Norcross Scurry Mountain Bike Race Date Set

The Root 66 Norcross Scurry Mountain Bike Race will be held on Saturday, May 05, 2012 at the June Norcross Webster Scout Reservation in Ashford, Connecticut. Pre-register at http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=15130

The course is a 5.85 mile loop that all categories will ride. 1 lap for First Timers, 2 laps for CAT 3, 3 laps for CAT 2, and 4 laps for CAT 1 and Pro.

Sunday Morning Mansfield Hollow MTB Ride

Pictures from the Ashford Metric Century +

Slideshow from the Ashford Metric Century +

More AMC+ Pictures

 

Root 66 Series Results

Congrats to our Root 66 Racers who endured some of the most challenging conditions to date in 2011!

Series Results:

1^st place   Rachel Chambers   Cat 1/Women/12 to 18

1^st place   Andy Chambers      Cat 1/Men/50+

2^nd place  Marilyn Quinlan     Cat 1/Women/35+

3^rd place   Tom Quinlan          Cat 2/Men/50+

4^th place   Trevor Chambers Cat 3/Men/12 to 18

6^th place   Mary Fuchs             Cat 1/Women/35+

8^th place   Harley Erickson    Cat 3/Women/35+

Bill’s Moab Memory

Bill Wentworth’s endo tattoo

It hurts more in Moab

4th Annual Ashford Metric Century + October 2nd

This is a fund raising event to benefit the Ashford Recreation Department. All routes are fully supported and include the quiet and rolling hills of Ashford, Eastford and Woodstock. Come out and enjoy the stunning fall foliage in classic New England.

Hampshire 100k: http://www.hampshire100.com/

Racers:  Jill!

The Decision:

This race has been calling to me since the inaugural event back in 2007.  I talk about signing up every year but for some reason or another I’ve been unable or unwilling to do it.  This year I started yapping about it as usual and after listening to my indecisiveness for months Michael encouraged me to “just do it”.  But before I signed up I wanted to know that I could actually handle 62 miles on the mountain bike.  I haven’t had a lot of mileage under my belt this year and knew I would be in the midst of grad school and would not have much time for training.  So I took a half day off from work and headed over to Mansfield Hollow with the goal of riding until I saw 50 miles on my odometer.  My plan was to ride three 20 mile loops with a couple pit stops at the car to refill my water bottle.  Unfortunately the loop by the transfer station was flooded so I completed 2 full laps without that section then not so creatively re-rode the lollipop and lake loops until I got the full 50 in.  The last 3 or 4 miles were tough but the only body parts that really hurt were the bottom of my feet and my lower back so I decided I could ride another 12 miles on adrenalin and went home and signed up for the race.  I think the lower back pain was caused by having my larger EMS camelbak with a full 100 oz bladder and decided to carry my smaller REI pack with just a mostly full 70 oz bladder during the race to avoid the back pain.  For race day I also switched from traditional thin bike socks to smartwool bike socks that have extra padding on the sole which ended up working great.

Pre-race:

We decided to stay at a B and B only 11 miles from the race course.  They allowed dogs so Moose came along too.  Saturday we drove up to Greenfield NH, just north of Monadnock.  Registration was from 2 to 9pm and we arrived around 4pm or so.  Registering was fairly uneventful and I was pleasantly surprised to get a fantastic navy blue event t-shirt, a beer glass with the Hampshire 100 logo, and a full goody bag.  Nice!  We headed over to the B and B to settle in, the view was fantastic but the bed was a brick, and no a/c.  I settled in and started getting my race gear together and Michael wandered off in search of some light snacks as we ate a fairly large late lunch.  We snacked on sharp cheddar cheese and apple slices (and Tostitos!) when he got back.  I brought both ear plugs and noise cancelling headphones to ensure a good night’s sleep and I slept great until 2:45am then patiently waited until 5am to get up and get ready.

For anyone who is interested in what I used for water/nutrition/gear this is what I carried:  REI Stoke 19 Women’s Hydration Pack with a 70 ounce bladder filled with water and Elete electrolyte supplement.  One water bottle on the bike with Gatorade and Elete.  In the Hydration pack waist and side pockets I brought 3 extra packets of Gatorade powder, 2 Honey Stinger Waffles, Gu Chomps, Honey Stinger Energy Chews, Clif Mojo Bar, and 2 Jet Blackberry Gu’s w/caffeine.  Other than nutrition items I also carried an extra pair of gloves, 1 tube, 3 Co2 cartridges, Tylenol, tire levers, chain tool, extra socks, 2 bandaids, phone,  and a small pump.  Out of all this stuff I consumed one Honey Stinger Waffle which I love but wouldn’t recommend eating it while riding as it crumbles in your hand forcing you to kind of just mash it in before it gets dropped on the ground (but it tastes great!).  I also ate the Gu Chomps, the Honey Stinger Chews and half the Mojo Bar which was tough to get down.  The Chomps and Chews went down much easier.  I ate one of the Gu gels just before the race and the other one at mile 40 or so with 3 tylenol.  Ok, on to the race.

