F the Y

Not that there is anything wrong with the Y, it's not Y's fault.  But, we decided that there are too many good things to do outside, and now we have room inside for setting up training equipment, why pay the dues, fight the roads, take the time to travel, go through the hassle?  Hence, F the Y.

As it is I am forced to use the equipment found in Holiday Inn Expresses and Comfort Inns across the Northeast and US when traveling at work.  I have my Y-foil on a trainer for indoor spinning, Donna will get a treadmill and we have free weights and mats for calestetics, what more do we really need?

However, it is the opportunity to push the limit on outdoor activities at home that is most appealing about F-ing the Y.  I just returned from a 14 mile ride on mostly icy / dirt roads around the house - out Coach, up Allen to Summit Lake - out and back on Dutchtown Road, and home.  It was 25 degrees with little wind and with the right gear, it was a comfortable 1:16 workout with good climbs, fresh air and georgous scenery.  I think I had one car pass me on Dutchtown,  that's it! 


My Epic has its Noikian studded tires on, and pink vet wrap to cover the white frame so some over-zealous deer hunter doesn't see a flash of white and shoot me.  For me, a hoody under the helmet, two technical shirts, my winter riding jersey and yellow wind jacket, CamelBack filled with warm water (under the wind jacket) on top.  Below: cycling shorts, midweight cycling pants and wind pants I bought for $2 at a bike store in Bennington, VT.  On the feet: wool socks, Seal Skin waterproof socks and Shimano winter MTB boots.

Last Sunday I did the annual Lake Desolation MTB ride.  A set of pictures and description can be found here:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=45506&id=1424203679&ref=mf.  While the loggers have made a mess of this area, it is still fun to get out with a group in such challenging conditions. 

Killington is open and I will be heading up tommorow!  F the Y.

Winter Riding Countinues

A mix of activities to keep in shape, continued progress on knees and winter Ridn makes January an eclectic mix. Swimming and spinning are keeping the heart and muscles strong. Winter riding in the woods on the studded-tired mountain bike and snowboarding make up the ridn.

Dan's Saturday morning spin class remains a routine for Donna and I. We get up not too early and still are at the Y in time to get signed-up for a bike. Dan is good at visualizing rides and makes the workout fun. Donna and I then head for the (Un)common Grounds coffee shop for breakfast.

This Saturday I doubled-up and went to Grafton in the afternoon to ride with the Capital Group at the WinterFest. We had 15 riders and challenging snow conditions for a great 2+ hour workout. The group stayed together going over Water Tower and Little Johnnies trails, then 8 of us rode RPI to the other end of Long Pond. We returned the length of Long Pond on the ice, dodging ice fisherman and ice holes all the way back to the beach area.

I have managed to get to Killington a couple of Fridays to enjoy excellent conditions up on the mountain. The base was solid enough to remain after a serious thaw and enough new and man-made snow has been added on top. The last time there I stayed over on Killington, Skye and Bear Mountains until my legs gave out. Cascade was in great shape with soft bumps and Skyehawk too. Later in the day as the soft stuff hardened, my legs gave out -- it was a long trip back over to the car at K-1.

A mountain bike ride on the home trails where I had to stay balanced enough to stay within 8-inch wide ATV tire tracks with 4 to 12 inch walls on the side was a fun challenge last Sunday. With the wind chill in the single digits, I had on the flat pedals in order to wear hiking boots. As a result I was warm, but the pedals kept hitting the side of the tracks. Still a great workout and fun to be in the woods under these conditions.

A trip is being planned to California next month in conjunction with work. I hope to ride some of the routes of the professional bike race Tour of California with a coworker, and then go up to Tahoe to do some snowboarding.

A Day With Dwichael

Killington tours, spinning and ice biking rule! Paltry snow levels and ice cold temperatures predominate early February conditions. Temperatures below 10 with windchills well below -10 have forced the cycling activity inside for the most part.

Donna keeps encouraging me to accompany her to Dan's Saturday spin sessions at the Y. It has been a good way to keep some aerobic fitness and it is fun to listen to the different levels of activity that people deem 'normal.' A break in the temperature, and with conditions at the upper limit for snow depth, on Sunday I got a great workout doing the home trails for 1:20 last Sunday. The 3-5 inches of loose snow on top of frozen 1-2 inches provided tough resistance but doable biking. It was a great high intensity workout - like a long hill, or plowing though sand or mud. So, it was a good weekend of spinning and biking.

The 'bread' to my ridn 'sandwich' during this period was two tours of Killington. I hosted a Dairy Specialist from WI for the week and on Wednesday we spent 5 hours on the best that VT has to offer. It was his best day of skiing ever. We had a guide in Matt S who has skied K since childhood, so I learned some new terrain. We worked our way from Ramshead to Bear Mtn and back. Lots of time was spent riding alongside the obstacles on the Terrain Park. I even did a ride down the giant 1/2 pipe - not exactly looking like a flying tomato!

