Riding with Grace Velo

It's February...

It's February, and the bike isn't even set up on the trainer. I'm not really even thinking of riding when in my inbox arrives an email (from the Grace Velo Bike Club list) about a ride on Saturday at 1:00PM. The weather is supposed to be sunny and north of 40° F. I check the calender. It falls right in a sweet spot where I have nothing scheduled. So I go for it.

A Good Showing

I bike to the center of Franklin where I meet up with about 11 riders. It supposedly is going to be a "Conversational Pace" ride. Some of these guys are retired and ride all winter. Some of them race.

I hang on more or less for the first 10 miles. Andy, with the gray steel bike and 70's era shifters breaks off the ride 2 the Sheldonville Post Office. A few miles down Burnt Swamp road another riders turns around at the RI border (Near Adam's Farm).

I simply try to keep the riders ahead of me in my sights.

Shortcut

Another rider (I am terrible with names) drifts back and we take a short cut. The group is going to "Hammer it" through the "Farm Section". I am familiar with this as it is part of the PHAT Tuesday Training rides I take part in. The other rider hasn't been on a bike since may due to ligament surgery. I am just out of shape.

We reconnect with the other riders and make our way along 120 where I get dropped again. We regroup at the rest stop and I get dropped by the reservoir. I know my way home so I don't mind. Plus, I knew I was still behind the group from the tell tale tire marks exiting the occasional puddle on the side of the road. It felt kind of cool that I was able to "track" them like Locke on Lost :-)

Some of the rides waited at the end of Burnt Swamp Rd (the route came back on this road). I get dropped again on Summer St. Beck at the park there were 2 riders still there. that was nice of them ;-)

Hey, at least I finished :-)

Ride Stats

It was a 30 miles ride (including the ride to and from the start from my house, and the shortcut).

• Distance: 30.03 miles
• Moving Time: 2:13:59
• Moving Average: 13.4 MPH

The Map

For a change of pace I am embedding a Trimble Outdoor Map. Motionbased has essentially been turned off, Garmin connect (it's replacement) is lacking, and I am a bit tired of MapMyRide.

NBW-028: East Providence Spring Season Opening Ride

Chilly Start

Chilly start, middle, and finish... The skies were gray and it felt cold. Cold enough for me to wear my winter riding shirt (07 Pearl Izumi Kodiak Jersey), my shell (Performance Transformer Jacket), and my shoe covers. I couldn't believe how cold I felt. Wasn't is supposed to be a warn, sunny, 50° day? I should have filled a thermos with coffee for the ride...

Ride Start, originally uploaded by Martinator.

A "portion" of the riders that showed up. I'd guess over 100 people showed up for this ride. Pretty much everybody has their winter gear on. Except for one guy in shorts.

Pup-cycle, originally uploaded by Martinator.

~100 riders plus 1 dog! I wonder what the dog is thinking right about now...

What? No Tabs?!?

I only had enough Nuun Hydration Tablets for one bottle. No big deal. I figured that, since the ride was starting at a bike shop that I would just pick up some Camelbak Elixir Lemon Lime Hydration Tabs, which I prefer anyway over the NUUN Tabs. However, much to my surprise, the East Providence Cycle bike shop didn't carry any of either.

What?!? You've got to be kidding me...

EP Cycle loses points in my book...

30 Miles or 40?

I had about 10 miles to decide if I was going to do the either the 30 mile option of the 40. It was chilly, I was getting dropped on the climbs (though not as bad as the same time last year) and it was only my second time out on the bike this year. So when I came upon the split, I decided not to push myself and I chose the 30 mile option. It was still a lot of riding for March (for me) and I wanted to ease myself into the season.

Halfway, originally uploaded by Martinator.

This is me at about the halfway point in the 30 mile option. Nobody in front of me and nobody behind me. The club ride became a solo ride at this point (until others caught up to me). Notice the beautiful shades of gray that we call "Early Spring in New England"...

March is for Serious People

As I was riding a thought occurred to me:

If you really love what you do, you do it in March!

Nobody who does anything casually in New England, does it in March. They just don't. Here's a list:

• Serious Skiers ski in March (and April, and May...)
  Casual Skiers think February break marks the end of the season.
• Serious Golfers hit the links in March, and by that I mean locally (flying down to NC or Fla doesn't count). I saw some golfers while I was riding.
• If you love softball, you are out there playing. Like those guys were on the field towards the end of the ride.
• Serious runners are, well, running.
• Even gardening is a good example!
• And then there are us Cyclists. (Cyclist who bike over the winter are just plain nuts and belong in a separate category.)

There are probably more examples, but I think you get the idea.

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First Training Ride of the Year

First Training Ride of the Year, originally uploaded by Martinator.

