January Long Ride

Good ride today.  The roads cleared off of slush, snow and salt with yesterday's rains.  It was cold and blustery today, but dry roads meant a good time for a longer ride.  I went north, through Appleton, then Mount Vernon and on to Gambier.  The diner I had planned for a meal wasn't open, so a coke and pop tart had to do instead.  I took the hilly back way home through Millersburg and St Louisville.   There are a lot of bridges out and roads closed.  And St Louisville was a real mess with all the sewer work going on there. 

It was nice to be out on the Fargo.  Beautiful back roads.  Rolling hills.  I only took one photo (of the abandoned nut house). But the winds made things tough.  And it never really got much above 30 or so when I started (colder with windchill).  I'm glad I layered up and didn't pay attention to the weatherman who were saying temps of lower 40s.   

Stats for the day: 66.5 miles, 3400' vertical, 15.7 mph.  Not bad.  

I registered for the Dirty Kanza 200 yesterday morning.  200 miles with 12k' feet of climbing.  Almost all of it on hilly gravel and it is very likely to have stiff winds.  I imagine today's ride is a lot like the terrain except that today I was mostly on pavement and it was cold instead of beastly hot.  I've got some work to do if I'm to extend a 67 mile ride like this to 200 miles. 

Paradise Garage has dumped the price on their 2013 Foundry Auger.  I test road this bike a while back and have had my eye on it ... that was when it was $2600.  Now it is only $1900.  It is very tempting.  I may have to trade up on my cross/gravel bike sometime soon.

Happy 2014

A new year greets us and I am back after a few months hiatus in blogging.

I took the Mukluk to PA for the annual Christmas visit with my folks.  I got out for two awesome rides.  In the first, I parked just above Pine Grove Mills and followed the ridgeline on a gravel forest road to Spruce Creek.  After dropping down to the river and climbing back up, I went over the top to the backside of the ridge and did some more forest road exploring.  Swirling winds, gently falling snow, and cold temps made it a fun event.

In the second ride, I parked at Galbraith Gap and did the fire tower climb.  A quick descent on Old Shingletown road preceded the long climb back up to Little Flat Top.  I came around on North Meadows road and finished with Longberger and Three Bridges.  This was the first time I cleaned the rock garden after Three Bridges!

This year I got in two good rides.  On New Year's day I joined a group of about 6 or 7 of us to explore the gravel on the east side of Dresden.  This is an area of reclaimed strip mining so it has the same open-savanah feel you get with the AEP recreation lands.  Weird for Ohio but it was a good outing with loads of climbing.   Today I got out for a bike path hammerfest on 3" of fresh snow that fell overnight.   I've managed to ride about 12 of the last 14 days and still have two promising weeks of hard training before the school year starts.  I hope this will give me a good fitness boost I can maintain during the spring semester.

Eli is still riding to school everyday.  He hasn't missed a day yet.  Rain, snow, bitter cold ... doesn't matter.   He just wants to ride his bike every day.  I'm proud of him.  But it is his decision, not mine to push him on.

Tatanka 100

Next up is the Tatanka 100, a new NUE addition in Sturgis, SD.   First a word about the travel.  Google maps listed Sturgis as a 19.5 hour drive from Granville.  Usually those estimates are long by 10% to 25%, so I was hoping for a quicker journey.   But alas it was not to be.  The trip was every bit of 19.5 hours, each way.  I drove out in two parts, Thursday and Friday.  I made it to Southern MN on Thursday night and had another 6-7 hours on Friday for check in.  On the drive home, I went about 2 hours on the night of the race and then tried to drive a massive distance back on the next day, Sunday.  I only made it to Indiannappolis.   Then drove the rest of the 4 hours or so early on Monday, making it home by 9am.   It was a friggin looooong drive.   The is subtle beauty to the great plains, but after two long days,  I've seen enough.  I also tried to stop in Iowa to meet Guitar Ted at his shop, but I missed him by about 2 hours.  

Sturgis is really a small town.  Not much there at all.  I can't imagine a few hundred thousand Harleys and their riders in that town.  Not possible.  The place must be a complete mess.   More than half the shops in town sold cheap T-shirts, some bars and not much else.   Wall Drug was a better stop.   I also learned at check-in that our mountain bike race would run concurrently with the Black Hills 100, an ultra endurance running event.  That was cool because the number of registered cyclist was small (about a 100?) and so having the runners around added to the prerace energy and vibe.  

The course was hard.   106 miles meant the time would be longer.  But the climbs were steep and difficult.  The terrain wasn't super technical, but it wasn't easy either.  I crashed twice, both times just as I was starting to get a groove on.   First was when I was dismounted to cross a creek and slipped on wet rock.  I sprained my ankle badly.  The second was when I tried to avoid a mud hole and slipped.  I got soaking muddy wet all over (the only mud on the whole course) and went flying off into the woods in dramatic fashion.   I also got off course once in the middle, losing about five minutes in the process.  

