The youth of old age

On less than a day's notice Rick, Christine, and Janice responded to my email by agreeing to join me on a 100K ride that visits locations used as stops on the underground railroad in south Jersey. 

Rick later sent an email that reminded us all that, 10 years ago, to the day, the four of us rode together on a 200K south Jersey route and he sent us a link to this blogpost about that ride. He called it our 10th anniversary. 

Middletown 200K - Sunday ride

Sunday, May 24, 2015

With the climbfest Boston 400K on the calendar for the next weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to get in a hilly 200K to test my heart monitor controlled pace on a more challenging route and, hopefully get in safety 200K to keep my monthly streak alive.

I found the Middletown 200K route  on the RUSA site and it seemed to fit the bill. It was a new route for me, but I have ridden in the Lancaster area before and I know the route owner, Andrew M. 

Andrew's routes have always been a scenic pleasure to ride but with no shortage of hill repeats. He emailed that he had intended to do this route as a more moderate ride for the winter, but it ended up being just as hilly as other routes and the ice lingered in the shade so it didn't quite work out the way he planned. The elevation profile showed very few flats and lots of short steep climbs - so I signed up to ride it.

Riding with RUSA 25

February 28, 2015

Just minutes into the 200K, I was already second guessing my decision to ride studded tires.The vibration of studs on asphalt buzzed through the handlebars into my hands and arms even as the sound of those little metal spikes grinding into the road droned into my ears and brain. Riding studded tires felt like riding on a gravel road - noisy with extra resistance.

The temperature warranted it - maybe. We were starting the ride at around 10 degrees Fahrenheit after a recent snowfall, so ice was a valid concern. But the roads were mostly clear and the four other riders were all riding normal tires. At 130 miles, with a few bonus miles in a detour, this was already a long 200K. Riding studded tires on winter legs in subfreezing temperatures promised to make it feel even longer. But home was an hour's drive behind me so there was no turning back now - not on the last day of February - not if I wanted to complete an R-12 ride for the month. So, what's done is done, this is my here and now, I would just have to deal with it.

December 2014. R1 Redux: Leave the lights on.

Can a ride report be a music video?

The back story: 

My streak of 200k or longer rides died in November. That was the first month to go by without my riding one since I rode my very first 200k in April 2010. Fifty-five months of consistency ended quietly, without drama, succumbing to inertia and a lingering lack of motivation. 

December was passing too, easily slipping past in the flow of year end parties, arrangements, wrapping up at work. 100K rides kept me in the loop, but the 200K is the benchmark of this sport and it was getting farther away while the distance was growing more daunting.

New Jersey holiday ride: On the last day of fall

Come 
ride with me
on the last day of fall 
under a cold grey sky 
when the days have withered
in the presence of growing  night.

The Asterisk* ride (aka Montezuma's revenge)

Randonneuring offers many medals, but the R12 award has a special meaning. Earning it takes one year of monthly rides of at least 200K in length. Unlike a single event medal, the R12 awards consistency, perseverance - in short, commitment. Miss one month, and a year's worth of effort is lost. Other riders may be faster, more traveled, may cover greater distances but even a below average rider with above average perseverance can build a streak of R-12 awards that literally takes years to accomplish.

Living in the northern U.S. adds another level of challenge to the R- 12 as winter can close roads with ice and snow.

I have ridden at least one 200K rando ride every single month since my first randonneuring event in April 2010. This March would make 48 months straight - four years - without fail. But February comes before March and, weather wise, February in the northeast United States is no gimme. That was especially true this February.

In my part of the world, the polar vortex of 2014 brought arctic temperatures and layers of unrelenting snow. New snow fell on old snow and, in between the snowfalls, the temperatures dropped to single digits.

There were a couple of windows of opportunity. The Pa Randonneurs rode on February 1 and got the February ride done. I passed on the ride for a family event. Then there was my birthday weekend when the temps rose into the balmy 50s for a brief spell. I chose not to ride that day either. By the time the last week of February arrived, I had not been on a bike for over 5 weeks.

