Home to Monster

Cool Morning

It was chilly this morning. Around 57° when I set out at ~5:40 am. I had a quick breakfast consisting of an over ripe banana and a cup of coffee. I didn't want to ride on an empty stomach and I was looking forward to having a breakfast sandwich when I got to work. I wore my Ggermany shirt because it is a "warm" short sleeve shirt (doesn't breath as well as my others), and shorts.

Memorial Day Prep in Holliston

I think holliston has the best Memorial Day tradition:

Memorial Day Prep in Holliston, MA, originally uploaded by Martinator.

Every Memorial Day since 9/11, all the poles in Holliston have the name of a soldier who died in one of the two wars this decade and their nationality. There is a surprising number of our allies flags along with the many American flags.

GPS Grumble

The GPS was working great, until it died when I crossed the Framingham/Sudbury town line.

Making Good Time

16.0 mph average! Well, the Cateye said 15.9, but when I plugged the distance and time into the spreadsheet, it calculated 16.0. I'll take it :-)

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Monster to Home...

GPS Grrr...

80% home and the GPS craps out. I think it needs fresh batteries on every outing for it to work. It seems like when it is struggling to find a satelite, it suckes the batteries dry. I sure am glad I resolved the issue with my CatEye.

Making Time... 15.8

After finding my legs this past weekend and this Tuesday PHAT Ride, I decided not to slack off riding home. I averaged 15.8 mph on my ride home from work :-) It sure was nice weather for it. I think I saw my friend Ed drive by in my last mile as he was doing pick up duty from Gymnastics. Our daughters are in the same class and my wife said she would do pick-up tonight if I was riding home.

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Pan Mass Challenge

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Phat Tuesday Ride

Beer Shirt

Tonight I wore my limited edition Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen shirt. I love that it is yellow with a tall glass of beer on both the front and the back. I always get a comment from somebody whenever I wear it.

Not Dropped!

For the second time this year I hung with a group all the way to the half way point. It is just a matter of connecting with the right group. Someday I'll hang onto the 20 mph group...

Passed by a Mountain Bike

On Burt Swamp/Fales Rd I heard what I thought was a motorcycle coming up behind us. "Car Back!" I yelled. Soon after that, a guy on a mountain bike passed us by. He had a gas tank and a motor on it that sounded like an underpowered weed wacker. I think he was doing somewhere around 30 mph.

Big Ring!

As our group pulled onto 120, I figured I should shift into the big ring up front and get ready for the descent. Much to my surprise, I was already in the big ring. Nice...

18.6 at the Halfway Point, originally uploaded by Martinator.

18.6 at the Halfway Point. Not bad for this early in the season.

Mount St.

Here is where I wish I had a lower gear. I grind my way to the top as most others pass me by. I did pass one person, but he blew by me after we got to the top.

Descent Catch

The group I got dropped by on Mount St was within my sites. I knew I could make up ground on the descent down Upper Union St. I usually like, no, love to early apex the turn onto Otis St. and try to carry as much speed and momentum as possible. I think I took the 90° turn at 22 mph :-). the trick is to shave off speed on entry then accelerate once past the Apex. I learned that from AutoCrossing.

I eventually caught the group before we got back to "the neighborhood". If you don't catch a group by then, you won't.

Feeling Good

I finished the ride with a 17.6 mph average. It felt good.

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Pan Mass Challenge

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Quick Benchmark Ride

Window of Opportunity

I was up early on Saturday morning. The weather was beautiful and I had already mowed the bulk of the lawn the night before. The rest of the weekend's forecast was "yucky". So I found myself with some free timebefore I had to take my daughter to soccer. Not a lot of time, but enough to get a decent ride in.

Benchmark Ride

I decided to do one of my "benchmark" rides. It is a 16 mile loop around Franklin. After the good ride I had this past Tuesday, I figured I would push it a bit and try to finally get a decent average mph on a solo ride. My goal was to finally crack 15 mph moving average on a solo ride. I haven't yet and I know I should be faster.

I was feeling good and by the end of the ride I had cracked 16 mph moving average! 16.3 according to my bike computer. :-)

Tech Stuff

Bike Computer

I have a 5 year old Cateye Wireless bike computer that has been working just fine up until last fall. I replaced the batteries in both the unit and the transmitter by the wheel. Neither fixed the issue. The issue being that it wasn't recording my ride correctly. Before I headed out today I checked the wheel. The little magnet that triggers the transmitter had slid down about half a centimeter. Not enough to not work at all, but enough to make a difference. I repositioned it and it seemed to work fine for the entire ride.