On Sunday John T came up and spent the night. We got up early hitting the Ramshead Quad at 9am sharp. We did the same tour of the mountains as I did last Wednesday, spending a lot of time on Cruise Control. We even got in a couple of runs on the double diamond under the K-1 Gondola, as John was trying to impress some women that were in the Gondola with us. John kept me entertained all day with his caffeine-induced, animated monologues and longings for female companionship. His divorce becomes final this week and he was just a'twitter. We had a great time reminiscing our days in Washington County. His office mates have dubbed him the clone of two characters in the show "The Office," and I would say they have him well named! We stayed at it all day, without any breaks, until 4 pm closing - the best day of ridn so far this year! I worked hard to keep the speed up so I could stay with John who enjoys high speed and not too many turns. It was good for improving my technique. A new wax layer and sharpened edges helped as well.

I write from Louisville, KY, where I am doing seminars for John Deere. I left Albany yesterday at 4pm and today Donna reports about 20 inches of snow in the driveway, with more coming down! I return on Friday and hope to get some powder riding in!

Spinning Necessity

Winter has finally arrived in full force. Last Saturday's ice biking was followed by another Sunday afternoon snowboard session at Mt. Snow. Followed on Monday with another afternoon ice bike on the home trails. However, spinning at the Y has been needed to keep aerobic conditioning and to work on the 8 pounds I need to lose by the end of March.

The Sunday afternoon-Mt. Snow routine has worked well two weeks in a row. I get there around noon and a jump into an empty parking space right next to the $10 premium spots; get suited up at the tailgate of the Outback, and take the short walk to the lift line. This Sunday the lines were very full. I went to the slow lift and got to the top to take a leak at the summit lodge, then headed off to the Caritina area. Lines were less full. A nice feature of riding solo is that you get in the Single Only line and go right to the front. So, waiting in line was never more than a 5 minute break in the action. I liked the trails in this section of Mt. Snow. They were less crowded and had good loose cover to ride over. Eventually I worked my way back over to the main lodge and alternated from doing the Summit run to the other quad. I was feeling very comfortable going over the bumpy steep sections at high speed towards the end. A very good day.

Monday I worked at home in the office and planned the day around a 2-3 pm start of riding the home trails on the Epic. The conditions were ideal with just a couple of inches of dense snow and ice and weather in the 20's. My anticipation was rewarded. I like these trails best under these conditions. The wet spots are all rock hard and the icy, muddy, rutted areas add some technical difficulty to what is ordinarily either smooth or muddy. I stayed out over 90 minutes and got another great workout, despite my legs being dead from the weekend.

On Wednesday and today I went to the Y and spun with Donna in Dan's class. So, a good week of January-February ridn!

You Cwazzy Mistaw

Five years ago, while training for the Tupper Lake Tinman, a 1/2 ironman-distanced triathlon, I was running early in the morning in Plattsburg, NY. It was May, but it was brutally hot and humid. I was making the return leg back to the hotel on a 6.5 mile out and back route I had done several times while staying in Plattsburg. I was hurting bad, having gone through several days of traveling to work on farms with consultants in the hot, humid conditions. All of a sudden I hear a kid in his driveway getting ready to catch the elementary school bus yell to me, "why are you wunning mistaw?" He replaced his r's with w sounds. I managed to get out some words from my salt-stained lips in between grimaces of pain and said, "because it's fun." The words were reflex, and not even meant to be ironic. He replied before my next heartbeat with, "you cwazzy mistaw!" After I told this story to Donna it has become our catch phrase for when we plan or do something extreme.

This morning Donna asked me if I would join her at Dan's Saturday 8 am spin class at the Y. I said no, that I was planning on joining a group mountain bike ride at Grafton State Park at 1 pm. And, you know what she said. The fact that it was 7 degrees out and snowing lightly had something to do with her response. When she told Dan and other members of the spin class why I was not with them, they came up with other words to describe my intentions.

Ice biking is not a familiar activity to even some avid cyclists. Two winters ago I bought a set of Nokian studded tires for my Epic mountain bike. They have a carbide tipped stud sticking out of every knob, all 296 of them, in each tire. You can bike on glare ice and not spin or slip a wheel. After solving that problem it is just a matter of keeping yourself warm. The only problem I have had with that is keeping my feet warm. It don't have winter mountain biking shoes and my attempts at using Gore Tex socks and neoprene covers with the regular mountain biking shoes, which are vented for crying out loud, have resulted in near frost bite. In addition, the metal clips conduct heat out and also freeze up making clipping in a problem. My solution for this day was to put on the flat, studded Kona pedals that came with my Yeti and wear my GoreTex hiking boats.


There were 10 of us "cwazzies" on hand for the 1 pm take off from the Winter entrance to Grafton. We rode for about 3 hours, a little over 10 miles, on icy hard-packed snow, rocks, roots and puddles. We did a lot of hill climbing which actually helped keep us warm. It was a fantastic day on the bike and despite the sub-20 degree temperature, most of us stayed pretty warm. My foot solution worked very well and I even wore my snowboarding helmet for extra protection, although it was overkill - I could have gone with the regular biking helmet with the hoody underneath. It was just what I needed - 2 hours of hard aerobic effort and probably close to 2000 calories burned off. The woods were beautiful and we even rode out on the frozen lake among the ice fishermen - who looked at us like we were, you guessed it - cwazzy.