infinitely sustainable pace

Vermont in winter?

The winter of 2011/2012. Snow storms have been almost non-existent and temperatures on a roller coaster. Last weekend we saw highs of 15 or so. This entire week and weekend was in the 30′s or higher. While we have some snow in the ground here in the mountains, leave this little enclave and there’s none.

Saturday I had the opportunity to go down and ride Pine Hill Park in Rutland, the traditional first on dirt mountain bike ride of the year. But really, February? Due to the rain earlier in the week, the trails on the front side and the new construction were on the wet side. But all the trails on the back were dry or frozen. They’ve completed some new reroutes since my last visit to PHP, with lots more of those nicely banked uphill switchbacks that allow you to accelerate through the turn.

A little muddy, nothing the hose couldn't take care of...

Though it was great to be out riding, I wasn’t really feeling very peppy. Not sure if I can blame the soft ground or the 20t cog or a combo of them both or some other factor, but I didn’t have a lot going for me. Soon enough it was time to call it a morning and head back up to Waterbury to get the kiddo.

K, Seamus and I headed over to the Reservoir to explore the ice a bit. For some reason K brought along a whiffle ball bat, a little odd but we used it to measure how thick the ice was at some ice fishing holes — from about 12″ thick to 24″, depending on the hole. We walked far, with very little complaining and then used it to justify the hot fudge sundae that we split with dinner that night.

Hey there. So it’s really happening. Registration for SSUSA2012 is on. Get yourself over to http://singlespeedusa.eventbrite.com/ and just make it happen. You know you’ve always wanted to check out scenic New England. Bring the wife, bring the kids, bring the minivan. Or don’t. We promise lots of rocks, roots, steep climbs, old school descents, and beer. July 28, 2012 in Stowe, VT. You can check out the full website or follow up on the Facebook.

It’s also time to be thinking about the Gravel Grinder Spring Classic Dirt Road Ride. April 22, 2012. 25-30 miles of dirt roads, great views, and climbing. Lots of climbing. Open your legs, see all your friends, and enjoy the official start to spring with us. Registration is now open. Frida’s will be providing the post-ride feast and it looks like we’ve got some new exciting sponsors for our infamous aid station.

So that’s all cool and everything. In other news, I’ve gone ahead and done it. Registered for SSWC in South Africa. Next up is pulling the trigger and committing to the Shenandoah 100. Yikes. Kinda intimidating, yet I know it’ll be super fun. Check out this video from our pre-SSAZ ride in Fantasy Island. Dough took the footage, Ginger edited it up into this segment which shows the flowy fun we had.

One final day to soak up the sunshine and the trails in AZ. After a hearty breakfast we headed out to South Mountain for one last big day in the saddle. Or, as it turned out for me, a big day of pushing that saddle.

big tires and skinny ones. fat bikes ride dirt too.

We headed for the Mormon and National trails. My legs felt meak and underpowered even with the relatively easy gear on my Caletti, and with my arm in pain still from the crash, I gave it all I had left. And since that wasn’t much, it involved a lot of pushing up the fairly technical trail and then again down some of the particularly rough sections.

see there, i'm trying to hold it together

These were trails well suited to 6″ of travel and some well placed body armor. I just didn’t have my A-game with me and when the drops kept coming at me – BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!, I just kinda withdrew and went into survival mode. Luckily once we circled back around to the main way down the mountain, the trail was a lot less technical than I had built into my head and the descent went a lot more smoothly than anticipated.

Caletti on South Mountain

Sunburnt, bruised, scratched, exhausted and yet somehow very happy, it was time for me to pack up my toys and head out. Back to the airport that evening where I met up with a group of co-workers and headed out for 36 hours at our Las Vegas office. Another whirlwind trip complete. Many things learned and experienced, many ideas hatched. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible.

While descending La Milagrosa on Saturday I met a woman hiking who said to me, “you know, there are other ways to get down that are a lot more fun.” I must have given her one of those sort of looks, she smiled and ambled off with a reminder to take photos so at least I could enjoy it later. Here’s that photo:

Onward. On Sunday I headed north of Tucson with some friends, destination Sedona. We missed out on the sunset and the hot tub due to our dilly-dally-ing and a crazy chick fight at the tasty hot pocket restaurant, but we were so exhausted from Saturday that sleeping really ended up being better than all of that. The next morning was sunrise from Airport mesa, followed by trying to choose one omelet out of 101 possibilities, and then ripping fun and fast singletrack.

