Jump Start or Over Done?

Good weather albeit a little chilly offered a fine chance to get out on the roads this weekend and get some riding in. Nearly 30 miles of relatively easy terrain was made fairly difficult by strong winds and a strong early season Jake. The 27 miles felt like plenty yet not too much. However Sunday's route was to be 'The Colombian', named for our Colombian friend Solin who came up with the route. It is full of challenging climbs that make for a leg busting ride when we are in shape. Being the longest ride to date this year, following one of my more substantial breaks from riding, this ride just plain hurt. The road bike simply couldn't provide enough gearing for me today and I found myself struggling to turn the cranks over at the top of a few hills and standing up for most of the final few climbs with a very slow trudging cadence.

My legs were absolutely trashed by the end of the ride, unable to cope with even the basic pedaling required to cover flat ground. When we all stopped to split ways, I had to cut out of the good-byes early because my legs were locking up. For a while after returning home it was rather painful just to stand up. Sitting was only slightly better. After eating a large amount of food, showering, and a nap though, things were better.

As they say, that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Weak and feeble

On the first road ride of the season it was all pain and suffering, except when that tail wind kicked in. Things were good with the tailwind. But the hill Jake and I climbed into a headwind, it made me want to get off the bike. I could barely turn over the gear my legs were so weak, or so they felt. I survived though, and actually felt relatively good by the end of the ride. I also looked like I'd been in a mountain bike race, with all the water and dirt on the roads getting sprayed up in rooster tails by our bikes.

Hiking the snow, with a little Riding

February first, I'm finally getting sanity back and the itch to ride more, not quite at the point of training, but definitely getting out for some good old fashion fun on the bike. Today I met with Jake and Tom and we rode a little bit at first in the snow, but as the tracks from hikers dissipated the riding became near impossible. We reverted to some hike-a-bike. A few feeble attempts were made at riding, but were generally unsuccessful.

After hiking to the top of the hill we followed a trail that plenty of people had hiked on so riding was possible. It was also downhill, and a lot of fun.

Here is a video clip from a portion of the ride.

Riding the Snow from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Skiing Stowe

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend took me to the Stowe ski resort, near the town of Stowe, VT. I joined a number of friends at a house that we rented in Morrisville, VT. We spent two quality days on the mountain skiing, despite extremely cold weather. The first day we pulled into the parking lot with sub 0°F temperatures. The second day was warmer at 11°F when we pulled up.

The skiing was fantastic, especially on Sunday after an overnight snow left some fresh white stuff on the mountain. While it can be relatively easy to just glide down the mountain, we didn't take it easy. We really worked the turns at a fast pace, leaving my legs rather tired by the end of day two on the mountain.

There are a few pictures here.

I also captured a video during one of our runs. I almost had a giant yard sale on the mountain when I hit a small patch of ice followed by some bumps. Skiing with both poles in one hand and a camera in the other, not the easiest.

I suggest clicking on the option in the lower right of the video screen for HQ (high quality) when watching. It takes a little longer to load, but allows you to see a much better image.

Lots of Car Time

There's been rather little bike riding since the final race. In fact, there hasn't been any for me, I didn't even bother to take a bike with me on my Christmas trip to my home town. There was quite a bit of time spent in cars during that time though.

Tuesday, December 22nd found me home-bound after work. 6 Hours 36 minutes after leaving work I arrived in Port Allegany. With little time I made good time.

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The only traveling on Christmas Eve and Christmas day was around town to places like my grandparents, church, and my friends' houses. Then, the day after Christmas, I traveled with my parents to the Buffalo airport to pick up my brother.

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After a weekend of family fun it was back to the Buffalo airport early Monday morning to drop off my brother. The warm weather that had arrived with him, seemed to be going back to Florida with him as well. I stopped in Smethport to see my grandfather on the way back from the airport and then in the evening I went skiing with some friends at Holiday Valley. This was my 3rd appearance in the town of Ellicottville, NY for the day. Conditions were on the icy side after the big melt and refreeze.

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The rest of the week was spent relaxing. Then, Saturday, January 3, 2009, I made the return trip to Connecticut. Thus ends my Christmas vacation and its travels.

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I suggest clicking on the option to 'view larger map' and zooming appropriately to get the full picture of the travels. To some, this would be hell. For me, it can be rather enjoyable, the traveling about. I hope to place some pictures on a map soon. I'll be sure to post a link for your enjoyment.

