Isn't this what *everyone* does on vacation?

Arrive late Friday night.

Saturday: long run in Beartown State Forest; dinner in town; movie

Sunday: 30-mile bike down to Connecticut, up through the valley; short run in the 'hood; home-cooked dinner of pasta, stuffed squash blossoms, gambas a la plancha, beet and tomato salad with fresh mint, peach and berry crisp

Monday: long bike ride (Noah) and a run in the 'hood (Helen); dinner at the Route 7 Grill.

Tuesday: one last run in Beartown State Forest; burrito lunch; schlepp it on back to Philly.

Which is the bread, which is the butter?

A busy last few days of running and biking. On Saturday, met up with the usual Saturday Morning Trail Run down at Valley Green. Some guys were running the four corners; I wasn't up for all four, but did join them for two.

Sunday, I got out on the bike, and did the most recent version of the bread and butter loop. It wound up around 75 miles.

Then Monday, the Third Annual Green Ribbon Trail run – the fourth-of-July tradition of running someplace that isn't the Wissahickon, with the guys that I usually run in the Wissahickon with.

And I realized, a few things have changed in the last year or so. To start, a few things have happened to the bread and butter loop over the last year or so.

The bread and butter ride is the one that I developed, bit by bit, when we were still living in C-Hill. It was a 65 mile route that included a 35-mile out and back, which was ok, and a 30 mile loop, which was pretty awesome. No surprise: I called it my bread-and-butter because I would do it so often. Sometimes it seemed like I rode it most weekends, at least when the weather permitted. One winter, the weather permitted pretty much through December. That was fun.

Moving to Mt. Airy meant that the route got longer. This alone would have knocked it up to around 70 miles.

I added on a few more miles above that, because I found a nicer way to start the route. It's now closer to a loop; there's only around 5 miles that I do both ways (and even that's avoidable, if I want to do a few miles on route 113). And the additions are nice; more woods, less traffic, and a section that goes through Evansburg State Park. There's also a section on this odd trail that goes under the powerlines.



But the biggest change to the bread-and-butter route? I just don't do it that much anymore.
This was only the second or third time I've done the whole thing since the start of spring. It's hard for me to get out on my bike as much as I'd like. The little jump in mileage, from 65 to 75, doesn't help; but mostly, I think it's my shift in focus. I'm running more, I'm biking less. I'm ok with that. It's just so much easier to lace up the running shoes and head out. I can run in the 'hood, I can head down into the woods. I can run by myself, with Helen, with other wanderers... For a bike ride, there's just so much more planning involved, and so many more limitations. So many roads that are un-fun to ride on. And I like riding on the path, but it gets old.

Meanwhile, the 12-mile run on Saturday – that felt pretty easy. Familiar paths, familiar faces. It felt more familiar than anything I've been doing on the bike lately.

That said, the ride on Sunday was a lot of fun. Especially the part going through the woods out by Swamp Creek, alone on the road, with the sun shining through the trees. That was pretty awesome. It usually is.

The Flip-Side of Snow Running is...

...no biking.

2009, and the first weeks of 2010, have been big running years for me.
What they haven't been, though, are big biking years. There, I'm totally out of it.

2009 started out with a lot more biking. Although it didn't feel like it at the time, I had biked around the same amount, through August, that I had in the past few years. This was highlighted by some fantastic biking in Great Barrington and in Vermont.

Since then, I've done a lot less.

I knew, going into marathon training, that it would mean less biking. And that was ok. Not good, but ok. I still got out around once a week or so. What I didn't get to do, though, was the regular, long weekend ride.

Since the marathon, though, I've barely gotten out at all. It's been COLD! And SNOWY! And that's coming on 3 months now since the marathon.

A few years ago, I was able to do so much biking over winter break. I remember going out on my 65 mile ride the Saturday before Christmas. It wasn't balmy, but with the right grear, it was totally doable. Am I just being wimpier this year? I don't think so. Much of the time, there's actual ice. And with the snow on the ground, I'm guessing at least 2 weeks – and maybe even 3 – before roads are ridable.

