Donuts

I forgot how much I liked donuts..I'm up 5 lbs in just under two weeks! and within that time I have about 250 miles under my belt...including a very hot century with a load of climbing, I think my training is lacking a goal and with the idea of snow just a few months away I need to find something quick or I'll be in bad shape come the spring...and a real bitch!

Last Race Last Lap...Crash!

Tuesday Night Training rides ended in a nasty crash...Tom and a few others crashed on the 1st turn of the last lap of the last race of the summer training season in East Hartford. Tom was down for awhile and then carted off in an ambulance to the ER...I spoke with him the next day, nothing broken just a lot of road rash!...The crit was pretty fast most of the night until just before the last few laps when everyone slowed, then the last lap people decided to make a run at it and punched it into the first turn. Myself being a bit cautious decided to hang back. Actually prior to that Tom and myself made a few moves to try and break the group of riders up..but, we're a bit too old and slow!
...

Wednesday...went for an hour and 1/2 ride to through Coventry and Tolland...did about 2000 ft of climbing over 21 miles...Man I'm sick off hills!

Livestrong

...well since the MT Washington hill climb was canceled I still had one more event at this point to complete for the summer. Over the past week I road a few days and even ran once with the intent of possibly being in shape for some cross racing.

In regards to the LiveStrong challenge, I was taking this a bit lightly because I've done a hundred miles+ a few times and normally don't have any issues...This ride is a charity ride to raise money to fight cancer, so I figured it was going to be a casual ride with a few hills!...This ride had 8000 ft of climbing and one mother of a hill climb @ 55 miles in!...I saw a lot of people walking their bikes! Twelve of our thirteen TeamChristy riders completed the 100 miles (Jon A. signed up for 40)....

...Some notes of interest...Marty and Jeff B finished strong as did Kevin and Jeff S after Kevin crashed and had his bike fixed and his body bandaged! Brent (who is 59.5 years old) finished about 45 minutes after me on a bike that weighed 30+ pounds...
Jon B, Andy, Tim road 100 for the first time and finished strong...and to round out the group both Joe and Octavia finished strong as well...Hughroy finished the 100 as the broomwagon was close behind..awesome job everyone!

...I felt pretty good and some how ended up riding about 15-20 miles at the beginning of the ride in a paceline of 6 riders with the man himself leading out! (I was on the back!)

Cancelled

...6+ months of training and mother nature said no! 92 MPH wind gusts at the top! Hurricane force winds...

...regardless, I traveled with Marty who was planning on riding up the hill with his 30lb mountain bike(ouch)..., Jeff, Andy who were our support team...We still had a good time and we eventually did get to the top but it was by stage coach(van).

...Maybe next year!

Getting Closer!

I've been away from my laptop for the last few days and getting ready for the big ascent! I went pretty hard this weekend, Saturday 2 hours and Sunday 2 hours. The remainder of the week was one hour super easy spins...no problems.

...Checking the extended weather for Saturday...looks like the summit is going to me cold!

I'm a gambling man by nature. I think I'd go for it.

...Michael Anthony Hall...2 hours on the trainer watching 'Sixteen Candles'...pretty exciting! 1984~

...MT Washington is 8 days away!

Horses, Cows and Chickens

...Horse Barn hill...needed to get a 2 hour endurance ride in with the goal of keeping my HR @ 135...didn't quite keep it at that level...decided to head towards UCONN and see the horse, cows and chickens...plus theres a nice little climb on Horse Barn Hill Rd...

...if you haven't checked out routeslip.com..check it out.

http://www.routeslip.com/routes/57496

Deep Dish!

Well..tonight I tried/borrowed a set of Reynolds DV46, I was a little apprehensive to try these in a training crit, but what the f%&#!...It took a bit of getting used too, but once these wheels started to role it was hard to stop...I did a bit of attacking tonight and pulled one of my racing buddies to a prime win. His first...he was pretty pumped!

...I finished pretty strong 5th-6th out of maybe 30-35 riders. Probably could have done a bit better if I wasn't so far back with a half lap to go...jumped a bit too late!

Note: On Sunday, I road with Marty and Jeff S for about 2 hours did my normally work out without going too much into the red! One more note, Jeff is a machine...he can climb!

Legos are pretty cool!

Today after my 1.5 hour ride which I focused on hill repeats 4x10 (4 10 minute climbs, or close to 10 minutes)...went to Natick, MA to the Natick mall with the family to check out the Lego store...Legos have come a long ways...if you get a chance you should check out all the stuff you can build...man I wish I was a kid again!

Gravel Roads suck!

Today I had scheduled 3 hours of endurance work planned which included some tempo on the hills...Didn't quite get it all in! 1+ hour on the trainer and 1 hour on the road...Once on the road, I decided to take my normal route to do some tempo up some good climbing hills...But, I noticed an orange sign on the road that said "15 Mphs - gravel road ahead", Great! I decided to attempt it but, was passed by one of Coventry's read-necks in a suburban doing well over 15mphs and kick'in up some stones..decide it wasn't it worth it and changed directions...Got'ta love Coventry...a real diverse cross section of the America and also the only town that uses gravel on the roads! nice!

Tennis anyone

...I had a big training ride planned for today after work...2 hours of over/under intervals...(under and over my lactate threshold based on my heartrate)...But, my daughter wanted me to play tennis with her up at the High School...how could I resist...Instead hit the trainer around 9pm and got my work out in. Did 3x12 @155/164 alternating ever 3/2 minutes...after a 30 minute warm up.