Saturday's MHCC group ride led by Art G., called "Team Guerrilla Road Ride, Alternate Plan B (TGRRAPB)," was the first "Quick Ride" of my cycling life back in 2000 and I have returned every year since. The first ride was with my old FujiClub 12-speed and I was very nervous not knowing any of the riders. I had no idea what a ride of that length or amount of climbing would entail. I even did not know what to bring along in terms of repair tools, food, etc. I strapped my large handlebar mounted pack on and loaded it up with spare parts and tools! At the last minute, after I saw that the rest of the riders had tiny saddle bags, I ejected my 5 inch adjustable wrench. I kept up with the pack of 15 or so riders the first half of the ride, but paid the price the second half with cramps. I limped in many minutes after Art had provided a wheel to bring in an overweight guy that was behind me with 10 miles to go.
Since that first ride I have learned a great deal on how to eat and train. We have had as few as 7 riders on cold, rainy days and set the record for the most riders this year due to the great weather at 32. The second year of
riding TGRRAPB I learned about over-hydrating. I just drank water and wound up cramping again, even though in better shape, due to diluting out my electrolytes. After this lesson I always carry one bottle of water and another of sports drink and alternate drinking from each. The third year I learned how eating too many carbs and not enough protein induces insulin to drain all of your circulating blood sugar leaving you without fuel for muscles. At the half way point we stop usually for about 20 to 30 minutes at a country store in Adirondack for a rest stop. The picture shows us a this year's edition. After devouring large amounts of GU and power bars and sports drink we started off around Schroon Lake. After about 20 minutes my legs seized up on this ride for the third time in a row. By the fourth year I finally completed a TGRRAPB in good shape. I now pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my longer rides and can eat it with confidence even at a long stop knowing that the protein and fat will prevent the insulin surge.The long climbs and descents and smooth Adirondack roads twisting by lakes, rivers, streams and mountains make the TGRRAPB a must ride for every year. There is a core group of riders that returns year after year. Some are the same riders that do other Quick Rides and others I only see on this ride. This year we had a fellow that claimed to be an American European ProTour rider. He had a beautiful Team Phonak BMC team issue bike and told great stories about riding for Landis and others on the Phonak team. We always stay and eat some cake that Art's wife provides and talk about the ride and other things as we recover. The group this year was pretty unanimous in thinking our ProTour rider was spinning a tall tale on us.
The last three years I have gotten myself into the shape and have the experience to do the ride well without needing lots of recovery time. In fact, I have done it knowing I will be doing a 20-mile time trail the following day teaming up with Alix or Donna in the Saratoga Duathlon. The first year Alix and I managed to run-ride-run to first place in the mixed team division. Alix ran a good first 5K and I used my Trek Y-foil to advantage and completed the 4-lap, 5 miles per lap course in about one hour. The result was that Alix was the first women to start the second 5K run and she held her position through to the finish. She brought the crowd to cheers as the first women finisher - she said it was awesome! That first year Donna did all three legs and placed first in her age group.
The second year the race grew in size and Donna, Alix and I failed to repeat our first place finishes, but we still were respectable. I finished 16th in the field of 200 for the bike leg portion of the race, which I thought was good. It is great fun to pass riders and move so fast through the field. The Y-Foil is such a fast bike being all carbon and DuraAce components. The aerobars with bar end shifters allows you to stay aero the whole time. The course is flat except for a short climb at the end of each lap. Once you figure the right gearing, you get into a pattern that repeats lap after lap. I watch the computer and time each lap trying to bring in negative splits. If you stay under 15 minutes per lap you are going over 20 MPH. The previous day's ride is either a good warm up or a drain on leg power or both!
This year I felt really good after doing the TGRRAPB so I expected to do well in the duathlon. For the first time I am teaming up with Donna, instead of Alix. Donna tags me at the end of her 5K and I start running with the bike out of the transition area. She yells that she has set a PR for the 5K with her first leg time. OK - now the pressure is on; I better come through with a good effort to support her PR. Last year I averaged 22.3 MPH, so to go better I need to hit well under 15 minutes per lap. I started off and felt off. Legs felt ok, but my stomach was not right. I had eaten too much - taken in what I would normally do for a long ride, not a 1 hour hard effort. By the time I rounded the third corner I started bringing up breakfast. The first climb to finish the first lap and I was not pumping in the right gear - not going fast, others were passing me! My time for the first lap was 14:45 - not fast enough. After that lap I started to feel better.
As is often the case, I passed riders and the same riders would pass me back - each of us showing our own preferences for different parts of the route. By the third lap we are thinning out to be the same riders and only passing really slow riders. My lap times were getting better each lap. By the fourth lap I felt really good. My finishing pace was a new record for me at 22.6 MPH, which was good enough for 7th overall out of 150 riders. Donna ran another good 5K leg and we finished 4th out of 12 coed teams and only 25 seconds off of 2nd place. We enjoyed the great spread of food and each had messages at the end of the race.
On Monday we decided to take out the mountain bikes and explore a favorite road over in Vermont. The Kelly Stand Road is a dirt road that climbs for about 10 miles along side a beautiful tree-lined stream. People camp between the road and stream and there is little traffic. The road is only open in the non-winter months and connects Arlington to Stratton Mountain. The Appalachian Trail crosses the road at the 9 mile mark. At the 11 mile mark there is a historical marker where Danial Webster addressed 15,000 people in July of 1840 at the Whig Convention! It is hard to believe that this little traveled road in the middle of the Vermont forest would ever have had that many people on it. The climb is long and steady but never too steep. A good workout for sure and an awesome, long and fun descent. We ate some food down along the stream and then drove home.
Today, the last day of May, I did my first ride after the Memorial Weekend trio of rides. It was one of my usual routes out Lick Spring Road, up the Summit Lake climb (.5 miles, 250 feet), up north road, back to Greenwich. I decided to finish by going up Willard and then going home, since I am training for the Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race in 3 weeks. At the top of Willard I see a CRBC rider heading down. I figured he was out alone on a training ride, beating the afternoon thunderstorms like I was. When I get to the Willard Ski Area driveway I see several cars, bikes and bikers milling about. I turned into the driveway and saw that these were more CRBC clad riders. One saw me roll up and said, "Hey, this isn't one of our guys." I asked who was playing in my neighborhood. He told me that they were filming a commercial for Litespeed bikes! Sure enough they had beautiful Litespeeds decked out in Zipp wheels. They said they had to take pictures here instead of Tennessee to keep for getting shot out on the good country roads. I warned them that getting shot was still a possibility here. He asked if I was just out for a ride and I told him I lived 6 miles down the mountain and I was finishing off a 40 mile ride. We talked about the Battenkill-Rubaix Race and I rode home. Once again I was reminded how special an area we live in - a road and mountain biking paradise that I hope the rest of the world only slowly learns about so it stays that way.
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