'Tis the Season to Call it a Season

Saturday was the NBX Grand Prix in Warwick Rhode Island and I was beginning to think this might be the last race of the season for me. I've been a bit mentally and physically burned out, well, for far too long, and I kept trying to drag myself just a little bit longer through the season. I hadn't ridden since the day before Thanksgiving, so I was going into this race in no kind of form, since a week and a half without riding will do that to you.

The day started at 4:45am when I rolled out of bed and into some clothes then waited for Jake to arrive. We then picked up Taylor and headed East. I closed my eyes and gave my best effort towards sleep en route, especially since I'd attracted some kind of stomach bug about 36 hours prior.

We arrived in some significant cold. Jake and Taylor readied themselves for the 8:30am Cat 4 race while I readied my cameras. During their race I ran around, using the small camera for video on the Gorillapod (many thanks to my sister, I finally put it to good use Lori), and the recently acquired SLR for still images. It was a lot of fun grabbing all the images, I even caught Taylor crashing, you should watch it (look for it just after 3 minutes in).

After hanging around for a while I raced at 12:30pm. Based on registration, I started way at the back of the field. As soon as we hit the first sandpit and sandy run up I moved up some places. Then I found myself running directly into the back of another guy in a group that had come to a stop on a small up slope. I jumped off and ran, gaining a few more positions. Finally things cleared up and I settled into a pace I could hold. I knew not to make any extra efforts as I certainly wouldn't recover. I passed a few guys and a few passed me but I found myself in a general race with a few other guys.

The only consistent competitor around me was Vinnie from Keltic Construction. At one point his hand slipped picking up his bike over the barriers; the bike hit the barrier and stopped, he did not. And so I thought I dropped him for good while he ran back for his bike. However I found myself with another guy who would pull ahead of me but refused to pull me in his draft on the pavement. He would slow up and move so as to indicate for me to pull through. Good strategy would say to refuse pulling, which I did until he was pretty much just coasting. I realized that I couldn't loligag behing him for long as Vinnie would likely catch back on. This happened 3 times, and much to my dismay, Vinnie caught back on with a lap and a half to go. We had a great battle over that last bit and it made for quite a fun race. Our sprint at the finish made for an exciting way to finish the season even though I couldn't quite come around him at the line to win our little battle.

Taylor and Jake used my cameras while I raced, the photos and video from the day are at the links listed below.

Photos are here (or slideshow). A total of 542 pictures were taken, I've narrowed them down to the good ones.

Videos:
Early in the Cat 4 race
Cat 4 Men in the Barriers
Cat 4 Men running Sand trap #2 (Taylor's spill at 3:12)
Start of my race (Cat 2/3)
Ticking off another lap
The Sprint Finish


I wish I had stayed and raced at day 2 of the event. My friend Adam went solely to take photographs and he said the conditions were awesome. Snow with a little mud, conditions that would have made for a great race. He took a lot of photos, a number of them quite qood, they're worth a look. You can see them here.

Slowing, like molasses

I'm a little slow with a lot of things recently, including posts. There hasn't been much to write about as of late. The last race was Cheshire Cross and I haven't been on the bike since the day before Thanksgiving, though it was a ride that involved snow. I never planned an appropriate break in the season, now my mind and body are just burned out. Thus I'm just getting slow on the bike, I'm slow at building up motivation to ride, heck I'm just slow, like molasses in January. I'm going to go out this weekend though and have some fun drifting around the course at Warwick, Rhode Island. There's nothing quite like riding a fully taped off 'cross course, even if you are slow.

On the up shot, I'm currently sitting in the top 10 of CX Magazine's fantasy cyclocross league. That means my choices of pro riders are riding quite well, even if I am not. Though I'm down 1 spot from last week, I'm still hanging in there and hoping to hold out for a top 10 or better by the end of the international cyclocross season in February.

I also got a hold of some video that my friend Mike took at the Cheshire race. I posted two of them to vimeo, one is embedded below.

The final lap of the race, I thought I finally had the hill, as in, I was going to ride up the whole thing. Alas the second log foiled me. I'd been the only guy trying in my race, or so I was told, but another guy followed me, riding up the hill, that final lap.

THe Hill at Cheshire Cross 08 from Scott Frison on Vimeo.