Great ride today! Beautiful weather and good friends is always a good start to a ride, but when it's tough and there is some gravel involved, it qualifies as spectacular. Mitch, Brad, and Erich were along, and the route was set. Our constant companion for the day was wind, which definitely added to the difficulty. I did, however, make the comment at one point that it makes for a more fun/less brutal ride when there are others to share the workload. I think that it may be time to consider doing another LT test, my HR zones may have changed. My average for just over two hours was 170, and basically anytime I was on the front I was in the good ol' 5a and even into 5b some. I'm not all exercise sciency, but I'm thinking that being able to be in those zones for 3 or more minutes may mean that they are no longer accurate? Perhaps?





Erich and I split off at the tail end of the ride to incorporate some gravel/dirt. They must have just scraped or worked on the grading of Aquila Creek/Butner Mill.



The road was a total slopfest and the descent to the creek was totally on the edge of control. Riding on that netted us with bikes that looked like this:

New Kicks Part Two

So, new kicks part one was back in December when my parents pre-emptive struck at my birthday and bought me some Mavic shoes for the smooth-tired bike. Last week when perusing through the stock of my friendly neighborhood bicycle shoppe, I scoped out some top-of-the-line-shiny-vacuum-packed-shimano mtb shoes. I need to get back down there in order to have them suctioned to my feet to properly fit every nook and cranny of my leg-ended stumpfeet. Tremble and behold....

New Rubba

Thanks to zee fleabay, my new tires came in. Continental Gatorskin 25's...Battenkill approved.

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions

Followed by embrocation

And a 35 mile training ride, in the wind, with the goal of 21mph. Not attained, but close. Between the efforts of Saturday and today, I feel like I have been tied in a potato sack and hit repeatedly with a sockful of pennies. And, the best part, I know there are a couple more months until Battenkill of this. The feeling of elation that will accompany meeting coach's goal on one of these harder rides will be unparalleled.

Brick #1

Erich and I had our first brick of the year. Since we are planning on doing the Toilet Bowl Duathlon in February, coach has on the schedule for some of the Saturdays a combination of running and riding. Todays plan, run 2 miles and ride 45 miles with a 21mph average. All excuses aside we couldn't muster the 21mph average, but did end up finishing strong and with our tanks empty.

2 mile run- 15 minutes
50 mile ride (including some gravel)- 19.4mph average

By the time we got back to the greenway where we had done the run, we were utterly spent.

Post ride mud on the glasses and face, always a good road ride when you end up with mud on your face.


The bike and I have a date tomorrow with some serious cleaning agents



Erich put in a text to coach to let her know that we had failed to achieve what was requested of us.

Snow? Snow, what?

So after waffling on what to do with yet another snow day today, I decided upon a snow hike in one of my favorite places: Mount Rogers. Checked the forecast, calling for 14-20 inches of snow in the next 48 hours...sounds perfect. I knew that they had gotten quite a bit already, but I had been up there before with about 18 inches on the ground and it was still doable. I loaded up the X with some hiking gear, and took off. Everything was in good shape until right at the base of the mountain, then it was as if snowy Hades broke loose. At this point I saw one like-minded individual in their FJ...by like-minded I mean total lack of any semblance of common sense.


It was dumping snow, so I kicked it into 4X4 mode. Everything was still cool for a while til I started up towards Elk Garden...the plows had all but given up and the snow was falling fast. I still was holding onto hope that I could get a hike in from there. At the top, the road probably had about a foot or more of unplowed snow.



In my mind, I would be able to get into the little gravel lot, park and take off on one of the more exposed trails so that it would be more windblown, less deep. The snow from the roads over the past couple of days was piled up in front of the exits and entrances to the lot, easily in excess of four feet. No go. And every single little pull off area was like this...so no go. The day wasn't a complete wash, I got to have fun in 4 wheel drive, get out of the house and still managed to follow coach's plan and get in my required run.
I probably would have better spent my day like this

Ode to a Trainer

Based loosely on Whitman's Ode to the Harvest

For the trainer and for these passionate days and for myself,
Now I awhile retire to thee O mechanical death-bringer,
Reclining on thy flywheel, giving myself to thee,
Answering the pulses of thy insane and murderous heart,
Tuning a verse for thee.

O soulless machine that hast no voice, confide to me a voice,
O harvest of my legs — O boundless summer leg tanlines,
O lavish brown shartlefest— O infinite teeming brow,
A song to narrate thee.

All gather and all suffer

Lactate Threshold Test (POST 400!)

Well, thus begins training in earnest only four days into the new year. Coach has set out a plan that will take Erich and I into the Toilet Bowl Duathlon in February in fine shape, then onto Battenkill hopefully in top form. In order to get some numbers for her to work with as far as heart rate zones are concerned, she needed to send us through a lactate threshold workout. 20 minutes at max effort netted me 3660 heartbeats. 183bpm with a max of 194. Needless to say there was much gnashing of teeth being had on the front porch of Casa de Grant.
The warm up


Begging for a minimum of suffering, just before it begins


Coach, egging me on.


Intense Erich

Year in Review

Untitled from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.