Hopkinton State Park

Another Nice Day

What a bonus! Two nice days in one weekend. Today I decided to head north/north-west. Route 495 makes plotting north-westerly routes problematic. Anyway, I figured I'd ride up to Hopkinton State Park and back. Tomorrow's the day of the Marathon, so i thought it would be fun to pass through and the day before. nothing to see really but a bunch of gates prepositioned for the runner's corrals.

Rt 85 Descent

The descent from the center of Hopkinton to the State Park was, well, fast. It was fun to go that fast, and a bit scary also. I try not to make a habit of it going almost 45 M.P.H. Mistakes at those speeds are costly to say the least.

Another Slow Day...

I only averaged 14.6 m.p.h. for this ride. I know it is still early in the season, the ride had its share of climbs, and my goal wasn't for speed (yet), but still, 14.6? Well, at least I didn't feel like I was going to cramp up. And I actually felt pretty good riding today, so I guess speed isn't everything.

Blackstone/Mendon

Sunny Day

It was a nice day for a ride, so I did. I rode 30 or so miles, my longest ride so far this year.

Fighting off Cramps

All throughout the ride I felt my calf muscles twitching like they were going to cramp up. I made extra sure I stayed hydrated and didn't do anything stupid like launch off into a sprint.

I was close to home when I thought the threat of my calves cramping up had passed. They didn't cramp up, but my thigh almost did. That never happened to me before. Maybe the 1,977 feet of climbing had something to do with it.

My overall average was slow, 14.9 mph. But it is early in the season and my goal for this ride was to not cramp up.

Fair Weather Rider...

Fair Weather Rider... That's Me

The weather was back in the high 40°'s, overcast, and drizzly. "Raw" pretty much sums it up. If I was hardcore, I would have ridden, but I can afford to wait for nicer weather.

First Decent Ride of the Season!

Nice Weather

It was sunny and actually hit 70° today! No long sleeve, layered clothing today.

Headed North

I headed north up through Holliston and circled back via Sherborn, Millis, and Norfolk. I saw a good number of other riders out there today. I even linked up with a pair of riders in Sherborn. One was named Craig, I didn't catch the other guys name. They were coming off of Nason Hill St. onto Mill St just as I was approaching it. I rode with them until I turned off Rt 27 onto Rt 115. I took a picture, but the Camera on my cell phone was less than reliable.

Warm Weather makes a difference

My average speed was a more respectable 15.7 mph and my knee didn't bother me or complain. Hopefully I can get another ride in on Sunday.

Crappy Weather...

Forecast

I forecast I saw for today was for sunny skies and 50°.

That's a bit different that the 40° cloudy, windy, drizzly weather we actually got. No biking today...

Short Norfolk Loop, Eventually...

First, The Yard Work...

The weather was crappy for most of the morning. So I took advantage and did a lot of yard work. Who wants to do yard work when the weather is nice? I raked a lot of leaves, a lot of Oak leaves. Funny thing, I don't have any Oak trees on my property, but my neighbor across the street does...

The Shed

I cleaned out the shed also. I needed a place to put the bags of leaves. I didn't want them to sit outside for 2 weeks. Part of cleaning out the shed involved moving my 1982 Schwinn Varsity to the bike stand in the basement. The tires are toast, they're the original tires. They are practically crumbling off the rims. I weighed the bike, 38+ pounds.

Short Evening Ride

Around 4:00 I got my act together and rewarded myself with a short loop to Fruit St. in Norfolk and back. The sun came out and took some of the chill away. It was good to get out

I plan on going for a longer ride tomorrow, so a short ride tonight will suffice :-)

First Ride of the Season

March Weather

I remember some forcast last week saying that it was going to be warm this Sunday afternoon. We'll it looked warm, but wasn't in reality. It was sunny out and 40-ish. I probably should have warn my winter riding shirt and full fingered bike gloves, but I was in denial and dressed what I thought the weather SHOULD have been as opposed to the reality. I was a bit chilly riding, but it was bearable.

Benchmark Ride

Since this was my first "official" road ride of the year, I figured I would do what has become my benchmark ride. A ~16 mile loop circumnavigating the town of Franklin. It's a route I used to ride a lot on my mountain bike before learning how much better a road bike is for riding on the road. (Imagine that!)

My Knee

Over the course of the ride, my knee was beginning to complain. I remembered that this time last year it complained all the was into May (Mother's Day Ride (...and Tendonitis)) and was due to Patellar Tendonitis from a combination of an incorrect seat position and "pushing BIG gears - cadence too low" too early in the season (see: CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS - Leg, Knee, and Hip Pain). Armed with the knowledge (gained the hard way last year) I stayed in my small ring as more often than not.

One thing that is different this year: I think this is the first time this early in the season that found myself not wishing I had a granny gear. I guess my legs have retained some strength over the long winter...