Not quite a century

My rides are still a bit inconsistent (riding one weekend, not riding the next) but they are starting to get back to the century mark. During the week I'm squeezing in more miles, which is helping. It's been more than a year since I've done a century. I've been fighting health, weather and other problems just trying to get in any rides at all so I'm quite pleased that I managed to get in my 92 mile ride yesterday. Two weeks ago I got in an 80 mile ride with an avg. pace of 15.8 mph. No where near my usual 17 - 18 mph avg. This week it was hotter and we rode longer (92 miles) and faster (16.3 mph). I also just had the first step of a tooth implant put in so I'm on anti-biotics. That played havoc with my digestion yesterday but only small problems (I was queasy most of the ride). Despite this I was just happy to be doing any riding! Approaching the century mark and averaging 16.3 was icing on the cake.

I decided to head down to Whiting and ride Pasadena Rd from Village Park in Cranbury, NJ. The day started out warm, the way I like it. But I did worry it might be too warm (high expected was low 90's F). We had 3 stops planned, Whiting, Pemberton and Allentown. The first 25 went quietly, the busiest stretch from Plumstead to Whiting (New Egypt - Whiting Rd) was not bad. A quick stop at the WaWa for a break and we were on our way. Pasadena was nice except for the one guy who buzzed me. I was riding 2 wide (oops) but there was no one else on the road and no visibility problems. He could have gone a bit more wide and a beep before hand would have been a good idea too. After that it was quiet and we enjoyed the scenery. When we reached Chatsworth we turned North to Sooy Place. While I enjoyed the scenery I was surprised to find that there was much less shade than what I was expecting. I wonder if they widened the fire break along the road? On this ride I decided to check out a 'new' road called Avenue Rd (it's listed as just Avenue) if for no other reason than it's name. It appeared to be a nice back road and it was. Also it dropped us right into Ong's Hat (I love these names :-) ). Avenue is a nice road despite no controlled intersection on Rt 70 (we had no trouble crossing). After much sun, nice scenery and being entertained by a crop duster in the fields not more than 100 ft away from us, we made it to the WaWa in Pemberton. The next section is the return to Cranbury via Allentown, we've done this section hundreds of times and such familiarity at the end of a ride is a comforting thought. Unfortunately the bridge over the Turnpike was closed so we were diverted (added 1 mile, oh woe is me ;-)). I'm glad to see that we may have access to the new bridge soon. The older narrower one was uncomfortable with a large group. I decided to detour along a nice back route that avoided much of the traffic in Hightstown (and the nice down hill :( ). It felt good to be back but better that we had done the ride and that we had so many positives. I'll need to see what I can come up with for next week's ride.

Second ride of 2012

It's been almost a year since my last post. My new job has done a pretty good job of messing up my schedule. The hours are very long and I've had to endure way too many weekends working. This has severely cut into my mileage. I'm going to have to be very creative to get in my miles. But I made it out this weekend, the third ride of the year.

Today I did a nice ride out of Village Park, in Cranbury NJ (Central part of the state), rode to Hightstown, Allentown, Chester (Mansfield), out to Columbus, Springfield and stopped in Wrightstown for a break, 55 miles in total. We started out at 9 AM near the freezing mark but oh what a gorgeous day it was, not withstanding. I used several, low traveled back roads. Roads we usually don't use. One of the problems with rides under X miles (you fill in the X) is that you tend to travel the same roads over and over). It's hard to find something you haven't visited lately. Worse yet is that I need to try and ride routes that my friend, Larry, won't use the next day. Oddly enough we tend to think alike which may be due the the time of the year and weather patterns. Hopefully the NJ Turnpike will have a bunch of the bridges reopened soon so it will open up more of the area to our old routes that have been closed to us for the last two years (Turnpike widening, South of 8A).

On the wild life side we did manage to see a bunch of basically well behaved dogs, A nice Red Hawk glided along side of us on our way out to Columbus and a Turkey Vulture more interested in someone's lost lunch that us riding a few feet from it.