The race:

We arrived fairly early and I choked down a bagel with nutella on the way to the race.  I didn’t really feel like eating but knew that I had to anyway.  After 3 or 4 bathroom runs I felt ready to spin around a bit on the bike to warm up.  The temperature was high 50’s low 60’s and fairly comfortable.  As I was getting ready to head to the racers meeting at 6:15am another rider approached me.  She (Emmy) remembered me from racing in the Root 66 series about 6 or 7 years ago.  Excellent!  Besides Michael I didn’t know anyone at the race so it was great to have someone to talk to.  She was in my class too and shared some advice and experience as she had participated in races of this length and also some 100 milers.  We headed over to the meeting and I joined Michael at one of the picnic tables.  A few minutes later Mike Wonderly stopped by to say Hi and Good luck.  I had no idea he had entered the race so now I knew 2 people that were racing, even better!  I missed most of the race meeting as I was either talking or my mind was wandering so before I knew it I was lined up next to Emmy and we tried to figure out just who was in our bracket.  Boom, the pro’s are off and we are in the next wave.  Boom, we are off, woohoo!!!!  We circle the field and oops, track stand as everyone tries to enter the single track at once.  The single track only lasts a minute then it is pretty flat fire road for a while.  I decided to try to stay with Emmy as she had experience pacing for a longer race so we stuck together for a while.  There were 4 women in expert veteran (my group), 4 in expert senior (the younger ladies), and 2 pros.  The pros went off in the first wave and were long gone before we started.

The first 20 miles or so was mostly fire road and mostly flat too with very brief sections of single track mixed in.  The pace was fast and after one of the single track sections I noticed that Emmy had dropped back a bit and I thought I might actually be in the lead but wasn’t 100% positive.  After arriving at Crotchett Mountain I was cranking down the ski mountain with another rider when we got flagged to slow down and I noticed a rider down on the side of the trail.  How awful.  Later I learned that he had a pretty bad injury but has since had surgery and is home recovering.  At the bottom of the mountain I caught up with another girl that I didn’t recognize and she told me that she would let me go ahead in the technical section which confused me because I was pretty sure I had never seen her before but then I never saw her again after I entered the single track.  Later I would realize it was one of the two pro riders.  A sneaking suspicion that I was leading my class and that I might actually win crossed my mind and buoyed my already spiked adrenalin.  One of my favorite parts of the race was a really long stretch of flat dirt road toward the end of the 20 miles.  Some of the sport men were starting to catch up to me and when I turned around there were 5 or 6 of them drafting behind me which I thought was pretty strange, that has never happened at any mountain bike race I had been to before!

Soon enough the flat ended and the climbs began.  My strategy was pretty simple; hammer the flats and no brakes on the descents and maintain a steady survival pace up the hills.  There were many seriously sketchy, fast, rocky, loose descents and I loved every one of them.  For most of the race I locked out my front fork and just let it jabber over stuff.  The bike was faster locked out and there were times when I just couldn’t take my hands off the bars long enough to unlock it.  At the first major rest I stopped just long enough to top off my water bottle with Gatorade and split a banana with the gentleman next to me and off I went.  In my head I broke the race down into 10 mile segments and up to the 30 mile mark things were relatively mild and steady.  At 20 to 30 the hills were getting more frequent with more singletrack but I was still able to move along pretty quickly.  At miles 30 to 40 the terrain was definitely more difficult and I only stopped at the aid stations if I was low on Gatorade.  By the 3^rd or 4^th top off of Gatorade, my water bottle was a nice, muddy brown color.  Yuck.  But it was keeping me pedaling so I didn’t care.  At around the 40 mile mark my arms were aching pretty badly, I think from jabbering down the down hills, and my lower back was starting to complain so I pulled over mid-way up a climb to down another Jet Blackberry Gu and 3 tylenol.  I tried eating my mojo bar too but I was practically gagging on it so I only got about half in before stuffing it back in my bag.  After getting back on my bike the hills just kept coming but after about 15 minutes the arm and back pain subsided and I concentrated on just keeping those pedals going around.  I was exactly 3 hours in at the 30 mile mark and was calculating that I might be able to finish between 6 and 7 hours vs. the 8 I had estimated.  Ha!  If only I knew what was coming –