Part of the trade-off was getting to run in the snow. And I can accept that. Helen and I ran 15 miles today, much of it on packed snow. It beats me up a lot less. But now, I'm ready. I want a real winter, but I'd just like a few of those days when I'm not teaching, when it's over 40 degrees, and I can take off for a bunch of hours and just lose myself on my ride.

Of course, right now, I'm not even in shape for that. I did spend 40 minutes riding the trainer on Sunday. Just isn't the same.

Bikes, Cars, and Traffic

In October 2008, the driver of a gold Mercedes hit me while I was riding my bike.
This was at the intersection of Mermaid and Crittenden. The intersection is a 4-way stop; there'd been a decent number of cars, so I'd stopped before proceeding. Did I put my foot down at the stop? I don't remember. I do remember that I had not been riding agressively. And I was almost all of the way through the stop sign, too – the driver just decided to start driving while I was still going, and hit my rear wheel.
He stopped, looked, and then drove away. I didn't know if I was hurt, or how bad by bike was, so I didn't give chase. Besides, there were witnesses. I got the names and contact information of two people who stopped to help me. They and I had both noted the license plate.
Later that day, I gave my police report. The officer – officer Boone – confirmed that the license I gave her was registered to a gold Mercedes. I figured this was proceeding well; she'd contact the witnesses and they'd contact the driver who had hit me and then fled.
What's happened since then?
Nothing.
Nada. Zilch. The one person I talked to at the police station seemed kind of annoyed that I'd called. I wasn't hurt, so I couldn't sue for damages. (Although, as the personal injury lawyer I contacted told me, I'm not a doctor, so really, how could I be sure I wasn't injured?)
The guy went through a stop sign, hit me, and fled. And the police didn't do a thing about it.

Here in Philly, there's been a lot of talk lately about the role of bikes in the city. A couple of councilmen got on their high horse about cracking down on dangerous cycling. I actually agree with most of Kenney's points - I hate bikes on the sidewalk as much as anyone. But when I hear about increased enforcement of rules regarding bicycles, I'm hesitant.
I'm like a lot of cyclists – I'd like to see more enforcement of all traffic laws. It doesn't start with cyclists, though. It starts with the cars. It starts with the cars for several reasons.
First off, there's the extent of law breaking by automobile drivers.
Here are some things to try: crossing nineteenth street, on the south side of Walnut; biking on Eakin's Oval and going past the merge lanes for 676; or, if you're not used to it, just biking from one end of center city to the other. Even on the bike lanes. You don't have to break any laws to feel vulnerable. And if you want to see cars breaking the law, all you have to do is open your eyes.
But cars also have to be first because of the damage that they can do. A 25-pound bike just can't do the damage that even the smallest cars can do.
One more thing to consider. As crazy as this sounds, cars are as responsible for the bad reputation of cyclists as cyclists are. Bad drivers drive good cyclists off the road.

Philly streets have a bit of chaos to them. Most people here accept that. I'd like to see that change. It's crazy, though, to expect cyclists to be the only people out there obeying the rules of the road.

Helen for the Polka-Dot Jersey!

Helen and I did quite a bit of biking over the last week or so, when we were up in New England.
And while Helen didn't come with me on either of my long rides, we did a handful of 30+ mile rides together. And one thing I noticed - she's climbing better than me. Yes, she's a bit lighter, but she gives quite a bit of that advantage back in the weight of her bike. Plus, she's riding with running shoes and pedals with toe clips.

This was the hill she rode up, heading out from my mom's house in Vermont:




And, uhm, this is the elevation profile.



Impressive!
And this without using her granny gears.
She did admit to standing up and climbing at the end.

Tomorrow's not looking so good for a bike ride

Courtesy of weatherunderground.com:





I can handle the cold.
But the other stuff - Definite Light Ice Pellets? - yeah, not so much.
Looks like it'll be some QT with the trainer. Ugh.

Cycling Fitness: fading, fading…

So it's not only blog postings that have fallen victim to our busy schedules this fall.
Yes, our schedules have made it harder to give updates. Our present training, too, hasn't really lent itself to updates. Helen's making progress, but she's still not 100%. I'm still running quite a bit, but with no races planned, it's pretty much just routine.

