Author: mb

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Spring Dirt

Took off with Wil to Richmond for the first leg of his 200k pre-ride and course check. Met Greg for some dirt climbing. Wes White Hill, East Road and Taft Road in Huntington, then a sloppy ride down Dugway above the Huntington Gorge. Brutal cold headwind coming back north and east. I finished with ~50, steep climbing up Wes White and East Road. Firm dirt to start, sloppy to finish.

Met some folks taking the pets out for a stroll…

Good day out. Tough start, my quads were pretty sore from Friday yoga. After a caffeine break and some warm sun things got better. Blue blue sky and sun today… aside from the wind – perfect.

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Spring

Seed starts are sprouting and growing. 360+ of peas, corn, beans, chard, watermelon, perennials, strawberries, and more. They are warm and cozy under artificial sunlight in our basement – as our garden is still under 6-8 inches of dirty frozen snow, with more to come – as we will be under a winter storm warning for Thursday and Friday. 6-12 inches of snow across northern Vermont overnight, more in the mountains. Sigh. The VT Champlain Valley 200k Brevet is April 9!

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Spring Dirt

~65 miles with lots of spring dirt on stretches of the Fall Classic route. Frozen dirt in the morning, mud later in the day. ~3k in climbing, much of it in muck, which made for an interesting day. Eye freezing, ice cream headache headwinds pretty much everywhere.

The day started off well with my coffee and hoping for some warm sun, then 10 miles later a wreck on Poor Farm Rd. Crossed up the wheels as best I can figure going over some frozen ruts. Cut up my elbow and knee, didn’t rip the jacket or pants though. Shoulder and hip are sore today. Made my way out to the shoulder of the big mountain and climbed up to Irish Settlement Rd. Wheel stopping mud in some places – still tacky and walkable – but fender and brake clogging. Explored down Nashville and Stage Rd. and had to do a roadside fender cleanout and adjustment to get the rear wheel to turn. I was in the 32×30 quite a bit on the last stretch through West Bolton – fighting both the climb and the wheelsucking mud.

Ended the day @ On The Rise for lunch with the wife and little one who had visited the Vermont Audubon Center sugaring festivities earlier in the day. Blue skies + warm sun (when out of the wind) + and some nice dirt (when it was frozen!) = good day out.

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Spring

Easy recovery spin on the first day of Spring. Quiet this morning in the woods – snow melting, some crust to ride, some mashed potatoes, some frozen post holed rattled your teeth out sections of bike path.

Currently we are under a winter weather advisory, with fluffy snow falling outside the home office window. 3-5 inches by tonight. Sigh. While I love the snow, winter fatigue has fully set in, and I’m looking forward to exploring some single track this year, as well as upping my fitness as I take on both organizing and riding our local brevet series this year.

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Sunday… dirt?

Its early for regular Sunday Dirt postings – but on the return leg of a fairly flat out and back to the Champlain Islands Wil and I took to some dirt. Smooth, firm, and in great shape. ~80 miles to Hero’s Welcome and back. I’m cooked. Longest ride since last fall.


(click to see the hundreds of bird houses…)

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High Water

Got out on the Pugs today to try my ‘normal’ off road morning loop. Snow was mixed from mashed potatoes to hardpack to just a dusting. I was running relatively high pressure @ 10 psi to make decent time on the paved and bike path connecting portions – which meant plenty of hike a bike in the mashed show full of footprints.

I had wanted to connect through the Intervale – but high water covered part of the farm road on my exit. I’d guess there was 30′ of 3′ deep water to cross – not something I was prepared to do… the nearby Winooski was inches from the tops of it’s banks.

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Cold and Wet

Managed 47 or so today with Wil. BTV to Richmond and to the fine On the Rise Bakery as a destination / warm up stop. (note to self – next time do not order bacon here….)

Temps were in the mid 30s with rain coming down most of the morning. Outbound we passed a steady stream of broken beer bottles on the side of the road. Eventually one of them bit me – so we stood standing in the rain and slop in Williston to do a change. I was thankful for wrapping my spare tube in a pair of rubber shop gloves – minimal cold mess on the hands. A small sliver of glass worked its way through the casing – so some hunting was needed. After a remount and a blast of CO2 – we were rolling again along the semi-frozen Winooski River.

Wil is riding strong, and pushing his studs on a bike with an 8spd internal geared hub he left me in his wake numerous times. He’ll be more than ready for the upcoming brevet series, and if he keeps this up he’ll be in prime form for his attempt at the 2012 Tour Divide.

Me – I need more work. The legs felt sluggish, and I needed to hit my inhaler at our cafe stop to settle down some coughing and a mild asthma attack. I’ve been battling a cold / sinus bug and its been challenging to stay active while it works its way through my system. Last spring I ended up with pneumonia just before one of our VT brevets. I’m trying to avoid that this year. I’ve managed my most consistent base in quite a while this winter (thanks Pugsley!). I added yoga to the mix last fall and have been back at it on a regular basis (Friday mornings!). The most promising change of all is that my weight is down ~25 pounds since this photo was taken on last years Fall Classic:

That’s not to say I’m floating up hills like I used to, nor chasing down friends as they pull away from me when the terrain turns up. Not even close. After I get through our first VT 200k on April 9 I’ll shift from ‘base’ to ‘intensity’ – I need lots of consistent sustained hard efforts. Repeated stays in the pain cave was the only way I got semi fast (still very slow compared to the racer boys and girls) back in 2006. Its the only way I see being able to attempt BMB in August.

And an important update – after three weeks it appears that the lonely baguette has met its demise.