Category: burlington

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New(s)

New sneaks arrived for on the Fargo and Pugsley. My Specialized shoes have finally given up, with the sole @ the cleat pushing into the bottom of the shoe. Looks like they are delaminating. 5 year old shoes, ridden in mud, snow, rain… I really can’t complain. I opted to replace them with some Pearl Izumi X-Alp pro shoes. Carbon sole that is supposedly good for hike a bike… I would have gone for another comparable pair of the Specialized shoes – but they have a very stiff sole now, and a local rider told me they are great for on the bike, not so good for even short off the bike pushes.

And then I found this (for the Enduro model) and this. Kurt’s plug pretty much sold me on the shoe. He’s currently out front on the Tour Divide.

In other news I snapped the hanger on the Fargo. Hit something, and glad I didn’t shift into the spokes. New parts (and a spare for my kit) are on the way. On a separate morning I went over the bars – perfect wheel swallowing divot coming off some roots.

Next week I hope the continuing fatigue is gone, hoping to start a formal training plan to take me into the fall. Will be the first time I’ve done any specific training since burning out when I hired a coach back in 07.

After the burn out I didn’t ride for nearly 8 months. Looking forward to it, as I think I’ve got the largest base in place in a long long time – but need to knock a few more pounds off the body and step up the intensity for climbing. (hmm, when I migrated over from Blogger it seems I lost all my pictures on previous posts… sad…)

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Sunday Dirt

Left early Sunday morning and managed a fatigued ~48 including some tacky, some snotty, and some dry dirt, rolling south from town to the covered bridges. Still feeling off, but opted to climb Irish Hill on the return leg, and actually felt OK. Lots of low gears for me…

Monday morning and we are still getting wet.

So much rain… starting to get depressing, until I walked outside from sipping my coffee and saw a rainbow. I raced to the lake hoping to catch it over the mountains, but the rain picked up and it went back to hiding.

Hoping Summer arrives before Fall.

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Singletrack

Did some early loops at Sunny Mosquito Hollow this morning. Did a long (relative) loop out on the blue trails, then got turned around on Moose Hill and pretty sure I ended up on the grounds of Camp Johnson.

Still figuring out the drop bar position – currently its great for gravel / local trails – but I can see for extended single track I’d want it a bit higher. Still annoyed with the adjustment / shifting of the SRAM FD… doesn’t stay put after adjustment and gives come chain rub in too many combinations. Salsa sent along some missing inline adjusters… but the one for the FD seems to unwind itself every few days. Might need to tighten it down and add some electrical tape.

Starting to feel like myself again. Still fatigued, with sore legs… looking forward to a decent ride this Sunday.

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Tired

Short ride in the woods and down to the lake. Flood damage is everywhere, and the lake is slowly receding, but taking the bike path, beach, and trees with it. Really fatigued this morning. Hoping to feel better this weekend for some quality time on the dirt.

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Expansion

Continues. Strawberry and blueberry bushes, apple tree, pear tree, and way more dirt than I want to move to the backyard.

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Pugsley in the Woods

Been enjoying some mellow time letting my lungs recovered from some lingering affects of asthma. A new round of meds wiped me out for the better part of a week. Feeling human again I’ve been riding early morning laps in the local woods -the high trails are dry and nearly 90% ready for summer riding, with only a short stretch that I’ve been walking. The lower trails are another story – the standing water has disappeared over the last few days, but things are still wet and mucky, and some folks have been riding and widening a few sections of trail which is only serving to prolong the drying out (and damaging the single track hidden within the deep mud!).

I’ve been staying out of the wet sections, but the pugs floats over soft soil. Comparing my track to those that have come before on skinny tires is enlightening. The fat tires at low pressure seem to groom and heal up deep ruts that are left by ‘normal’ sized tires.

I do miss the Soma though. Nothing like a singlespeed for a quiet time in the woods. I was surprised at how loud the chain can be when bouncing along through the woods… and of course the Soma was a good 10 pounds lighter than the pugs.

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VT 300k Underway

The VT Lake Champlain 300k is underway… and I’m a DNF.

My ideal Friday plan of working, wrenching, and prepping for the ride turned into a marathon session wearing my organizer hat. Due to our almost great lake being well over record flood levels (and still rising) I had to do an emergency recon of the course yesterday. This meant a bike ride to the airport to grab a car rental followed by a 188 mile drive around the course + about 40 bonus miles added on to scout alternates. The first half of the course was easy to re-work, but 140 miles into the ride we had significant potentials to strand / trap riders with flooded roads – and no easy way to either rescue folks and sag them back or provide realistic, dry, and safe alternates. After consulting the NY DOT and VT AOT and not being assured 2 key roads and a ferry would be 100% operational if water levels continued to rise – we worked up a solution to continue the ride on a modified out and back course. This is a bit sad as some of the more challenging (and scenic) terrain had to be left out – but it is a great compromise to keep everyone safe, allow us to continue the event, and take advantage of the great weather today.

Once we had a solution I needed to make it happen. Multiple course changes to avoid flooding had me creating new cue sheets and brevet cards from scratch to account for the flood detours. And I re-cabled the IF on Thursday – so I still needed to wrap the bars. My Friday went from modest and relaxed to frenzied and stressed. I think I finally turned out the lights at midnight. The alarm rang at 3:15 so I could be at the start by 4:15.

I signed 9 riders in, handed out updated cues and cards, and sent everyone off. I tagged along at the back hoping to make it about 30 miles in to one of my favorite cafe stops where I could eat, get some coffee, and have a clear(er) head to decide how to proceed. I made it to the first minor uphill, maybe 4 miles into the course, and my elevated heart rate was very noticeable. I then went into a wheezing asthma attack.

So, I rolled it back to the start and hung out in case any stragglers arrived, then made my way home to rest. Greg has since called in that he was just leaving our planned breakfast stop – and aside from the wind (it will be a tailwind in 15 more miles) – he was having a great blue sky day. Wil is a bit further up the course at the first control and he’s annoyed with the wind – taking longer to cover the 51 miles than he thought. The wind will likely keep blowing this morning which will mean a tail wind to the turn around control. Hopefully it will die down this afternoon.

I’m envious and a bit sad that I’m not out on the course – but very thankful I was able to make this go for everyone who put in effort to get here and ride our VT events. As I learned last season – riding and organizing doesn’t seem to mix very well…

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Swamp Thing

Local trails, drying out. Areas that are wet will likely stay tacky through the summer. The real wet is on the two track and dirt road that was flooded in the Intervale, where most of this mess came from.

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Woods and Beach

re-Learning how to ride in the woods. Locally the high trails are dry. Rocks and roots are perpetually slippy. The lake is at a near all time high, cresting with all the snow melt and recent rain. Lots of crap on the beach. Nice morning to explore on fat tires, while trying to kick a bit of a cold I picked up from the little one.