But I had plan. I had a work trip to San Diego in the last week of February. Just add a day, take a bike and *boom* problem solved. I would just ride my 200K in the Golden State where winter meant sunny 65 degree days. In fact, I would ride a 100K and a 200K! I made arrangement to ride a 100K permanent called Old Town to Carlsbad and two days later, the Montezuma to Mesa Express permanent. All together it would be 195 miles up and down the beautiful coast north of San Diego. Ha! Take THAT Polar Vortex! Life is good!

Since it was the first time I was going to fly with a bike, I decided to take the fixie. I figured that if a bike was going to get damaged by either my bad packing or someone's bad handling, the fixie was the bike I wanted to risk.

 {For those who may not know, a "fixie" or fixed gear bike has one gear. That gear turns with the wheel. If the the bike is moving the pedals are turning.No changing gears and no coasting - ever. To ride it is to keep pedaling. Always.} 

I hadn't ridden the fixie on a 200K since September but hey, the ride descriptions made the course sound relatively flat. No problem!

The first ride was just about as good as I imagined. Better in fact.

Winter Solstice Ride

 

I don't know if any words can capture the full magic of our Winter Solstice Ride but Patrick (Dancer) said it well:

bade farewell to autumn and welcomed the first day of winter with a small handful of hardy randos on the inaugural Winter Solstice 200k, the all-night ride complete with bikes festooned with string lights, tinsel, reindeer antlers and Santa hats, the dark night punctuated with Christmas carols, bad jokes and oohs and aahs at the festively decorated houses along the route. Good friends, good times: a wonderful way as any to spend the longest night of the year.

Audaxing through the snow

The New Jersey Randonneurs held their annual holiday gathering on Sunday. In true Rando style, it centered around riding a 112K permanent - the Great Adventure.  Joe "K-Hound" arranged it all including the meals and refreshment. We'd meet for breakfast, ride the route and then eat again. 

Schuylkill to Susquehanna

Saturday is laundry day in Lancaster county. Riding through miles of farmland, we see clothes hanging from lines stretched between homes and barns or sheds. Lots of black, single color, simple clothes snapping and whipping in the cold steady wind. They remind me of Tibetan prayer flags.

Independence Hall 200K - crossing paths

This weekend would be the final training weekend before my big ride for the year - the Last Chance 1200K. To prepare for the multi-day ride, I've been training on a three days on, one day off schedule. Friday was an hour run on the treadmill with 45 minutes of mile repeats after my 12 mile bike commute. Saturday was strength training - primarily 3x12 heavy reps  on the v-squat machine and leg curls to failure. Sunday would be the long bike ride. I figure that this schedule would simulate riding on the tired legs of the second or third day of a Grand Randonnee.

Earlier in the week, I sent an email to the usual suspects to see if anyone wanted to ride over the labor day weekend. Janice, with whom I rode on this year's fleche, was up for it. The others opted for a shorter ride or no ride, so Janice and me it would be.

She agreed to ride the Independence Hall 200k. It's a relatively new Permanent that starts at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I chose it because I can ride to the start and, if I also rode home, that would add about 25 miles to the 128 mile official ride giving me a solid 150+ mile day. To keep the effort honest, I chose to ride the fixie. No coasting. It was a choice I would later second guess.

Oyster Creek 200K - The calm before the storm.

The Oyster Creek 200K undulates like easy waves on a breeze brushed pond. No significant climbs means no screaming descents but the varying terrain intersperses spin worthy flats with opportunities to rise from the saddle and power over gentle rises. It is a good course to enjoy a fast ride or a merciful one.

Hard Nox

We rode the Nockamixon 200k Permanent. After starting in New Jersey, it crosses the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The land is a series of ridges and valleys that run parallel to the river in row after row of geographic wrinkles. The route crosses the undulations. The climbs are short but steep. They come in groups, like waves on a rough sea, spaced by brief stretches of flats and false flats. We climb and climb again.

Birds in flight - February 200K

Many hours into a 140 mile ride, we pass hundreds of acres of open land, a winter farm field, laid bare until Spring. It is the last weekend of February. The wind blows strong, cold and constant. We have many miles and hours yet to go.
 