I figured out last spring that it's very possible to get a decent amount of running in with a busy schedule. And that remains the case. But biking is harder. My job this semester requires quite a bit of face time at the office, making it harder to get a mid-length ride in during the week. I had been riding my bike into work some, but haven't since a car hit me in early October. (I'm fine, wasn't hurt at all; I need to get my rear wheel fixed, though, and I've been as lazy about that as I have been about posting).

I'm still getting a ride in most weekends. Some have been quite nice. A few weeks ago, when we were out in Yardley, Helen and I went out for a nice ride through some of the scenic roads of Bucks County. Otherwise, I've usually been doing some portion of my bread-and-butter loop most weekends. Doing the full thing has been pretty rare, though, and the one time in the last few months that I did it really was tough.

This morning I did 45 miles of it. It was a nice ride, but I really couldn't push it.

So I'm torn what to do. On the one hand, I'm still enjoying the rides. I can call it 'base miles' and just wait until vacation starts and hope that the weather lets me get more rides in then. I could call it 'off season' and stop worrying about it at all. Or I can lug my trainer up from the basement and start getting more "miles" in that way. (Ugh. Trainer miles… I dunno).

So that's the decision I've gotta make.

Friday's Ride

Helen and I were up in New England last week, on an abbreviated version of the Vermont/Great Barrington trip we've taken before. We got to revisit some things we've done before – running in the Beartown State Forest, riding up from mom's towards Tunbridge, running on the off-roads outside of mom's village. (Helen did much better on that climb than she did 2 years ago, just pedaled right up it). Some of my favorite biking routes are up there, both near Great Barrington – where we didn't have time to ride this time – and up in Vermont. My ride on Friday, though, was largely new areas. I'd wanted to do that, see stuff I hadn't seen before. This was my most successful ride yet on the other side of the White River towards Woodstock.

Distance: just over 50 miles

Time: probably around 4 hours, including stops to eat

Lowest elevation: 223

Highest elevation: 1614

Really Big Climbs: Hard to say, but 5 at most. The ride from mom's house to and from Sharon is one big up and down. Once I crossed the White River and went up Howe's Hill Road I was climbing for a while, from around mile 7.5 to 10.5, then again, after a significant downhill, from 11.5 to 13.5, although this one wasn't as hard. In general, the hills I was on across the White River weren't as hard as I expected. Miles 17 to 22 was pretty steady climbing, much of it on a packed dirt road that I was glad to be going up and not down. After that it was a fairly gradual (by VT standards, anyway) descent down into Bethel. Really, from mile 22 until mile 43 I was either going down or riding the relatively flat roads along the White River. That said, I'd probably say that the section from mile 26 to mile 38 was the least favorite part of the ride; the most traffic, the least scenery. It also goes through Bethel, which is surprisingly ugly for a Vermont town. The last section along the river, from South Royalton to Sharon, there's a little road on the other side of the river that's nice. But riding on routes 12, 107, and 14 – it's not as nice as the other roads in Vermont. The two hardest climbs, it turned out, were the ones on 132, which I'd done a bunch of times before.

Highest speed: 47 mph. A new record for the black bike. (Red bike hit 50 mph once, also in Vermont, on a downhill I'd hoped to get to this vacation but didn't). The 47 mph was going down 132, on the home stretch. I got up to 44 earlier in the ride, somewhere around mile 14, but there was a car coming in from a side road so I couldn't fully let loose.

Pictures taken: 0. Sorry! No camera this trip.

Overall, a nice ride. Some of the roads are ones I want to get back to. The loop itself needs some tweaking. I'd like to find a way to include the first miles and the last, but cut off some of that middle stuff – maybe find a way to cut back to Royalton instead of Bethel. It's tough to figure out these routes, though, since you never know when you look at the maps whether a road is paved or not. You don't always even know when you turn onto a road, since a lot of roads start out paved and then turn to dirt – this was the case with Stage Road, which I took in the middle of the ride. Again, a decent road to go up, but I wouldn't want to go down it. I passed a road that was called Royalton Turnpike. I can't help but think that the name was ironic.