Was hard to believe that I was just there three weeks prior, and I considered it very lucky to find myself once again surrounded by red rock cliffs and the fun west side trails. We checked out the work they did on Mescal in the interim (nicely done!) and connected into some super fun, swoopy, pump-trackesque trails for a phenomenal start to the day. I was a little timid and rough, still in pain from the hole I put in my arm during SSAZ. Followed up the ride with some beers at the truck and then we headed back down towards PHX. (Thanks to Dirty Biker for many of these photos)

me riding on the Black Canyon Trail

trying my hand at cow herding.

contemplating the wash

hanging out on top of some Indian ruins

refreshments

Along the way we stopped for pie. I had the peach, warmed with vanilla ice cream and it was excellent. Then, the second ride of the day. A lollipop on a section of the Black Canyon Trail. Also excellent. Fun singletrack descending to the river, along the wash, climb up to some Indian ruins for some refreshment and then stupid fun trail back to the start. Apparently this is your tax dollars at work, funded by the stimulus. I was definitely stimulated. Plus having had a couple of beers, I wasn’t feeling anymore pain. I’m sure I don’t have to say it out loud, but this day was something special indeed.

My 4th year of SSAZ is in the books. Like all the others, it was a wicked good time and this year I even extended the trip a bit beyond just the Tucson scene. We’ll get to that later. First, some thoughts and pics from the SSAZ portion.

Because of my little jaunt out to Florida on the geriatric express, I didn’t reach Tucson until the afternoon on Friday. Most of the out of town crew was already gathered, and the heckles were flying as I built my bike before the afternoon warm up ride. Once everyone was ready we rolled out to Fantasy Island to get a quick and dirty ride as the sun went down.

Saturday and time for the big ride. Everyone gathered for the roll out, sunscreen was applied and beers were passed around and stuffed in camelbacks for later. Year #4 and this ride is no longer the BIG AMAZING ADVENTURE FEAT that it once was. It has become, as billed, Bike Ride With Friends. It’s still a bit of a death march. I still do plenty of hike-a-bike. I seemed to be riding a bit faster than previous years, but since I didn’t wear a watch or note the times I can’t really comment on it.

The sun was bright, the temperatures perfect, the trails dirty, and the company good. Everything seemed to fly by, even the sections that drag, dragged faster this year. Before too long I had reached the end of the super swoopy fun downhill, had climbed up a bit and started down La Milagrosa. All was well, but I made the mistake of allowing my mind to think that I was riding the technical stuff better than in years prior. Two minutes later I jammed my front wheel on a turn, went down hard and inserted a sharp rock deep into my elbow.

rolling an easy section of La Milagrosa. Pic by http://chirocyclegirl.com/

There was quite a bit of blood and a bit of pain. I was alone at the moment, but happy to know that there were some folks close behind me. Really there was nothing for me to do but to shake it off and try to keep rolling. Next stop – the tequila tree for a well deserved shot to get me through the final rugged section and to the finish.

Thankfully some friends from CO that I met in Ireland were there and prepared with a well-stocked first aid kit and EMT knowledge.  Thanks to Chad for cleaning me up and taping me back together. Commence beer drinking to dull the pain and add in a King Cage as a prize – and I was doing just fine. After some well earned food it was off to the Surly Wench Pub for post-ride carousing and mischief — and then crashing hard into bed.

Chewie and I at the Wench

Vacation. I’m on it. I’m enjoying it. Not much more time left, so I’ll soak in what I can.

So far so good. Arizona is treating me well. It’s sunny. It’s warm. Trails are fantastic. Stories and photos to follow towards the end of the week.

Sweet parking lot view. I heard that the ocean is on the other side of this building, hopefully I’ll have a moment to look at it later today.

Everytime I have to come to Florida, this gets stuck in my head:

 

Trying my hardest to cull it down to the absolute essentials for this 3 leg trip. It’s a crazy itinerary with SSAZ sandwiched between work meetings. A little stressed about the work stuff and feeling under prepared for 50 miles in the desert, but it’s all in the name of fun I guess.

Thanks to my mom for watching the boy, even though this trip ended up almost twice as long as originally negotiated. I really appreciate the support and it means a lot to me that she can do this so that I can do this.

Looking forward to catching up with friends, having some beers, riding bikes, and especially enjoying a few days of warm weather and sunshine. Updates may happen, or may not. We’ll see how things go.

…and inside, a little, er, reward for finishing your drink?

just a quick one of these.

Trails were soft thanks to an entire day of pouring rain on Friday. Saturday was warm and things hadn’t really firmed up enough to have much fun in the woods on the Pugs. It was pretty though.

The Caletti got all packed up, snug as a bug in the S&S case. Thanks to M2 for coming into the shop to help me get the cleats positioned just perfectly in my new shoes. What a big difference that makes in the fit and function of the shoes.

Did a little snowboarding with K on Saturday night, but that just turned into an unfortunate situation and I’m not ready to rant about it here quite yet. Finished off the weekend with almost 30 miles of dirt roads, some of which were more ice than dirt, on the cross bike. Tired and happy.