Farmland 2011

Okay so I haven't blogged in a while (sorry). Well, so far this winter and spring have not been good for getting in miles, but spring is getting better. I just did my first century (May 7^th) on the CJBC Farmlands ride. The club laid out new routes and, with few exceptions, they were a very nice change (don't worry I'll get those roads fixed). It was a gorgeous day, starting out cool (~55F) and ending up mild (~70F, I like it hot). My average time was in the high 16's and considering my lack of riding that's okay. I did manage to get in one of my 'long pulls' way above pace. Afterwards I felt terrific and my leg problems of the last few years doesn't seemed to have surfaced. Additionally the stress of getting and learning a new job and the lack of miles have allowed me to put on too much weight. All things considered the average speed and the day-after feeling says I'm well on track for the longest day. My friend Mark and I rode well together and it looked really good for us on the Longest Day. Unfortunately Mark had a bike accident on a Sunday ride. He and another friend collided. Ken went down with a concussion and cuts above and below his eye. Mark ended up with lots of road rash and a broken clavicle. I'm wishing them both a speedy recovery and not to go nuts during their time off the bike.

Weekend updates

Last weekend I kind of put off the work I need to get done outside because I was busy playing. :-) That Saturday I led a bicycle ride and we tested out a new route. It was nice to have Bikely.com to help plan out the route (I did that on Friday night). I really like the satellite feature as it helps me envision what the area generally looks like as I ride the roads. Since my 3D perception is pretty good I understand what the area should look like from the ground as well as above it. I now have a nice smart phone that I hope will be useful when we're out riding (for short cuts or alternate routes). We'll see how that goes. Sunday I spent a lot of time trying to organize my various information sources so I could reach them using the smart phone (I'm still working on that).

Now, I really wished I had drank more as Sunday I was slightly dehydrated. It would have also been nice to have had the GPS working on my Android based Samsung Captivate (bug in the firmware) to test out and get use to using the feature. I was able to use the phone to check the radar for the area though it really doesn't give you a good idea of the way the headwinds are blowing in the various areas (yes it comes from various directions). On Saturday, my friend was able to text me that she was running a few minutes late and to not leave without her. I've since added Facebook and Twitter to my phone so I'll be able to post inane information for all to see! ;-) Despite the fact there is a lot of junk posted, both Facebook and Twitter have their uses. It allows me to keep up with friends, family and acquaintances. What I'd really like to do is to figure out how to post pictures and information from my rides like my friend Lane does. I often see interesting things along the way and wouldn't mind sharing them (most of NJ doesn't look like the start of the Sorprano's). I'm glad I've met people who have given me these ideas. Now I just need to figure out how to implement these ideas.

This past weekend I did the Princeton Free Wheelers - Princeton Event. It's one of the area's big rides. We managed to get a break in the weather as it only reached 85F but starte out at 65F @ 7AM. The previous weeks before were very humid and the temperature started out at 84F and rose quickly to as much as 103F. This break in the weather was a nice relief. This year the event took a different series of roads, as it always does. They took us out to Columbus NJ, down to New Lisbon, over to Turkey Swamp and back to Mercer County Park. It was a gorgeous route. I'll have to take advantage of some of those roads now that I know them. On the hydration front I decided to learn from my previous mistakes and drink a lot more. I still went out and stayed on the front too much so at the end of the ride I was very tired. We finished with a 17.3 mph avg. Not bad considering the previous weekends air quality alerts (I'm asthmatic) and that heat & humidy limited both our speed and distances. I'm hoping that we'll continue to get a break for the rest of the summer and I'll be able to get down to Chatsworth (107 mi.) and Tuckerton (131 mi.).

Can't wait for the 2011 Longest Day!

Oops, something got messed up in the editing, this should fix that right up.

Yup, despite the problems I had running the event, I'm still looking forward to running and participating in next year's Longest Day. There are a number of problems I need to resolve such as communications (when I'll be at the Days Inn, from what time to what time, what to do if x, y, or z). I'll start working on all of that plus a whole lot more. I've seen my mistakes and I've figured out how to improve the experience. So we'll see how next year goes.

So this is the way things went; starting Monday, June 7^th through Thursday June 10^th I was busy with the last minute details (and there are a lot of them). On Thursday, I put down road markings at a few unmarked intersections. I plan to do that again next year. I nearly got busted twice (I didn't have permits) and the Federal officer was very polite and let me go. Friday, I had to run around and drop off the goodie bags to the folks who would hand these out at the Century and Double Metric starts. Since I had very little sleep this week I was a little dain bread and couldn't remember the house numbers (ARGH!). My Windows cell phone was useless as it kept locking up and returning no useful information. I was so tired that I forgot about 411 (information). I arrived late at Port Jervis at 7:30 PM. From 8:00 PM until 10:30 PM I was busy with handing out everything and answering questions. Unfortunately not everyone was there as several people were coming from out of state (WA, MI, OH and AR). At 10:30 PM I finished my dinner and went to bed. I had to be up by 3:00 AM to do the ride. At 1:30 AM I received a call on my cell. Unfortunately I was totally out of it and didn't really wake up and missed the call. So much for sleeping! Next year, clearer directions and I'll better prepared.

