Training Log Archive: danfoster

Eggs-pedition Oregon training ride.

Down to two eggs in the house. Grocery store has limit of one dozen per visit, and going there would be way too easy anyway. No problem, says I, I know of a farm stand high atop a nearby hill, where little kids sell eggs and honey from a wagon by the road. Off I go, taking the dirt trails on the way there, since the first rule of riding a bike with eggs is: stay on the pavement once you've got the eggs.

35 minutes later: at the top of the hill. No wagon. No cooler. No honey. No eggs.

No problem, says I, I think I remember seeing a farm stand on the top of that other hill. Back down. Back up. Plenty of farms. Plenty of horses. Not a chicken in sight. Finally, a cheery farm stand appears. Pussy willow cuttings! Forsythia! Fresh herbs! Jars of honey! But no eggs. A jar of honey and a sachet of catnip go in the bike bag, and I admit defeat and head for home, swinging by two additional farms along the way. No eggs.

Tomorrow we'll have waffles with one of our remaining eggs for breakfast. After that, who knows what will become of us...

Ventured out in the rain to run the nearby NEOC virtual training course "Brown Lizard" at Nagog Hill, which is only available this weekend. Lordy, that was a lot of mud! Jess the Adventure Dog-O stayed right with me until we got to control #4, and then she made herself scarce, right as another runner happened along to hear me yelling for her. She eventually came back and we made it on to #5, and then I completely blew up on #6 and followed the wrong stone wall, adding a 250 meter detour. Took the long way back to the car from the go control, just because I clearly need some more muddy trail running in my diet. Was very glad to be wearing waterproof socks, and to have lots of dog towels in the car.

Our evening walk was conducted on-leash, to make the most of that "freshly-shampooed dog smell".

Jori was heading for the bagel store, so I asked her to drop me off there to make my way home. Biked a few miles along the rail trail to the Assabet River, inflated my new packraft, strapped the bike across the bow, and set off downstream for its inaugural river run. Was a bit nervous about the first section of river, since there's fast water and an ever-changing assortment of fallen trees, but bike, boat, and I made it through without incident. Pulled over a few times to try different places to lash the bike, in hopes of finding one that would actually let me paddle without hitting the brake lever or drop bars. Eventually got brave enough to lash the bike WAY forward, so that the whole contraption for flip over nose-first without me in the stern.

I had promised to be home by 1PM for a lunch-time picnic. The "60 and sunny" forecast never materialized - I really wished I'd worn rain pants over my neoprene paddling gear. Pulled off the river after 3 miles and rode some singletrack on the way back home, reminding myself how much I hate riding with a loaded pack, and arriving 5 minutes after 1. A chilly outdoor picnic ensued.

Spent lunchtime working on the Cutty's shifting. Got out the derailleur hanger tool and bent it back to true. That, plus some tightening of the B screw, seemed to be the trick. Jess and I took a loop at Delaney to "beat the weekend crowds". It was a mob scene. I can't imagine what Saturday is going to be like, given the balmy forecast.

Headed out for a 2-hour road bike to Oak Hill, but I got lured off the pavement by the sight of people enjoying the sunlight on the rocks way up above me. Turns out there's some pretty cool trails back in there, and a fair amount of snow!

The combined effects of riding harder singletrack with my tires inflated for road riding, the wetter conditions, skipping gears in the middle of the cassette, and an apparent mismatch between my REI shorts and the forward tilt of this new seat fitting made parts of this ride a bit less comfortable than expected.

Did a double-take and had to U-turn for a photo op when I passed a historical marker for the Boston Quarantine Station. A century ago, everyone was quarantined in Littleton for 90 days, and nobody complained about it, but that's mainly because they were cows.

Given how little snow we've seen over the past winter, when big fluffy flakes started flying in the late afternoon, with lots of rain forecast to follow, I just had to get outside. Jess and I rode the Cutty around the usual Delaney loop. There was about 1.5" of accumulation by the time we finished. Had the whole place to ourselves. Nothing better than untrodden fresh snow up against water in the fading light of the late afternoon. I did wish, however, I'd brought the mountain bike or fat bike, since the Cutty's slicker tires were losing traction at times in the wet snow and pine needles.

Spent some time with Jess just looking out at the falling snow across the beaver pond, and then returned home for family book club night, discussing the aptly-appropriate "A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World".

A solo ride for me, which turned into a social run for Jess around our usual Delaney loop. She got to romp with her favorite friends, who were out in abundance. I almost bit it on the final water crossing, which had grown enough of an ice skin when the temps dipped to 25 overnight to catch my front wheel. Snow tomorrow?

Went for a family lockdown hike in the morning, and explored the trails I found while out on the Cutthroat earlier in the week. Sat by a flooded beaver pond and Jess made friends with some gooses.

Since it was still a balmy 45 out, I headed out on the Cutty in mid-afternoon for a mostly-dirt exploration of the trails and hill climbs leading over to Vaughn Hills and Bower Springs. Found some really steep climbs - perhaps the "North Peak Trail" name should have tipped me off...

