Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Afternoon road ride...

Pacer with new wheels, computer, light
The Bees Knees in Morrisville hot cider

Horses and tasty french pony
Farmhouse between Stowe and Morrisville
Roadside shot near Stowe
View across to Mt. Mansfield
Totals for the day
I had a nice out and back ride today from Waterbury to Morrisville and back. Pretty crazy to be doing a road ride in February. I was reflecting today on how just 3 years ago I started riding a road bike after about 15 years of Mtn. bike only due to elbow pain. Having the bars higher has made all the difference. 3 years ago I rode the Onion River Sports metric century ride on a warm day and it felt like a killer. Now my first road ride of the year was a 40 mile ride in 40 degree weather with a headwind on the way back and it was pleasant. What a change in fitness over 3 years. Here is the link to the MapMyRide version... http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/70451650/

Speaking of change, I finally switched out from the stock Conti Sport Ultra's 28mm that the Pacer comes with and put on some Conti 4 season 28 mm. WOW! There was a very noticeable difference in both rolling resistance and that sticky feeling the old tires had when I would climb standing (I like to saw back and forth a bit). Very nice. Also switched over to a wired computer after going over 100MPH last year when my bike was stopped at a gas station due to wireless interference.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

snow ride out to Turtlehead Pond

Matt on his new Pugsley
Bailey Pond
old rail bed west
  

oxbows in the winooski river
What an amazingly glorious day. Yesterday I took the day off of work and went for a great snow ride on the old rail bed.We rode out the rail bed toward Groton State Park. The conditions were almost perfect. The snow was firm enough for the Yeti with the Nokian Extreme's and so Matt and I were able to ride about 20 miles (which felt like 45 miles) on a wonderful blue sky day. We stopped several times to drink tea and remove layers and such. Matt had a blast on his Pugsley which he just got a few weeks ago. If I was on fat tires we would have probably stayed out longer but as the temps started rising up close to 30 F I became fearful of having a long walk through the snow pushing the Yeti so we headed back for some pizza from Positive Pie. YUM.