APRIL 2016
Now that they're all done, I can post that my objective in April was to ride 700 miles in 7 days. I knew it wouldn't really be feasible once the baby is born (we're about a month from the due date now), and the weather looked mostly promising, so I asked for the week off from work, formulated some routes, and hopped on my bike every morning. I've put the first and second rides in this post so they're all in one place.
Pt. 1
I had a reason to be at my parents house in Brookline in the evening, and the weather looked good, so I decided to take the day off from work and ride over, incidentally using the same route as April 2015's ride to get there, which goes above the Quabbin, covering part of the race course.
Like I said in the 2015 summary post, this route is much more enjoyable than the slightly Ionger and less hilly "low" route. Rain was in the forecast for later in the day, so I got an early start, rolling out just before 8am.
It started sprinkling on me as soon as I left the house, which I hoped wouldn't continue the whole day, but was still bearable with the mild temperatures.
The showers stopped, but it stayed mostly cloudy as I went through the hills of Shutesbury and 202. Some signage was already out for
the race, which happens tomorrow.
As I passed north of Worcester, the sun broke through and the temperature shot up. As I'm yet to acclimate to the heat, I started paying for a lack of hydration, with some nausea setting in around mile 80.
I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts and filled a bottle with iced coffee, which has been known to resurrect me for the last stretch of a hot ride. It worked well enough and I pressed on through a section of the Marathon route on Comm Ave, which still had countless discarded gels on it from Monday, before turning through the always harrowing Newton Centre, then a quick dip in to the woods behind my old elementary school, and then home.
Ride Name Origin - Pavement - Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at:17
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Giordana Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, and arm warmers which came off pretty quickly
PT. 2
I had to get back to Easthampton from my parents house in Brookline, so I figured I may as well ride back. Parts of the route were simply the reverse of yesterday's, but there were changes in the start and end.
As on yesterday's ride, I rolled out in cold rain, this time colder and rainier. This made a couple of things happen. First, most of my chainlube came off, so my drivetrain was squeakier and crunchier than I'd like. The other thing is that my brakes, which have a tendency to loudly squeal whenever they're applied in the wet, came in quite handy coming through Newton and Concord, as they seemed to get a lot more attention than the bell when someone was about to cut me off.
The route was generally good, but it did have one road on it that doesn't exist. Especially puzzling given that it was built based on the most popular routes in the area.
Once the rain ended, the sun came out, but thankfully it wasn't as warm as yesterday so I didn't run into the same dehydration and stomach discomfort. I still took the precaution of filling my bottles at a Subway before Ware. The thing that stuck in my mind from the last time I did this route is that there's a whole lot of nothing in Ware, and certainly nowhere to fill up bottles.
I did the ride in new bibs, which I'll give a thumbs up.
Ride Name Origin - Tom Waits - Eggs and Sausage
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Giordana Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, and arm warmers which stayed on most of the day
PT. 3
After the climbing on the first and second rides, I decided to take it relatively easy with a ride up to the Brattleboro Food Co-op in Vermont. It was basically the same ride I did in January. The route feels entirely different when everything's not covered in snow though, and it was all very lush, green, and springy.
I started the ride wearing a light packable rain jacket, which was nice to have until the sun really came out, and even then, came back on for the descents. Knee warmers and light shoe covers were also ideal, and stayed on all day.
On the way up, I passed through a portion of the ECCC's championship course, where the D-clinic was going on. I went though some beautiful rolling woodsy rollers in New Hampshire, and I came across a friendly cat lounging in a culvert.
I had a tuna melt at the co-op, which was quite satisfying, but threatened to return on one of the more severe pitches shortly after the turnaround point.
Ride Name Origin - The word for "sandwich" in Puerto Rican Spanish is "Sandwich," apparently
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Gore Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, rain jacket, knee warmers.
PT. 4
This route was another one cooked up by Evan Huff, who knows the roads of the Hilltowns like the back of his hand. The route started with the familiar rt 66 to rt 112, then to the woodsy rt 20 and up the white dirt of Fred Snow Rd, before hitting the more familiar climbs of the Hilltowns proper.
Before I started these rides, I had flipped my stem up and dropped one cm of stack height, which still meant a net gain. While there was some discomfort on the previous rides, It became clear on this ride that the saddle I was riding was no longer right for my fit, and despite memories of what happened to Colin when he switched saddles the day before last year's gap ride, I decided to chance it and put on an old cross bike's Fizik Aliante. It was a big improvement, but I was still dealing with some damage from the first 3 hundos, particularly when I went to stand from sitting, or went to sit from standing.
Despite this, I did notice that my body was adapting to the mileage, and general soreness seemed to have plateaued.
Weather continued to be pleasant, if occasionally brisk, but this meant dehydration was only really a challenge to manage on Day 1. There was rain in the forecast so I installed fenders in preparation for the next ride.
Ride Name Origin - Out in the country, but ouch, my bottom.
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Verge Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, rain jacket, knee warmers.
PT. 5
At the start of this ride, it was cloudy and chilly, but it hadn't started raining, which made me feel like I had gotten away with something, given the 90% chance of precipitation. At mile 7, it started drizzling. At mile 8, it started pouring. The line between "water resistant" and "waterproof" apparel was promptly breached.
The planned route was a variation of one I've done several times before, again starting with rt 66 to rt 112, then going up the Skyline trail to the small town of Peru, then returning to Northampton on rt 143. That would bring me to around 80 miles, so I'd add another small loop once back in town.