At 4:00 AM I was out the door and prepping the bike. By 4:38 AM Team Are We There Yet? (Our SAG Greg, Mark, Kevin and myself) left the Days Inn. I turned my helmet camera on (yes in the dark) and began recording our ride. It worked rather well and I'll post a montage later. Our initial 100 miles were uneventful. One rider did report and short encounter with bears (yes real bears). We saw many deer but had no problems. It was a comfortable morning but the fog kept us a bit wet. As we road we crossed the paths of many teams. We road with some, passed others and were in turn passed by others. While the camera gave you a hint of the speed we were descending it didn't really give you the feel. By the time we arrived in Manville we were feeling pretty good. Up to this point we had done some work in pace lines but the roads, hills and traffic are not really conducive to doing pace lines. Once we got on Canal Rd we kept a steady diet of pace lines. Also starting at Manville the wind was much more noticeable. A wind out of the south, expected to be 15 mph in Central Jersey and increase as the day goes on and we head further south. Head winds are a part of the Longest Day and this year didn't disappoint. The ride into Allentown went smooth though the wind was more noticeable. We had trained for winds up to 18 mph but this was worrying me a bit. The Chatsworth section is where we first start seeing head winds and they're usually mild but because your mentally fatigued you notice them (they're unrelenting). The lunch stop outside of Allentown (at the Soccer Fields) was a welcome stop. We had food that wasn't bicycle food and drinks that weren't Gatorade or water and Potato Chips that were salty and delicious! ;-) As we were in the final stages of leaving Will Bayley came up to us and asked if he could join us. Since we had trained with him we had no problem with him riding with us.

After lunch we left at the same time as several other teams. I think we came across Team Liberty, Team Major Taylor and a few others. Again we decided not to give chase and possible ruin our day. There was still 106 miles to go. The ride went smooth and we really began to enjoy the gusts of wind that would drop your speed 3 mph. Usually this occurred when someone (Kevin) was just coming to the front of the pace line. But other than that it really was a nice ride to the Ranger's Station. At this point the sun began to really come out and the temperature began to rise (as expected). A 10 mile break in Jenkins was very welcome. Unfortunately several teams had passed us while we were stopped. Including a team of about 20 people. Once we were back on the road we caught them rather quickly. They seemed to be doing about 14 mph in the heavy winds. My team didn't want to be slowed to 14 so we attempted to pass. While we were able to pass the entire train was able to latch on to our rear wheel. We weren't too happy as they could keep the pace we needed and we weren't thrilled with having to work with 20 tired people we don't know doing a pace line. That meant we (Will, Mark, Kevin and myself) were stuck with dragging the train the last 10 miles through the Barrens to the Mullica Bridge, another quick 5 minute rest stop. We then got back on the road and picked up the pace again. Along the way we picked up Kenneth from Team Major Taylor. Ken had completed the entire Chatsworth section solo (ouch) and we invited him to tag in. So we rode to May's Landing for another quick stop at McDonald's. As we were about to leave Team Major Taylor stops by the CVS next store and we discuss what Ken will do. He decidef to continue riding with us to the WaWa (mile 185). So we're off again, and the next 11 miles went pretty smoothly. The wind was still there and were dealing with it pretty well. The pace lines and chit-chat seemed to make the time go by quick. Once in Tuckerton we rode down a nice tree covered road for a few miles. It was nice to get out of the direct sun and the different scenery was also welcome. I don't know about anyone else but I was feeling pretty good as the miles ticked away to the WaWa. I picked up some extra food (not bike food) at the WaWa and we left after 6:00 PM for our last 25 miles. Up to this point we had maintained a 17.1 mph pace. The last 25 miles were brutal! We maintained the pace line but our final average dropped to 16.8 mph for the day. The winds felt like they were in excess of 20 mph. We noticed white caps on the inland bays and water ways. The only relief was that we were near the end and we knew we could make it. As we crossed the canal in Cape May the bridge didn't seem as steep (but still wasn't easy) and the final miles went better than expected. When we reached the light house (a welcome sight) we reflected on our speed with some delight and some disgust. 16.8 mph for the day, low by any standards but high when you consider that we just traverse 140+ miles of real head winds. In that light, a very respectable number. Overall an excellent ride!