Return of the Blogger after a Long Posting Gap

Since Early July, 2008 I have not Posted any activity in RuppRidn. No good excuses, just needed a break. Ridn Activities went on, along with injuries, recoveries and work.

Here is a summary of the Ridn Activities:

> Donna and I kayaked at Russ's beautifully renovated home on Hadlock Pond over the 4th of July weekend. I really enjoyed the upper body workout and getting the accelerated motion result from the extra effort put into paddling. In "spare" time I would like to take kayaking up as another activity to get a more well rounded workout to go with all the leg stuff I do.

> Also on July 4th weekend we went on a short hike to the Blue Ledges section of the Hudson River. A good test of the knees on a short and flat 2-mile in / 2-mile out hike. The water was great and the scenery spectacular.

> The third leg of the 4th weekend activity was a Bruce Ride - Lake Luzerne - Bow Bridge version. With nine riders setting a fast pace, it was fun and the weather perfect.

> Donna and I did some road riding together on our great local roads. With the hot weather we did early morning rides, or late afternoon, to keep cool on the road.

> I tried a long Time Trail after doing well on the Tuesday 10-mile time trial. The Stillwater TT had a 20 and 40-K option for my age group, and I opted for the longer test. It is an out and back race against the clock with no drafting on River Road. Having a big race like this with the course within 3 miles of your house makes it even better. I did well on the out, averaging 8-minute 5k splits. But after the turnaround, I lost my focus, stregth, rhytem , etc. I averaged 21.9 MPH and 1:07:43 time, which was not a good placing. The aero postion for that long was painful for several hours AFTER the race.

> Next day Donna and I rode in the Tour de Paws, a charity ride in Manchester, VT benefitting the dog rescue efforts there. It poured the whole ride. We did 40 miles on great roads. After returning we enjoyed a great meal put on by the organizers and drained the bikes!

> Marty was down for a meeting and he came to the house for a mountain bike ride on our home trails along with Donna. It was fun taking someone new on our home trails.

> I did a MHCC "Tour" ride that featured a tour of the Serrota factory in Saratoga. While these rides are supposed to be at a slower pace than the "Quick" rides I normally do, it was not. I got in with a fast group and we averaged over 19 MPH for the 50-mile ride on a super hot day. The factory tour was very interesting, but I still am not enticed to pay the premium price for their bikes.

> Next day was anotehr Bruce "Quick" ride called Hill of a View. The ride features many tough climbs that I did not do well on with the ride the day before still in my legs. Also, one of the riders had 3 flats before he broke a spoke and we finally (justifiably) abandend him towards the end of the ride.

> End of July and I finally do a Friday Grafton MTB ride this year. Had a good time with the usual crew and rode some new single track the Chris has built.

> Home trail and home road rides with Donna between T-storms and avoiding the heat of the day. I borke the derailleur hanger and tip of my rear triangle frame on the Epic on a simple home trail ride. I immediately went home and found a rear triangle up for bid on Ebay. After researching and asking many questions, I decided to bid on it and won the auction for only $40 plus shipping. To buy new it would be at least $250 and probably closer to $400. Very luck, since I have saved the Ebay search and have not seen another Epic rear triangle frame up for bid since!

> More Bruce and local road rides as well as home trail rides make up August. Our annual Teddy Ride - a 80-mile, 4-corner ride up in the Adirondacks was turned around at the first corner by bad weather. It was still a 58-mile ride, but we were disappointed in having to cut it short. We got soaked before we made it back anyway.

> Did a ride with Donna at SMBA. It was good to get back out on these trails again. There are some additions that are more appealing to intermediate riders with makes it fun.

> Our summer business celebration was delayed until August this year and moved to PA. So, my annual VT mountain bike adventure with coworkers did not happen. Instead I found a bike path ride along the Lehigh River starting in Jim Thorpe, PA, going 25 milers up river and then returning. Terry and Marty joined me after I did it the day before to check it out. Almost perfectly flat on a good solid base, I used the Cannondale with the Cane Creek aero rims. Terry's spokes were bent and needed fixing at the turn around point. It was Marty longest ride ever as he is now getting into some road riding.

> Late evening road rides in late August are fun because you can start so late in the day and still have time to get a good ride in. But the days are getting shorter now. Donna and I did one that had us out at Christie Rd talking to Mike and Stacy until we decided we better get going. It was pretty dark by the time we got home. On another occasion I started out from the house and within a 1/2 mile saw a bunch of riders going the other way. I turned and hooked up with them. They were from the bike store in Schylerville. Marty, a world-class speed skater and great cyclist in the off season is leading rides out of the store on Monday evenings. Donna and I rode down to the store the next Monday and we did a ride out to the Saratoga Battlefield. We had to leave the group and go like heck to make it home and still wound up in the dark on River Road without a light.

> August is also Rupert Mountain ride. Another Bruce ride, 80-miles with killer climb early and lots of intermediate climbs late. Eight riders enjoyed a perfect ride with the best that NY and VT road riding can offer. I get to ride to the ride!