Otherwise the race was marked by those darn cramps.  I just don't think I was drinking enough for the dry conditions.   Once I got hydrated again, I had a good last 15 miles, cramping badly only as I was 100 yards from the finish.  I passed about 10 people in those last 15 miles.  Good fitness, bad drinking.  The course had a "Colorado feel" to it, only with a bit more vegetation and less altitude.  Very beautiful!   Just wish I was faster.

Mohican 100

Early June arrived and I was ready for my first NUE race of the season, the Mohican 100.  I hadn't been able to do this race in the past five years because it coincided with June-O training.  We had a stretch of dry cool air in the week leading up to the race, but of course, come race time brought heat, humidity and storms.   It wasn't too hot, maybe 80ish, but the humidity was through the roof.   On the Friday before the race there were scattered afternoon thunderstorms.   Heavy localized downpours.  I brought Eli with me to register and we rode the first few miles of the trail together.  He did pretty well considering everything was slicked up from the rain in the area.   That night it poured a whole lot more.

Morning came and I drove back down to Loudonville, parked and got my gear together.  There was a sizeable crowd in downtown, seemed like a bigger field than some other races.  I decided to bring the El Mariachi because I figured it would handle the mud about as well and be better for all the dirt road stuff. 

The gun went off and we went up the first paved climb of the day, super steep.  I didn't want to burn my legs out too early so I took it easy and was well back in the field.  After a brief dirt road stretch we entered some farmer's woods on some singletrack.  There was a significant backup as we all tried to cram onto the narrow path.  I figure I only lost about 5 minutes total in the first 15 miles of the race by being held up.  So it wasn't tragic but it just felt that way everything someone was in your way.  We went through the camp ground and onto Mohican SP trail proper.   We did the first 90% of the trail and the hardtail was bumping me around a great bit.   I wanted the superfly.   The humidity was super aweful.  I felt like I was overheating all throughout the race.

We jumped off the SP mtn bike trail on to some powerline cut.  It was incredibly steep and a huge hike-a-bike.  It sucked.  Then we were on SP horse trails which were pounded into oblivian and full of mud.  This section absolutely sucked.  I could tell this wasn't going to be a good day.  I didn't feel right, had no energy, was suffering in the early season heat, and just had no go in the legs.

The rest of the course was kid of a blur.   There were a bunch of gravel climbs and some singletrack mixed in.  Lots of steep little climbs.   There were sections I started feeling a little better, but nothing that would stick.   I even had to walk a smooth gravel climb near the end.   I made it back to the trail and came in at 10:30 or something like that.  I had been hoping for something closer to 9 hours. 

I didn't like the course.  Especially with all the rain.  It would have been infinitely better in dryer conditions.  I hated the humidity.  I had a bad day.   Nothing like the good vibes I got from my 171 mile romp up to Cleveland the week before .. probably had some residual dead legs from that effort. 

Fargo Ride on Ohio to Erie Trail

It's the busiest riding season and yet I've been neglecting my blog.  There are so many stories and updates to share.  I'll jump in here and share the rest in subsequent posts.

Every summer I typically take a long ride up to my parents house on Lake Erie.  The most direct routes are about 120 miles.    I had blogged earlier about the love for my new Fargo, so I thought this would be a good trip for the bike.  I had looked at options of following the Ohio to Erie Trail across NE Ohio.  The whole trip to Sandusky was about 240 miles and I thought about doing it in two days.  But the time didn't materialize so the best I could do was a single day effort.  I thought I could make it to Cleveland in one day -- some 180 miles. 

The route would take back roads and dirt roads to Mount Vernon.  Then jump on the Kokosing Gap Trail up to Danville.  Then it joins the Mohican Valley Trail and follows roads for parts that are missing.   This takes me to Killbuck.   At Killbuck I pick up the Holmes County trail through to Fredricksburg.  Then it is roads for a while through Amish and farm country.  I can pick up trails in Dalton that takes me to Massilon.  From there I go North on the Tow Path trail and its associated parts.   That long stretch ends in South Cleveland, in the "Flats" warehouse/industrial district.

I set off on the Friday morning of Memorial Day weekend, leaving the house at 4am sharp in the dark.   We had just experienced a warm wave of hot humid temps.  But the wind shifted abruptly and I woke to chilly winds from the north.  The air temp was about 45 and with windchill it was near freezing.  A stiff 15 to 20 mph wind would be pushing against me from the north for the entire day.  I wasn't dressed super for the cold -- a light jacket, leg warmers and light full finger gloves.

The first part up to Mt Vernon was misery.  I was frozen solid and it took me way longer than I thought -- partly from the dark but mostly from the super hard wind.   I had to jump off the trail and go in to a truck stop diner to get warmed up.   I walked in to a full crowd at about 6am.  The place was packed with tough truckers and other blue collar workers.  I stood out terribly in my skimpy lycra outfit.  But I was desperately cold so I went in anyway.   I just kept my head down and tried not to provoke me getting beat up.   I burned almost a full hour here getting a big breakfast and hot chocolate.  I was way behind schedule.   I almost turned back home at this point, but decided to persevere.    