The weather was nice so I got a group of riders together for an early season training ride. The pace was casual. Even so, it was difficult to maintain a decent paceline. Most of the riders were younger and of various abilities. Overall though, it was good to get out even though we didn't rack up a lot of miles.

Saturday Morning Group Ride

Another Chilly Morning

The weather forecast called for Sunny skies and temps in the mid 60's during the day. However I had plans during the day, so my only shot of getting a ride in was during the morning. It was chilly in the morning as you can see from the picture below. Time to gear up.

Another Chilly Morning.

Group Ride

I met up with a group of local riders at 7:30 am. I had ridden with this group once before and got smoked. However I won't get faster if I avoid riding with fast riders.

Climbing...

I hung on to the group for the most part. I mostly got dropped on the climbs. One for the riders was talking about their cycling trip to Portugal and about the serious climbs he did there (not to mention serious food and wine consumption). They very very patient with me and I think they only had to wait for me 3 or 4 times.

At one point I wanted to cut the ride short and drop from the group. I felt like I was holding them back. I'm glad I didn't.

Bill, Tom, and Ed during a more relaxed section discussion the riding, food, and wine in Portugal.

The ride was a hilly ride consisting of just over 2,000" of elevation gain over ~35 miles. Definitely a good workout.

Home Just in Time...

I got home just in time to take a quick shower and take my oldest daughter to her soccer practice.

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Saturday Morning Group Ride

Saturday

A while back an neighbor and fellow cyclist told me about a group of very local cyclists who rode out on Saturday mornings pretty regularly. He got me and Ed (another neighbor) onto their very informal email list. Finally an opportunity presented itself to actually join in on one of their morning rides. I got there a bit early right around 7:25 am people started rolling in for the 7:30 start. There were 8 of us all together.

The Group Rolls Out

To Hopkinton and Back...

This Saturday's ride was up to Hopkinton and back. "Up" is the key word. The pace seemed moderate and I had no problem hanging on until about halfway up the big climb into Hopkinton. It was a "no drop" ride I guess and the group stopped occasionally and regrouped. On the way back from Hopkinton the core riders really moved. They strung me along for a while then dropped me. they either had long legs or shaved legs. Well, I can't make my legs longer and I would be delusional if I thought shaving them would make any difference.

I just have to get stronger and faster. And smarter... ;-)

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Ashland to Concord

Sunday Ride, Which One?

So Sunday I had a choice:

• I could either do the Naragansett Bay Wheelmen's 75 ride from Whitman, MA to Mt. Wachusett and back, or...
• I could do a 45 mile ride from Ashland to Concord and back.

The Cycling Site

I like the NBW club rides, however the longer rides require such a large time commitment. I need to balance my biking time with family time.

I had subscribed to a local biking site, The Cycling Site, that alerts you to upcoming local, sometimes impromptu, rides. A rider from the Phat Tuesday ride group, Bill Snapper, is putting this site together in his spare time. His vision is for it to become a "Social Networking" site for cyclists. You join the site and you can opt-in to email notifications about rides that are posted.

That is how I learned about the 45 mile Sunday ride. I opted to go on this ride because it would get me back home by early afternoon. I arrived at the meeting place early, as I usually like to do, and nobody was there. Eventually Bill and a couple of other rides showed up. These was only going to be 4 of us on this ride (as opposed to the probable 100+ on the NBW ride). At 10:00 we headed off to Concord.

Riding Blind...

This was one of the few times where I was with a group of riders without:

• A map
• Painted Arrows, or
• The route preprogrammed into my GPS.

I guess I tend to over prepare and it is good to step outside ones comfort zone once in a while.

Scott on the left, Bill on the right. At an unscheduled bathroom stop on the way to Concord.

Concord

Downtown Concord was interesting to ride into. It was buzzing with activity. Everywhere you looked there was people going from shop to shop and tons of bikers. I was told that normally there is a lot more bikers buzzing around the center of Concord as there is a strong bike culture up there. We even came upon a charity bike ride (I forget the name of it).

Me in Concord. What's that parked behind me?

BMW Vixen Motor Home?

By far the oddest site was the BMW branded motorhome we came upon. After some research I discovered that it was a (BMW?) Vixen TD. I think the only reason why it had a BMW badge was the fact that the manufacturer used a BMW turbo diesel engine in this model. Interesting story behind this vehicle. Odd that it has a BMW Roundel.

Interesting looking Motor Home.

Is that a BMW Roundel on it?

There's a Roundel on the back also!?!

Headed Back

Passing some farms on the way back.

The ride back was a little more leisurely than the ride to Concord. Most of the roads along the entire route were back roads and free of traffic. That's difficult to do when Framingham is one of the towns you have to pass through and you have to cross Route 9 and Route 20 on top of that.

It was a good ride and it was nice to make some more connections into the biking community. I see a lot of potential with Bill's Cycling Site.