Len, my riding partner for the day, tells me a story of another time, another ride, on the same course at the same field. 

Texas Wild

Fifteen minutes before the 4:30 alarm was set to go off, the crashing boom of thunder woke me up. The flash of lightning illuminated my hotel room in Dallas, Texas. I had planned to ride the Wild Willie's 100K but now I wasn't so sure. Last night, Ken from Oregon called to let me know that he wasn't going to ride because of the rain, so I was already looking at a solo 100K. The rain seemed steady and persistent. The Weather Channel was in full-on hype mode:

Severe weather warning for Dallas, Texas

60 mph hour winds reported

Shingles blown of buildings

Tornado watch until 9:00 am

Thunder! Lightning!

Death! Destruction! 

(okay, they didn't say death but they implied it)

The Doppler radar was showing red and green with squares of danger zones. I had scheduled the ride to start at 7:00. I  rolled over and went back to sleep.

Of Ice and When.

January all but slipped away. Along with it, the opportunity to keep my R series streak going. Since my first brevet, not one month had gone by without my riding at least one 200k. Now, less than one month into the new year, life was getting in the way. I skipped the January 5, 2013 PA Randonneur ride to celebrate my wife's birthday. I organized a 200k permanent later in the month but had to bail before starting it to work that weekend.  Then it was my daughter's birthday. Then the forecast for last weekend of the month called for sub freezing frigid temperatures and snow. By that time, the last time I went for a ride of any substance was a 200k in early December - like six seven weeks ago. Since then nada. I felt off my game. Doubts about the distance alone grew, much less riding it solo in sub freezing temperatures. What to do? Let it go and start again in the Spring?

The Jersey Devil in December.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday was a good day to lounge around in a robe and warm slippers, curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee, a hard crossword puzzle and a sharp number 2 pencil with a good eraser. Instead, at 6:00 am, in the lingering night that makes a December morning, I was driving through fog, interspersed with rain, to meet three Randonneurs in Vineland, New Jersey and ride a 201 kilometer route through five south Jersey Pineland counties. 

Grabbing a tiger by the tail

The arguing voices grew more heated. One voice pleading just let go and slow down. The other screamed quit bitching and hang on. The simmering argument reached a boil. Sad part is, both voices were in my head. With the voices as a backdrop, I ride on.

Rando Joe, AKA Mellow Yellow, leads our group of four on a fast ride of the 128 mile Princeton-Belmar-Princeton Permanent in New Jersey. Fresh off his recent record setting ride in which he soloed his fixed gear bike across the width of New Jersey, Joe rides a constant, unrelenting, pace. Joe likes to lead. He volunteered to pull our group around the course. We agreed. So the three of us do an informal paceline rotation in his draft.

NJ Transit 200K Permanent - Moving toward isness.

(Sunday August 19, 2012-  Hillsborough, New Jersey)

The next big thing, my goal ride for this summer of training, is less than two weeks away (more on that later). To get in one more 200k, both as part of a taper and as a “safety” to keep my R12 streak alive, I rode the NJ Transit 200k on Sunday.

Hawk Mountain 200k Permanent - The ride of the psycho chicken

On Saturday, I rode the Hawk Mountain Permanent with Chris from PA. He's working on his R12. 

This will be my third 200K in as many weekends, with a few 100's tossed in for good measure. After Friday morning's pre-work 100k, I'm a little tired but, the big ride in August is getting closer and it starts with lots of climbing. I want to be ready. 

Hawk Mountain has 8500 feet of climbing. That's why I chose it.

Philadelphia to Phoenixville

Philadelphia to Phoenixville is a 102 Kilometer RUSA permanent (#1472) that begins in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia and loops through Center City, Philadelphia,  before going through Valley Forge to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The mostly flat course has a few climbs (one pretty steep) mixed in to keep it interesting. It uses bike lanes, bike paths and low trafficked streets.

These are a few pictures taken during my ride of the course on Sunday July 22, 2012 (click on any picture to zoom):