Season's First Century

So, yesterday I rode my first "century" ride of the season.

Pretty late, this year. I did do an 80-miler a month or so ago; and I've done my 65 mile bread-and-butter route a bunch. And all of those exceed the "metric century" distance, which is just over 60 miles. (I've actually been thinking of these non-metric centuries as "imperial 161s," although I don't think that's accurate).

I did the same loop I've done on most of my recent imperial 161s, er, century rides; the 'dawhead special,' which means that I take the Schuylkill River Trail out to Valley Forge, then stay on roads in a big loop that goes out to French Creek St. Park and back. It's beautiful riding, most of it relatively car free, some of it completely car free.

It's not flat. It's not Vermont, but it's not flat.

I do think I did better this time than the last time, even though the last time I only did 70-80 miles of it, having driven out to Valley Forge and parked there. I tried to take it easy on the first 50 and then go hard coming back. And in general I was feeling good coming back, and even was kicking some butt on the return leg of the SRT. But then somewhere it kinda started to unravel a bit. Not completely, but a bit. I had the strength to go up Barren Hill ok, but that last stretch up Germantown, my left knee was hurting every time I pushed down.

It feels better now, though. And I did make it home ok.

Normally, the biggest difference for me between long rides and really long rides isn't the conditioning, or the leg strength. It's the 'little things' – a shoe that basically fits is fine for a 50-mile ride, but not for an imperial 161. Seams on gloves start to really chafe. And yeah, there's the whole butt/taint thing. So I was surprised this time that it really was my legs that were hurting at the end.

I'd like to get out there more often, but it really is a big chunk of time. I'm getting to know the route pretty well. At some point I'll start experimenting more out there, trying to find new roads and what not, but for now I'd just be happy being able to do this same route once or twice a month.

Bread and Butter pics - part II

Part II of the pics of my ride.
Incidentally, I'm told that the interesting part of my ride starts in "Lansdale" and not "Landsdale," which seems believable.

On to the pics.

Barndt road. This is from a stretch on the shorter of the two loops.

This is a section of "Lonely Road" - truth be told, it's no lonelier than most roads out there.
The street sign. No, I don't think it's "that" Ridge road. Which is an avenue, anyway, maybe a pike. And well south of there.

I blew it on this next pic, I'm way too far. The road sign says "gameland road," and the larger sign says something like, "welcome to state game lands, hunt safely." This is on the longer loop, and it's the scariest part of the ride. I sometimes sing aloud on this section, making up songs about how I'm not game:


Another nervous part of my ride, and another blown pic. The road sign there says "gun club road." I do hear shots, although I suspect they know what they're doing. This is on White's Mill Road, I believe. From the shorter loop:
Another section of White's Mill Road:


This last pic is Swamp Creek Road. Hard to capture what a pretty road this is, or how fun it is to ride on it, but I like the Dali-esque feel to the photo.


Well, that's that. Right now it's all covered with snow, but I'm hoping soon to be back out there.

Bread and Butter – Now With Pics! (part I)

A few months ago, I posted on my "bread and butter" ride, a 65-mile loop starting at my house, heading out to Landsdale, then out through a lot of mostly farm land. I've actually got a few variations, although they're all fairly similar. It's a lollypop ride, which can be anywhere from around 63 to maybe 73 or so miles long. It really gets nice after Landsdale.

I'd been planning on bringing a disposable camera for a while - and last week, judging by the trees in my 'hood, seemed like the perfect time.

.

Turns out, further NW of the city, the trees weren't as vibrant – they're a bit further along, it seemed. But these pictures are actually more representative - they really capture the late fall feel of the route.

These are the two varietes – I skipped the 15-17 miles (one way) taking me from our house to Landsdale. (Click on the photos for the gmap).

The shorter route:

The longer route:

The pics make the route seem flatter than it is, but it's by no means mountainous.

Anyway, without further adieu, the photos:

Landsale, Kriebel Road, I believe:

right nearby:

I've always had a certain fondness for this little building, since a time around 5 years ago when I waited out a thunderstorm in it.