The Kokosing Gap trail was slightly better.  A bit more sheltered and there was now enough day light to see.  At Danville I got to ride parts of the Mohican Valley Trail.  It is "unimproved" with basically two track dirt or ATV trail in places.   The Amish use it from time to time so it had wagon ruts and horse damage too.  Then parts of it are just plain missing.  It also features a good 3-4% climb, a lot for a rail trail.  I also got to see the "bridge of dreams".    

The next segment of the trail was pretty uneventful.  I made good time up to Fredricksburg, at about mile 75 for the trip.  I stopped here at the pizza place for lunch.  Another touring cyclist was here as well.  He was camped up in the restaurant with a book and didn't look like he was eager to move any time soon.  Too cold and too windy he said.  I agreed but I didn't have the luxury to sit a while and wait for things to improve.

I had to fill in the gap with roads at this point.  What I didn't realize is how darn hilly they were.  I went through Kidron along a busy stretch of road.   Again, big winds in my face all the time.  My toes and fingers were just above numb but the rest of me was comfortable.   

At Dalton, I got back on the trails and headed east to Massilon.  I was looking forward to actually being on the crushed cinder tow path.   The tow path trail was as awesome as I had expected.   A really nice surface that was fast and flowy.  It wasn't too crowded on a Friday which allowed me to keep the speeds high. 

It was super sweet to stop briefly and look at the canal history.  There were several parts of the canal still in working condition, some with boats even.  There were a few working locks and some restored lock houses.   I would love to go back to this area with the family and do some more riding and history gazing.

I needed to keep making progress north.  The plan was for my dad to park up in Cleveland and ride south at some point to meet up with me.  I was worried about his ability to push in to the wind so I wanted to get as far north as possible for the meeting point.

Along this stretch the wheels came off ... almost literally.  I had read several online postings about this particular set of wheels on the Fargo having spoke tensioning problems.  Apparently my pair was no exception.  I felt a wobbly waffly type of sponginess coming from the rear and sure enough, about half the spokes had completely released.   My tiny multitool had a spoke wrench so I was able to do some trailside surgery for about 30 minutes to get the wheel round enough to ride.  I went another 10 miles to find the first bike shop I could get to.  The nice owner put my bike up on a stand and tightened the rear wheel some more.  It wasn't perfect, but it would probably hold up for the last 40 miles of the trip.

I grabbed a quick Micky Ds bit of food and then got back on the trail.   I really put the hammer down now as I was close enough to the end to not worry about burning out.  And I really needed to make up time.  I felt great as I pushed along the trail at 17-21 mph even in to the headwind.

I caught up with my Dad about 30 miles from the end point.  He turned around and rode back with me to the car.  I think he underestimated the strength of the wind (all tailwind for him at this point).  But we made solid progress, enjoying each other's company for a relaxed spin to finish things off.  I ended up with about 171 miles, at about 14 mph.  But I felt very good ... maybe I have the legs for a longer gravel race?  This was my longest ride ever!

New Albany Ride

My training buddies have been bugging me forever to join the Thursday night New Albany speed ride.  I finally gave in to the peer pressure and went out tonight.  I rode the 17 miles over there from Granville at a very easy spinning pace.  I gave myself enough time to hit a convenience store and get some cool liquids in me. 

I went with the B group, sized at about 30-40 riders.  We hit rolling backroads through Licking County over to the edge of Granville.  The pace was brisk, I think we were at 23mph average before making the turn back into the wind.  Even after the climb up Jersey Mill, we were still above 22mph.  What was really impressive is that young Anthony (10 years old) was hanging with the group well.

This kind of thing is good for me.  That burst of speed and recover.  That interval training.  All that is missing from my mostly steady diet of longer rides.  If I can do a bunch more of these rides, it should help my fitness considerably.

Fargo Go Go

I can't resist taking photos of old churches and schools.

Since the school term is wrapping up and the nice weather is here, I've been on the bike more and my form is coming along.  I got in two fast cross rides this week on hilly gravel; 40 miles on Wednesday and 45 more miles on Friday.  I also snuck in two easier runs.   Today (Sunday) I joined Mike S on his super route.  He mapped out 51 miles of hilly gravel starting from his house.  A group of us rode out to his place from Granville, did the ride, and rode back.

It was a lovely day, temps in the 70s, a stiff breeze that didn't seem to bother us much but provided some cooling, and brilliant sunshine.

  Anthony went out with us for the first 20 miles or so; at 10 years old he is quite the strong rider.

The group strung out on one of the steep climbs.

We stayed together as a group for the first 16 miles to Somerset.  It was hilly indeed!   After a nice early lunch, the group split into different paces and I went with John S out front.  I was blessed with strong legs today and I think we averaged about 16.5 mph after the lunch stop.   I scored some new dirt roads in Perry State Forest that were fantastic.  Kudos to Mike for plotting out such a great route.

I ended the day with 84 miles, 15.1 mph average, and 5550' vertical.   And I wasn't at all blown at the end.  Tired yes, blown no!

The Fargo really impressed today.  Yes, the ride would have been faster on a cross bike.  But the Fargo can scoot if necessary. 

Another abandoned school.

Mike D cresting a gravel climb.

One of the reclamation lakes in Perry State Forest.

Perry SF had awesome, smooth gravel with gentle grades.