> Time to break out the lights. Both the tail light for late returns on the road bike and the high pwoer headlights for the mountain bikes. I got the Yeti out for a night ride on the home trails. I always enjoy night riding and can not help the first couple of time from getting adrenelin rushes as the shadows crossing your path look like animals streaking at or past you. On the way out I went past Carol's barn on the road. On the return I came from behind the barn and went through some tall grass. Unseen until I was upended were the 15 to 24 inch diameter logs strewn in the grass. I went over the handlebars and hit on my right chin, head and shoulder. Bike and headlamp were not damaged, however.

> Early September is MHCC Century ride time. I started out with the fast group as usual, but this time the fast group was super fast and I was dropped on the first little climb. I got dropped by another group and Bruce and Art were up ahead and I was solo in heavy headwinds. I stopped at the first water stop and waited for a group and went with them. I found two guys that were doing their first century rides. They were both good atheletes and in good shape, but not experienced cyclists. Remembering my first century I decided I would hang with these guys for the day. We stopped and fixed a couple of flats and had a great day of it. The serious climb up West Mountain Road was a challenge, but I stayed at the top and waited for them. I finished and Donna and Harry were waiting at the picnic.

> I could not let the season end without taking the Yeti to Killington for a Downhill MTB day. With the rain we have had all summer the trails were very slick and slippery. It took me about 1 1/2 runs to get used to it, but after that it was a blast. IN all I got six runs in and covered most of the black diamond trails.

> Sacandga Art Ride - good weather and good people, about 20 for the Quick version and 20 for the Tour version. Excellent pizza to take home for Donna.

> SMBA solo rides - enjoying getting to know the trails with new ones being great for solo riding. I was returning from trip to VT that I had bike in the car and never used, so stopped at SMBA before getting home.

> Early October and fall colors are at the peak. Did a great ride with Donna out the Battenkill, Skellie road and around Cassyunna Lake.

> Lake Desolation MTB Ride - early for this ride this year, we have done this in November before. Lots of mud and rocks and climbs and another foray into the Graphite mine shaft.

> More night rides on home trail on Yeti, no logs causing headers of handlebars, though! Mixing good riding on roads on weekends and home trails at night during the week has kept me in decent shape so far into the early fall. However, a trip to CA in which I could not bring or rent a bike put in a week of no activity.

> Finally purchased a new snowboard that have been researching (and driving Donna crazy) all summer long. The Lib Tech Dark Series board has Magne-traction, which is a wavy edge that lets you keep an edge on the hard pack and ice, and Bananna-traction, that is a reverse camber so you do not catch an edge as quick. Donna says this is all just marketing BS. We will see. I got a great deal on it and now can not wait for the snow to hit the mountain.

> With Donna road to McDougal Lake Road to check out a house we saw listed in one of the Real Estate booklets. Nice house, nice road and good ride.

> November 2nd and Killington is open and I am there with my new board!! With limited lifts the crowds were a bit heavy at first, but lighter towards the end. K-1 Gondola open and top to bottom riding in Rime, Reason were great. Board worked as advertised, too. I wanted to take it easy on these new muscles, but was having too much fun. Sore the next couple of days. Did a night mountain bike ride, but had to take it easy from the soreness. Then at Salem office, I reached down to pick up my computer bag, and OUCH! My back went into spasms. This was a Thursday, by Saturday I was at Donato's office.

> Broke out the Lemond cyclocross bike and put the trusty Cane Creek road rims on it with road tires. Back was good as long as not out of saddle. Did some MTB-ing with Bruce, but back still not right. Had to take a full two weeks off and several sessions with Donato, but finally got back in good shape. However, neck and shoulder issues from the tumble over the logs has persisited.

> More Lemond rides, taking it easy, keeping in some shape and still trying to get neck and shoulder better. Weather makes activities limited now to spinning indoors and Snowboarding. The Snowboarding actually helps the neck and shoulder as long as I don't fall hard.

> Studded tires are mounted on Epic for some Ice Biking on the home trails. XC skiing is good now in mid Decmber and Donna goes out with me on her new Snowshoes.

> By Christmas I have gone to Killington five times snowboarding, so it is shaping up to be a great year. The conditions have been good overall, with some days limited to hardpack, but the new baord makes it ridable.

> Very hard to keep weight off and stay in shape. We have lost some long time furry friends: Cherry our Bassett, our cat Sundance, and our Greyhound Liberty - all have been with us 12 years or more and all are gone in the past 2 months. Not a great way to end the year.

> Cold and windy weather make outdoor training hard to accomplish. Donna and I are hitting Dan's sping class on Saturday. XC skiing has been great, using headlamps at night has been fun on the home trails. Even Snowbarding has been a challenge. One day they shut down the main chairs and Gondola at Killington and I had to go back to the car and drive over to Bear Mountain to get out of the wind. Once I was there it was great. And, we have been getting big snow amounts. I did a Pico Powder Day again this year after a big snow fall. The trails, Glades and Woods there are amazing. I took this past Friday off and went to Killington for one of the best condition days ever, knowing that this weekend was going to be brutally cold and windy.

This brings us up to date and I will try to make more frequent entries into the blog going forward. We are working on some exciting things and will keep posting.