Indian Creek Road:

I'm a sucker for photos of old school farms:

Favorite Climbs

Having posted the gmap of my ride in Vermont, it got me thinking about some of my favorite climbs/descents. I like riding in Vermont because I like hilly riding, even mountainous riding. The riding I do in Philly isn't flat, but it's not at the Vermont level.

Except for the Schuylkill river path. That's flat.

There are hills on all my other rides, though. Rides tend to be rolling. What I miss is that long-term, you're-gonna-be-here-a-while climbs. And I miss the downhills, too. I'm a woos on the downhills, but I still miss them.

Some of my favorite rides/descents are up by my mom's place in Vermont. But my favorite riding was when I lived in Berkeley. That was just amazing riding, right out the door. (It's right out the door at Mom's, too, but that's all there is there).

I didn't make a very good Californian, but I loved the riding.

This was the start of my bread-and-butter.

Up Spruce, over Grizzly Peak. For the whole ride, I usually continued over to Claremont and down into Oakland. Only wound up at 17 miles, but always felt like a great workout. I also went up Euclid a lot, which is "parallel" to Spruce (neither is particularly straight, though). Spruce is a bit more gradual, Euclid a bit steeper. I'm guessing I did around 60% Spruce, 40% Euclid. Of course, there was always the option of going straight up Marin:

I did that once. A lot of people do it once.

On longer rides, towards the end was my favorite climb – Pinehurst, from Canyon to Skyline. I always liked the names involved there. Pinehurst means nothing, but Canyon and Skyline are just the kind of roads they sound like. (Although, earlier in those rides, I was often on "Happy Valley" road, which is neither). I think in all the times I rode Pinehurst I saw 3 cars. There's just something cool about riding up a switchback.

-----

In Vermont, most of my rides involve route 132, between South Strafford and Sharon. South Strafford is around 400 feet higher than Sharon, but it's actually the ride to Sharon that's harder. Sharon to the top, it's just kind of a slog, but never really steep. It even feels kind of flat in the middle of the climb. Going out of mom's village, it just climbs right away.

Then there's the climb between Bethel and Rochester. That's on another level. I did this last year as an out-and-back. The start of the descent into Bethel is the only time I've ever reached 50mph on my bike.

I've never walked my bike up any of these routes. I'm proud of that. I did walk my bike down Claremont once, but that was because of a flat tire. The closest I came was last summer, heading toward Rochester, when I had to stop a couple times and catch my breath.

None of these are the Alps, none are the Pyrenees, none of these would get me the polka-dot jersey. But the feeling of accomplishment of making it to the top of these climbs is hard to beat.

Sunday's Ride in Vermont

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1406838



Starting/ending point: Chez Mom, in Vermont
Distance: 50 miles (bike computer. Gmaps: 49.4)
lowest point: 429ft (mile 8)
highest point: 1829ft (mile 27)



Beautiful ride. Long way to go for one weekend, but great riding up there.
First time the "new" bike has been up to Vermont. It liked it great the second day. As opposed to the first day, when it poured! That was a shorter ride.

I've been biking

I've been running, too, but – as usual – less than Helen. But today I went on a 100-mile ride, or "century." I think it's my third this year. It was based on a new route, the one that the "livestrong" ride used. That route is a century ride, with a 70 mile option, that starts out at Montgomery County Community College. I was thinking that the 70-mile route, plus biking to and from MCCC, would equal around 100. It actually wound up around 92, so I tooled around a bit in the 'hood before heading in. Seemed like I should get to that mark… although I guess I’m not sure why. It made sense at the time, but after the first 80 miles sometimes I stop thinking all that clearly. Especially on days like today, when it really starts to heat up.

The route's nice, but not fantastic. I'd like to try the full 100-mile version of the loop (either as a 120 mile ride, or driving out and back). Some really nice scenery, but a bit more traffic than I'd like at parts. Not horrible, just more than on the other long routes I know. Oh – there was one part where the traffic was horrible, but I'd lost the route by that point. A guy gave me directions, but it required biking a bit on route 100 and leaving it via an "exit" – never a good sign.

