On the road again ...

Well it's the day before the Longest Day and the training is done. If we're not ready now we won't be ready tomorrow. ;-) The weather looks good for tomorrow. We'll start out at 4:30 AM and it looks like it will be in the low 60's. When we get to the Pine Barrens we'll be looking at the low 90's. When we get to Cape May it should be in the low 70's with a head wind of 12 mph out of the south. This is to be expected and I don't think I've seen one of these rides where we haven't had a head wind on the lower half.

I've tried to figure out how to access the blog and Facebook via my cell phone but I haven't quite figured that out yet so I'll not worry about it. The cell phone has a camera and I'd like to remember to take pictures but I'm not that good at it (shaky pictures usually). I'll see what I can do. Anyway I'm off for my big ride and I am excited.

Back to back rides, final training for the Longest Day.

This weekend (5/31) my friend Mark and I did back to back rides (one on Saturday (5/31), one on Sunday(6/1)). This was the final preparation for the Longest Day (6/14). The idea is to do a Century followed by a Metric on back to back days, at the pace you wish to keep on the Longest Day. If you can do this then you're ready. Well we're ready! :-)

Because of weather we needed to reverse the two days. Tornadoes were predicted for Saturday so we rode the Metric using this route: Cranbury Griggstown Allentown II and Sunday we did this: BBC Manasquan Reservoir. We rode at 18+ mph avg on Saturday and 17+ on Sunday. Though we did take it a bit easy on Sunday as we knew there was going to be a lot of head winds (typical 16 mph and out of the West).

While I am tired from both rides I have recovered nicely. Oddly enough my naps after the rides was very short and I wasn't as tired as I have been. The single change was that after the rides I continued to drink as if I were still riding. I'm guessing that I was getting dehydrated after the rides and didn't realize it until now (some 10+ years after doing my first long distance ride). My legs held up real well! I still have the strength to ride further and I didn't have any problems with loss of strength as I have on the past 4 rides. This was my primary concern and it seems my last minute changes where exactly what was need to remedy the problems. I'm now confident of at least holding a 17.0 mph avg speed for the 208 miles of the Longest Day.

... and your little doggy too!

Weather-wise we had an interesting Saturday (5/31). The predictions were for sever thunderstorms, strong winds and heavy rain around noon. While watching the news the night before they showed the radar models for the tri-state (NY-NJ-PA) area and the area I was riding in was going to have the most severe weather. The kind that could spawn tornadoes. So I decided to err on the side of safety and cut the ride back to a Metric (Cranbury - Griggstown - Allentown). This was actually Sandy's and Mark's idea and this turn out to be a good idea. We managed to get back just before noon and while Mark and I did our cool down ride we got rained on. While driving home it came down heavy. When I finally got home I took at look at the weather service and found this:

 Forecast for Trenton, NJ 1114 am EDT Sat may 31 2008 ...Tornado Watch 402 in effect until 5 PM EDT this afternoon... .This afternoon...Mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall...large hail...frequent lightning and damaging winds this afternoon. Highs in the lower 80s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent. 

I'd say that pretty much sums up the day. While the winds were strong they really didn't give us too much trouble.

Now onto our training. Today was a good day. I've lowered my seat about a millimeter or two and my left leg feels okay. I did push the pace today which Sandy wasn't too happy with. Sorry Sandy, I promise that on the Longest Day we won't keep that pace all day long. We ended up with a low 18.2 mph avg. pace. That's pretty good but not a pace we can keep for the entire Longest Day (we're expecting 17 - 17.5 mph avg). Over all I'm pleased with my progress and tomorrow will give me a clear indication about the condition of my legs. Tomorrow Mark and I will be doing a Century out of the Manasquan reservoir. It's a derivative of my BBC ride (which I'll layout later). Starting that ride out of Cranbury would mean we finish with a 35 mile head wind (we return West and the wind is out of the West). I'll check that so that we don't have to do that but instead end up with a 25 mile tail wind to finish. Hopefully I'll feel just as good tomorrow. If I feel good then I know I'm ready for the Longest Day. At the moment I'm very confident that I won't have any problems on the Longest Day (6/14 - 208 miles, Port Jervis, NY to Cape May Lighthouse, NJ).

That didn't go well!

I decide that Saturday's (5/24) ride would be this:

Cranbury - Mt. Misery figure 8 (106 miles) Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

We had Ed (a fast Tri, training for the Longest Day- LD), Sandy, Mark, Gina and myself. Sandy, Mark and I are on the same LD team so we needed to do some pace line drills. Thos, another member of our team, is up in Massachusetts doing solo training. Gina, well I'll comment on her later (she kicked butt and then some). Well this ride didn't go as well as I'd like. The wind was 16 mph and out of the NNW. This meant that any ride south was guaranteed about 40 miles of head wind on the way home (hmm and I knew this before hand). I didn't want to do a ride out to the shore (on Memorial Day Weekend, dangerously bad idea!) and I needed to practice pace lines so riding out to the hills was not an option.

I decided to attempt to redo the ride through Lebanon State Forest (Mt. Misery) where I managed to get lost the previous time (last month). This time we made out much better, we found the correct unmarked road. The roads through the Forest are not maintained and there were quite a few huge potholes (lack of road) but over all the scenery was spectacular. Ed noted that this was much like a ride he did through Spain. That sounds like a ride I'd like ! to do.