Evan texted me advice to take in a lot of calories, since the weather was so brutal. At the Huntington General Store, I found a sort of challah bread with pepperoni and cheese baked in to it; I ate half of it on the spot.
The rain continued to intensify, and the temperatures continued to drop, especially once I started going north. On one climb in Middlefield, a presumably ex-military Highway Department deuce and a half sped by me, and at the top of that climb, I saw it slowly rolling back down the hill with steam pouring out from its hood.
I use my phone on these rides for music, documentation (on Instagram) and tracking (on Strava). Since there's no way the battery in the phone would last long enough to record the whole ride, I use a Tigra bar mount with a battery backup. I also have a couple of Anker Powercore batteries, which I can plug in to the case, allowing streaming or even more mileage.
At mile 31, I noticed the phone battery was dropping precipitously. I hit the charge button on the case. Nothing. I tried plugging the second auxiliary battery in to the case. One blink, then dead.
Despite supposed waterproofness, the rain had gotten the best of the case battery, shorting it. I decided I'd stop at the next gas station or general store to try getting a lightning cable to plug the other aux battery directly into my phone.
Miles rolled by with nothing but farms and houses in sight. At mile 40 (evidently), the music stopped and the phone tracked its last movement. After the weather, this was the second morale killer.
I went another 10 miles or so, and I flatted on a nail, straight through the middle of my rear tire. This was the third morale killer.
Fortuitously, the flat happened directly in front of the Hilltown Community Health Center, where the staff very generously let me use their entryway to thaw out my fingers and change my flat. Everyone entering and leaving seemed very sympathetic. One woman asked "what on earth possessed you to ride a bicycle today?" to which I couldn't offer a good response.
Against the advice of the receptionist, I got back on the road. I went less than a mile, shivering uncontrollably in the 36 degree rain, stopped at a general store with hot coffee and soup, and called Evan for a ride (on their phone).
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Castelli Nanoflex Thermal bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, Castelli Gabba LS jersey, Craft base layer, neoprene gloves, neoprene shoe covers, and a rain jacket that it turns out lost its waterproofing ability long ago.
PT. 6
After the disastrous prior day, I regrouped, did some math, and saw that thanks to all the previous rides going a bit over on mileage, a 700 mile week was still possible, even if it wasn't from riding 100 miles each day.
I took my fenders off, installed a new rear tire and chain, and switched to yet another auxiliary battery. This day, I went out riding with Trevor who has a knack for improvising fun day-long ride adventures. We knew we would head out to Ashfield and back, but beyond that, it was just going up roads that looked interesting, finding dirt cut-throughs, and just generally enjoying the day on bikes.
We saw some funny signs and fluffy horses, and we were chased by a loose corgi, which probably just wanted to play, but couldn't run very fast, on account of its short legs. We had a coffee and sweets stop in Amherst and rode the bike path all the way to that end, which is turns out is in Belchertown.
It was tremendous fun in the spirit of going out and exploring as a kid, which was much needed after the previous day's washout.
Ride Name Origin - We never went all that far from home.
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Giordana Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, rain jacket, knee warmers.
PT. 7
For the seventh day, I had two milestones to hit.
For the route, I decided to take another stab at the one that had been planned for day 5.
First because it was familiar and the dead bar-mount case meant that checking the map on the phone wasn't as simple
Second because I couldn't bear to leave it unfinished.
For the start of the ride, I was joined by Ross, but he had to split off and head back after 10-15 miles. I had another pepperoni pizza challah thing at the Huntington General Store and started making my way up Skyline.
About halfway up, just past the 1000 km week mark, the morning fog had burned off and I was surrounded by farms and fields in perfect blue skies
I stopped at the Worthington general store I had been rescued from on day 5 and picked up a fig bar.
"Nicer day for it, huh?"
I took Rt 9 back to Northampton to try adding a bit more mileage, then crossed the tracks and the river to ride over to Skinner State Park. I went up and down the mountain which was pretty as always, but especially buggy. When I got back to Northampton, I was still light on miles, so I decided to go down Rt 66 to add a bit more mileage to the return trip. I ran in to Scott, who was out on an easy spin, and I rode with him for a bit, which got me to right around 98 miles.
Scott split off and I took the bike path to Rt 5, then I went up the sinewy road to the top of Mt. Tom. Earlier in the week, I decided I should finish the ride on Mt. Tom, which is the mountain I can see from my house.
I ended up going over on mileage, finishing the week with a total of 714 miles.
Ride Name Origin - Blur - No Distance Left to Run
Bike - Pioneer Valley Hilltowns, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 700x28
Apparel - Giordana Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey,packable rain jacket
Stats
Distance: 714 Miles (1149 km)
Elevation Gained: 43,422 ft (13,235 m)
Moving Time: 52 Hours, 23 Minutes
postscript
Around the third or fourth ride, my body was starting to adapt to the mileage pretty well. I truly feel I could have kept it going for a few more days if I had to, though muscle soreness was starting to become more of a factor off the Bike.
My Pioneer Valley Frameworks bike was as pleasant as ever to ride, and I only had one flat, on a rear tire with 2500 miles on it. In the rain. There's great riding here in Western Mass and no shortage of potential routes. While another 700 mile week is unlikely in the near term, it was a sensational way to immerse myself in the meditative, therapeutic, and occasionally grueling fun of a day spent on two wheels.
I couldn't have done any of this without the support of my amazing wife Sarah, who encouraged me both at home, and on the road with encouraging texts.