Really enjoying the challenge of riding a rigid bike on MTB and hiking trails. Came home very tuckered out, yet completely invigorated. One final hurrah before a week of cold and rain.

Got a Kokopelli Rogue-Lite packraft last night. Took it out in the pond this morning with a handful of paddles and experimented. Glad to find that my normal sea kayaking paddle length works well for this boat.

Next up: adding a dog. Brought Jess down to the pond and she readily jumped in, but quivered for the first few minutes as she realized the tubes and floor were moving underneath her paws. Did a few laps and spins and then we grabbed a leash and carried everything down the street to Delaney.

Paddled up along the shoreline toward the north basin. Two swans let us get surprisingly close, which Jess enjoyed. Couldn't get up the quickwater pouring over a washed-out beaver dam in the marshy section, so Jess jumped out and I pulled the boat over and removed a few pointy sticks for the downstream run later. We tried paddling up and through the new culvert. I had to hop out in waist-deep water to pull the boat over the upper spillway, and then we were able to keep going north.

Stopped on a low rock "goose island" for a break, and then headed a bit further to see all the waterfowl. The herons are back and have started rebuilding their nests. The way back was into the building wind, and I dug in and paddled hard, while Jess adopted several more uncomfortable positions across the bow and my legs. We ran into one of her best friends back at the boat launch, and had a good romp before walking the boat home.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the packraft. It tracks reasonably well (for a fancy pool toy) and the material was unscathed after two hours of nervous dog nails and frequent encounters with shallow-water stumps and sticks. I was very happy to be wearing a drysuit - mostly for protection from the wet pet! I really wish I'd taken a GPS to get an idea of flatwater speed, but we certainly weren't winning any races. But I'm psyched to take this exploring - it should open up all sorts of adventures.

Took advantage of the nice weather ahead of tomorrow's rain, and played hooky from work. I modified the 30+ mi road ride from earlier in the week, kept all the paved hill climbs, and then detoured onto as much dirt and singletrack as I could. Almost all of this was new riding to me, and the typical dirt session went:

first 75% - this is awesome!
next 15% - this trail really isn't suited for a rigid bike, but we're getting through it!
final 10% - this is unrideable, even on my trail bike.

Sometimes that final 10% was deep mud, sometimes it was 10 bridges in the span of 100 yards, sometimes it was a jumble of boulders at the bottom of a hill.

In any case, this was one of the best adventure rides I've done, and with a few tweaks or some more exploring of alternate trails, should make for an excellent AR training circuit.

Tagged along with my neighbor DH on one of his early-season conditioning rides. I have a new appreciation for hills now. We rode a token 50 ft of trail to make this a mixed terrain ride. Got screamed at by a little kid for complimenting him on his monster jacket. (Apparently it was a monster hoodie, not a jacket, you dodo!)

9 miles with Karen after lunch, to scout out trails for our Camp Acton Intro to Bikepacking trip. She's fast, and I became slightly faster when a brake pad sheared off of my rear brake and I lost the ability to stop. :) This is the second time this has happened - I wonder if one side of the brake caliper isn't extending?

Swapped in new pads at home, and took Jess out for a "it's still 60 degrees, we can't NOT go riding" ride. Jess brought back a few micro ticks to share with us.

Family hike and picnic on the Rock Circuit Trail in the Middlesex Fells. Stopped to get a bunker's worth of takeout from a new Jerk restaurant on the way home, and had some very interesting conversations with the ex-CIA owner.

A mostly-road ride home from the Subaru dealership, with detours onto the new Acton riverside trail (looks perfect for a hike and float outing) and the paved rail trail. Definitely feeling the effects of the longer stem. Nearly understeered myself [understore?] off the road on the first turn at speed.

Shifting much better, although it still skipped a bit in granny under load. Still feeling the right knee.

Rode back to Subaru in the afternoon, this time taking the singletrack route over Marble Hill, down through the Town Forest, and then up the remaining part of the new Maynard/Acton trail. The Cutty was surprisingly rideable at Marble Hill - I thought I'd be hike-a-biking through the rock gardens, but I ended up cleaning it (albeit sticking to the easier trails). Wished I could have detoured into more of the fun stuff in the town forest. The Maynard end of the river trail was awful - it crosses a floodplain that was just non-stop roots the entire way.

I was good and muddy when I walked into the dealership to pick up the Crosstrek.

Testing the Cutty bike fit offroad. Felt really good! No squirrely-ness, except in the few places where there was mud. Maybe a bit slower to turn due to the lengthened stem.

The real issue was the lowest two gears kept skipping, despite having just been adjusted at the shop. Started from scratch when I got home and now it's shifting better.

Quick road ride around the neighborhood to test out the results of the bike fitting I had done last week. Definitely a more upright position. Seemed pretty good on the road, but my one brief excursion onto a trail felt squirrely. Right knee is still bothering me, so won't be pushing things for at least another week.