The 40 to 50 stretch was tough but the 50 to 60 stretch seemed to last FOREVER!  Lots of climbing and much more single track.  I briefly stopped at the 50 mile rest stop for a piece of watermelon and decided to skip all the other aid stations and just ride non-stop to the finish line. There were mileage signs on the trees and I remember about a dozen marking the slow, hilly, techy, single track for mile 59.  It was definitely the longest mile EVER.  Michael found me at 3 or 4 road crossings over the last 10 miles and he and the dog were cheering me on.  Up until about the 50 to 55 mile mark there were always other riders around to talk to, to commiserate with and to just suffer companionably with but from about the 55 mile point until the end I only saw one other rider so I was very happy to have my own little cheering section.  The last couple miles were definitely the hardest.  The singletrack was one climb after another and technical and I was pretty tired at that point.  At the beginning of the race I was wishing for more single track but at the end of the race I was only wishing for flat fire road!

The end:

I teared up as I pedaled across the last road crossing and entered the field for the final mile.  I can’t even describe how I felt crossing the finish line.  Euphoric would be the most apt I guess.  Michael handed me an ice cold chocolate milk and a hug and no hug ever felt so good and no chocolate milk ever tasted so good!!!  I told him that I thought I might have won but didn’t want to get my hopes up too much.  He went to check the results board while I changed and I knew the news was good when I saw him grinning at me.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  I hadn’t been sure I could even ride 50 miles, never mind 62.5 and I won not only my bracket but also fastest expert woman.   Woohoo, that means I would get to take home the signature race prize – the windchimes!!!  It has taken me a while to write this recap, I started it a couple of weeks ago but finishing it now I still feel as euphoric as I did on race day.  I will remember this as the most challenging, fun, and exhilarating days on a bike ever. – Jill

Tolland Bicycle Ride

Saturday, July 23rd

Riders: John, Jen, Fiona, Jim, Michelle, Dave G., Dave B., Keith, Nate, Hakim, Bill W., Steve, Randall, me, and one quiet gentleman who I did not get a chance to meet.

Amazingly this was the first time I was able to get to the Tolland Bike ride this year. I will definitely remedy that as it worked perfectly into my schedule this weekend. I still wanted to ride but knew that I had some schoolwork and house stuff to do and this ride got me home by 10:15am with 25 miles under my belt. I might ride from home next time to get a little extra mileage in. Plus I got to see a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in forever and met a few new ones. I pulled in to the parking lot at about 10 minutes of 8 and only Bill was in the parking lot. Even at about 2 minutes to 8 it was pretty much just me and Bill then all of a sudden bikes pulled in from everywhere. Apparently most people ride from their house to this ride (which is a great idea!). So we pulled out of the parking lot with 15 riders, wow! This is billed as a moderate, no drop ride and that is exactly what it was. A great ride for catching up with old friends, meeting new riders, and still being able to punch it now and then up or down the hills. We regrouped at the turns then about 40 minutes in Dave B. split off at North River Road with a group that wanted to finish a bit earlier and the rest of the crew headed up 44 and took a right onto 31. One feature of riding from home is that you can split off toward the end of the ride and head home. So our numbers kept dwindling until 4 of us finished the ride, I got dropped off at the parking lot and the other 3 riders rode home. A very nice start to an overcast Saturday morning, I really enjoyed chatting with everyone. I’m looking forward to the next one! – Jill

Now that hurt – again

Often goals get amended or cast aside altogether so a completed goal is noteworthy.  At the beginning of the year I set a few goals, among them losing 11 pounds ( no refrigerator in my tent in Colorado = weight loss ) and I wanted to do a double century with a better than 17.6 speed average.  With no real plans this past Saturday I decided to pedal up to Portland again.  The day started out great, nice weather, legs feeling good and I was eating like I should.  Didn’t drink enough again but that didn’t seem to get to me ( ~60 ounces for the first 100 miles ).  At mile 99.6 I get a flat tire, manage to get the inflation up to 50 until mile 135 where at the Exeter Cycle shop I get to use a real pump.  My stomach revolted against Cytomax & the Heed that I brought for the whole second half.  I hate regurgitating on my bike.  With that I changed nutrition plans midway and rather than sugar water had 1/2 Subway, 2 sodas, 2 orange juices and 1 GU for the second half.  One the brighter side, my legs felt good the whole day but by the end I was depleted.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96749223