For the first 60 or so miles I let Ed dictate the pace (18.5+ mph) as he is much faster (more than a full mph) than the rest. That was my first big mistake. My second was pushing the big ring and sprinting early in the ride. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Well after we stopped at Nixon's, in Tabernacle (mile 67), I paid for it dearly. My legs stiffened up pretty good after the lunch stop, the head wind made every climb (even small ones) very painful and I lost any strength in my left leg while climbing the NJ TP (Rt I95) over pass outside Hightstown. In short I did a very bad thing! The last 40 miles I was dragged home by my friend Mark who was tired from playing catchup to the pace I let Ed keep (bad ride leader!). Somehow Mark finished with 17.4 mph and I managed 18.0 (there is some doubt about my computer at this moment but the distance was correct within .5% of the mileage, hmm).

But all was lost on this ride. We did a wonderful pace line from Chatsworth to Nixon's Deli in Tabernacle. I wouldn't recommend it for your local club fast pace line but it is enough to make the ride easier. Ed has caught on to doing the pace line though we did have to reel him in a few times as he tends to rocket off the front. The pace line enabled us to breeze through the 10 mile stretch and didn't drain us mentally. Too bad Dave (another Tri in training for the Longest Day) was ill that very day. That was something he needed to learn. Well he has one more weekend of training to get in. As the last ride is going to be Sandy Hook and the pace will be dropped. It's more of an active rest ride.

Now on to Gina! Mark and I call her the queen of our ride and she kept here crown with dignity on this ride. Gina goes to the gym, works with weights, does spin classes, takes care of her two year old son Luke, works full time and gets in a little riding from time to time. She also said that she did a Metric in the area where she lives (the hills of Morris County) and that she maintained 16.6 mph. She to! ld us la st week that she'd be able to join us on this weekend's ride and I told her that if she needed to she could hang off the back drafting. I figured that she hadn't done a century in a while and that various aches, pains and sores would slow her down a bit but I had no doubt she'd be able to keep up. Oh boy was I ever wrong! She stayed up with Ed for most of the ride and finished with Ed's faster group (Mark and I were the slower). Now I think that Sandy has talked Gina into doing, at least, the Century. Gina wants to do the full Double Century. After what I saw on Saturday's ride and knowing Gina I have no doubt that she can do it!

And as for me, well I know have doubts. This is the third week in a row where I had leg trouble. It seems to pick up around mile 80. Mile 80 is not good enough to finish the Longest Day. I know it's not a problem with diet or cramping. What I am going to do is to lower my seat as I raised it up a bit at the beginning of the month. I'm also going to drop the pace on next weeks double century and I'm going to take it easy over the next three weeks (active rest, no really I'll take it easy). Ed and Dave will not be kicking the pace up this time as I've got to figure out how to at least survive the Longest Day ride. The thought of DNF is extremely offensive to me! I'm also going to check my cleats. They're Look Red cleats with float but I think I may need to position them so that my foot doesn't float into the rear stays so much. Right not they have a lot of float but I do find that they work very well. So that's my plan.

Wow, what a ride!

Yesterday (Sat., May 17th 2008) I had planned for a ride down to Tuckerton, NJ from Cranbury, NJ (129 - 131 miles). But the weather service was predicting strong (18 mph) head winds from the west. This was problematic for us as that ride has a 30 mile section was east to west. That ruled that route out. So instead I decided to do the Griggstown/Tabernacle ride (121 miles). This only had a ten mile section between Chatsworth and Tabernacle that is east to west. This was a much better choice.

The ride started out cool at 51F and the roads were wet from rain the night before. After about 40 miles into the ride my legs were feeling comfortable and I was now able to keep up with Ed better (Ed's much faster than I am). As we rode it warmed up nicely and by the time we reached Allentown, NJ I had to get rid of the wind vest and wool sweater. I was down to a long sleeve jersey and shorts. It turned out to be a good choice as I was comfortable for the rest of the ride. After Allentown we road to Browns Mills and we did a good job of riding through Ft Dix. At Browns Mill we stopped so I could fill up my Camelbak. After Browns Mills it was Four Mile Road. On Four Mile Rd. things got a little weird. The wind is supposed to be out of the west but it felt like a headwind. It was actually a cross wind as we could see dust clouds being blown across the road. It turns out that this dust was pollen and not fine sand as I thought it was. We found out when we got to the Ranger's station and found that we were covered in yellow/green pollen. At this point I felt is would be a good idea to wash up a bit. This made me feel better. So we're back on the road and riding towards Chatsworth. Once at Chatsworth we made the right towards Tabernacle. We get exactly what we expected, a nasty 18 mph head wind. Ed and I took turns at the front. When we finished that 10 mile section we were extremely tired. Ed noted that if it had been a a mile or two longer his spirit would have been broken (I agree, that wind was nasty). We really looked forward to Lunch at Nixon's Deli (mile 80). When we arrived we met two young ladies who are also doing the Longest Day. They were out of Forked River and doing 100. They also had just finished the same section as we did. So we sat and talked for a while and eventually Ed and I decided it was time to get lunch. The ladies eventually left, we wished them well, and we ate our sandwiches. Ed noted that we managed to complete this much of the ride at 18.3 mph even with that nasty section, I'm impressed. Ed and I agree to push our luck and keep the pace. So we rode the last 40 miles at that pace. When we finish we were dead tired but thrilled with a completed 121 mile ride at 18.3 mph.