Bike did fine. Some clicking at times, which I don't quite get. And a flat tire on my front tire – that tube had lasted for over 4500 miles without a flat, so that's disappointing. The rear has flatted a bunch of times, this was the first time for the front.

I've been back home for over four hours now, I still feel drained.

Vacation report

Helen gave a couple of notes about the kind of things we were doing while up in Great Barrington. We kept pretty busy – a 13 mile run, a 1:20 trail run, I went swimming once, we went for a nice (but surprisingly strenuous and confusing) hike on the Appalacian trail (or "A.T" to the cognoscenti).

We never did make it on the tri-state bike ride. Our ride down to Connecticut was really nice – a quiet relaxing ride. And as Helen said, it's really nice to be able to ride side by side on a country road. I actually went on three rides during the week. The highlight was an 80-mile ride that included a climb up along Mt. Washington road. From what I can tell, there are two Mt. Washingtons in close proximity to Great Barrington. This was the less steep one… it was a good, challenging climb. Not a Vermont-level climb, but since I was already 40 miles in it was a good workout. I did get a bit lost a few times on the ride. I had a map with me, but it gets frustrating keeping on taking the map out and looking at it. So I wound up missing the part where I'd go to New York State. Helen was out on a smaller ride that day, and she too wound up not making it into New York. Oh well.

The third ride was my attempt at a 'tempo ride' – 5 intervals of 2 miles hard and ½ mile easy. It's a decent workout. I can see how this would help later on. It's not nearly as much fun as a real ride – it's more training than riding. But it didn't take long. Really, if I want to work on getting faster, I should probably be doing more single leg drills. But those are tough.

The last day we wanted to leave at noon, so that limited options. Our legs were pretty shot by that point. We decided to go for a hike and, if there was time, a swim as well. But we spent a few minutes looking around for the trail markers after we missed a turn, and wound up combing back without enough time to swim. And by then, my legs felt pretty shot anyway. The hike was one big climb in, so it really took a lot to get up it. And with all the running and biking already, I didn't need to do more.

Now we're back in Philly. It's good to be home.

My Bread-and-Butter

Helen posted her bread-&-butter routes a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd post mine.

Mine is longer, but that's because I do it on a bike!

I do a lot of my riding out in and past Lansdale. Some of my rides are more explorative, as I like to think of them as 'riding' and not just 'training.' So, often, I'll do some variations. Some work out well and some, not so well. Not so well usually means that I wind up spending a lot of time on major roads.

The route here is the one that I've worked out as a really good, 65-70 mile route. I've always thought of it as a lollipop route – an out and back, with a loop at the end. But, as Helen points out, it really looks more like a kite on a string.

From http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1015299

Hello Hamstrings!

My hamstrings have been tight, sore, and unhappy for a week. It's nothing painful or serious, but uncomfortable. I'm realizing that as I age, I get these little dings easily and it can take longer than a day to get over them. Getting old is understandable, but getting injured is not. Over the long weekend, I backed off a bit mileage wise, and added some other outdoor activities. Here's a little synopsis:

Friday, I ran with Leah in South Philly. My right hamstrings really bothered me, but there was no way I'd bail on the run. We managed a loop around FDR park. I'm excited for Leah, as she's been ramping up the miles and getting back into the swing of things.

Saturday, I decided to give the hamstrings a rest, so I biked and then drove (!!) to Yardley for some tennis and barbecue with my family and cousins.

Sunday, Noah and I ran 13.5 miles at Wissahickon. Hamstrings hurt the first two miles, but got better as the run progressed. We kept up an 8 minute mile pace, and I felt good until the last few miles.

Monday, Noah and I went for a 40 mile bike ride. It was a fun ride, not that many cars on the road, and new scenery, including biking through Norristown Farm Park. Besides being a long ride for me, it was also my first time biking with "toe clips." (see graphic to the left) You thread your feet into the cages that are attached to the pedals, and this set up enables you to both push down and pull up. One day I will learn how to really use them, but for now, I'm glad I didn't get stuck and fall. Having biked twice this weekend, I wonder if I've gone over to the dark side though. But at least now I am more ready for the Freedom Valley Bike Ride later this month.