Garth’s excellent Colorado cycling adventure

Watch Slideshow

In case you didn’t already know it, my wife Andrea is awesome. For Christmas she surprised me by signing me up for the Bicycle Tour of Colorado that started on June 19th. This is a brief account of that adventure.
Pre-ride: The Isle of Capri Hotel & Casino in Black Hawk is about 4 miles from the start and had cheap rooms. The problem with that is Black Hawk is a pit of a town.. really. A pathetic nothing but gambling town. No grocery store, no pharmacy type store, no pool or fitness room in the hotel. Nothing. To make matters worse, riding bicycles is against the law in Black Hawk. The only good part is Black Hawk is 8,000 feet above sea level giving us a chance to acclimate to elevation. Our first day there, Thursday, we went for a drive on the route the bicycle tour would follow. Yikes! Big climbs right from the start. We drive to a ski resort thinking it was unique to see snow in June and find that running at 10, 000 feet just doesn’t go so well the on the first day. The day before the start of the tour, Saturday, we put our bikes together and go for a 30+mile ride to Nederland, get great coffee and meet Heather Irmiger decked out in her team Subaru/Trek kit.
Day 1: This was only a 56 mile ride to Estes Park. Only 56 miles I think so I’ll ride like it’s a 56 mile ride. I like the climbs but get carried away too often, up & down hill. At the end of the ride I plan to not pedal so hard on the downhills, I’ll try to conserve some energy, because I am beat and somewhat disenchanted with riding. I am NOT looking forward to the next day.
Day 2: I feel better now, almost looking forward to riding – almost. This was billed as the best day of the ride. A 60+ mile ride up the Trail Ridge Road into the Rocky Mountain National Park with great roads and beautiful scenery. In the morning the road was closed due to a snow storm so it was unclear as to what we would do. Not until about 7:45 did we get word that we would proceed to aide station 2 and perhaps then the road would be open. Early during this climb I noticed I am being shadowed by a guy who thought I had a good pace and after speaking a bit we decided to stick together, keeping each other reasonable and not stick with each cyclist that may go by. It was hard, real hard not to go with the few folks that went by, but in the end it worked out great. Towards the top it was snowing but not so hard, and it was not very cold.. it was truly beautiful.
Approaching 3 miles from the top however, pretty snow turned to driving hail which felt like needles penetrating my skin. Visibility dropped to maybe 30 feet. One eye was hurting with some sharp pain so I keep it closed, which didn’t matter anyway since that side of my glasses were useless. My hands and feet quickly turned numb and shivering gave my bike a terrible wobble. At the top I entered the visitor’s center to try & warm up. It was filled with another 50 cyclist that had the same idea. Thirty minutes didn’t seem to help much so I put on another coat & hat that I had been carrying and headed down. Wobble wobble all the way. At some point after getting all the way down I grab a hot chocolate from a store and shortly after I can feel my hands & feet for the first time since just before the summit. I roads are quiet – I see only 2 other cyclist in the next 17 miles. Turns out the park service didn’t let any more folks down because of the conditions so they were bused down while others who had ridden back to the start in Estes Park were bused from there. This was truly the worst day of cycling I have ever had but also one that I’ll never forget.
Day 3: Lots of pace line work until Muddy Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass. The climbs seem to go on forever but sadly end at the top. Screaming 7 mile decent into Steamboat Springs.
Day 4: Long, long, long flat windy section before some climbs. The weather is great but climbing for an hour in the sun takes a lot out of a person.
Day 5: No riding, we take a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado which is at it’s highest in 27 years.
Day 6: Up Vail Pass on the bike path. Up, up, up. I am feeling better every day so I’ve got a good pace going up and stick with the guy who came up from behind. On the way down was the first time I felt that ‘descending skills’ were required. Now this is a bike path, about 8 feet wide and since it is descending a mountain it is surely not straight. So many curves including 2 180 degree turns that so need to be alert. I was either pedaling or on my breaks, leaning into the turns and passing so many folks.
Day 7: Loveland Pass was the major climb of the day, about 8.5 miles and 2600 feet of elevation ( I had no working computer on this trip, got this from mapmyride ) to the top. The trip down was regulated by a truck that I couldn’t safely pass. Good thing perhaps. Then we get on I70 and descend another 17 miles where on the way down I actually passed a truck that was in the slow lane. Yeah, he wasn’t going all that fast, but the fact that I was in my top gear spinning 100+ rpm and actually passed a vehicle on the highway entertains me. As we approach Central City we have one more BIG climb ahead of us and my riding partners don’t make it easy. On the climbs I am always looking behind me to see if anyone is catching me. If I don’t see anyone I keep a nice pace that only hurts a little but three quarters of the way up I see an Expowheelman gaining and have to dig a little deeper and hurt a little more. At the ending party we got one free beer and had a 20% grade back up to the parking lot. Perfect!