GPS

So far this season I've had my Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver shut off automatically. Typically when I hit my first bump in the road. In most cases it works fine after that first incident. It had worked fine on Tuesday's ride. I thought to myself: "Maybe I should whack it as a preemptive measure". So I did, and sure enough, it shut off. I turned it back on and it stayed on for the rest of the ride.

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Pan Mass Challenge

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First PHAT Tuesday Training Ride

First Ride of the Year (at least for me)

Is it going to rain? How cold will it be? How should I dress for tonights ride? There are all the thoughts going through my head as I drive south on 495 through spotty rain, ominous clouds, and hints of blue sky. Well, it didn't rain, was 50/50 clouds and sun (before the sun started to set) and ~60° F. I wore my long riding pants, my Germany shirt, and a long sleeve featherweight layer under my shirt. just the right amount of clothing.

Familiar Faces

This will be the third year of riding this Tuesday Evening ride and the first as an actual member of (PMC) team PHAT Tuesday. It was good to see a lot of familiar faces. I even rememberd some names ;-)

Not Pushing It

This was my first time out with the group this year and I didn't want to push it. Typically I try to hang on to the faster riders and just wind up getting dropped and then slogging it along trying to play catch up in "no man's land". This time I made sure not to get tempted to hang with the fast group. I would up riding with Tim and a couple of other PHAT Tuesday riders (Kevin, and Pete) on the first leg of the ride. It was nice riding that leg with a group for a change. Usually I get with the wrong group and get dropped here.

While we were riding, Tim and I were discussing the new website, the new blog, and the team's page on FaceBook. Interesting experience doing pseudo IT support while riding a bicycle.

Tim also introduced me to some of hte other team members. He also gave me tips on whose wheel I shouldn't ride to close to.

0:08 Seconds Faster

So I compared this ride with a ride from the same time last year. This ride I was 0:08 seconds faster :-) I guess I'm constistant.

The GPS

I loaded up my Garmin Etrex Legend GPS with brand new batteries before the ride. I didn't have any issues with it. A first for this year.

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Pan Mass Challenge

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PMC Yard Sale

A Successful Yard Sale!

This past weekend we held a yard sale to help raise funds for the Pan Mass Challenge. I posted the event on FaceBook and on Craigslist (no point is posting in the paper anymore). Some friends donated some items to sell and my mother and step-father came up with some of their stuff to sell. The rain held out (for the most part) until the very end.

My wife made fresh Blueberry Muffins and they sold out. Some body even commented that they read about the muffins on Craigslist! (Excellent!)

At the end of the sale we raised $145.00 (some were straight donations). When I combine this with the sale of my weight set (to a fellow PHAT Tuesday team member for $200.00) it adds a total of $345.00 towards my fund raising commitment!

I am just over 1/4 of the way to my commitment total of $4,200.

PMC Yard Sale, originally uploaded by Martinator.

My wife, Patty, and my oldest daughter, Catherine, manning the table.

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Pan Mass Challenge

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Mother's Day Ride

Happy Mother's Day

After taking my family out for a really nice Mother's Day Brunch at "3" in Franklin our afternoon was unstructured. My wife was relaxing on the deck and the kids were relativly low maintenance and she said "Why don't you go for a ride?" I did. I needed to burn off at least some of those calories from the brunch.

Windy

There was a steady wind blowing from out of the west. Ed, a neighbor and fellow cyclist, recently told me that he heads out into the wind so that he has a tailwind on the ride back. So that's what I did. It worked to a certain extent. I didn't fight the wind on the last quarter of my ride. The rest of the ride, either a head wind or a cross wind.

Some Climbs

I won't get better at climbing if I don't do some climbing. So I headed south on Summer St. It is a nice climb and you get to pass by a house with a fountain with a fake aligator in the pond. Then I hit Mount St. I think it is a steady 8% grade over a half a mile. I surprised myself at how well I climbed it. Though when I ride solo, I'm always the fastest ;-) After that I I rode west on West St., where there is a short but steep climb right after the Cook's Valley Farm in West Wrentham.

Slow

I don't know if it is because it is early in the season, the wind, or whatever but it sems like I am riding very slow. I am having difficulty breaking 15 MPH Moving Average where usually at this time I am at least near the mid 15 range. I guess I need to ride more.

#!@% GPS

My GPS turned itself off about 4-5 times during my ride. It may be time for a new device.

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Pan Mass Challenge

Please visit my PMC Profile, read my story, and sponsor me as I ride for a cure.

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