coffee just in the nick of time. The Dunkin Donuts was in the process of closing for the day because they did not have enough employees to stay open all day. You would think this would not be an issue given the state of the economy.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. The weather couldn't have been better with temps in the 20s and brilliant sun with no clouds. A perfect way to move into spring.

spring is almost here

The past couple of weeks have been really hectic. I have been able to continue my weeknight combo of Wii and trainer and weekend hikes and rides. This past weekend was a mixed bag for me. On Saturday, CTNEMBA host a chainsaw safety course. It was a really good session. I was bummed about the fact that it was 65 degrees and could not ride but the quality of the training made up for it.
Sunday was a tough day for me. We had to put down one of our cats. Monty was a great cat and quite the trooper. We had been treating for cancer for the past 4 years! He was my first pet after getting out of college. Fortunately, I was able to get out for a hike and then 40 miles on the road to help clear my head and give me some good training.
I saw that our bikes will be shipping soon. I am really looking forward to that. The race season is coming up quickly. The first race is April 11th. I hope the mud is gone by then.