Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sunday late noon ride to PJeff

A moist wet roads morning, not really motivated also planning for an easy ride. Around noon the sun got out and Py got ready for a ride in knicker long pants! First attempt out in the long sleeved GAB kit felt way to uncomfortable cold with this little wind. Turn around and switching to the Intermediate Evo in red again... much better, just perfect for this mere 10C.

Riding west along the North Shore taking all the hills and back roads, some were really bad shape and piles of sand at several spots. First stop at Cedar Beach, proceeding to Port Jefferson via Old Post and more hills.

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Returning on a similar route, finding a new place...

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Easy "stroll" but a few nice hills, nice day!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

RP2IPBP -- good ride

Welcoming a new rider S. and good seeing you all today again! Few riders on'off on the fly as usual, max group sized of 12 riders -- very nice. Still a moderate early season pace, just right for Py to maintain a low to medium effort at all times :-)

Pretty cold chill in the air for the first 15 minutes, in particular on North Country -- getting much better with the first quick climbs to warm up...

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... and a little bad luck just hitting a dump rock or piece of chopped off asphalt strait on with the front wheel causing a pinch fat, 1st this year and be leave it or not, 1st item ever Py used a CO2 cartridge/inflater (used the GAB's sponsors Genuine Innovations version) -- worked just fine!

The ride in numbers and coordinates:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Trevors - cold - changing minds - what happened?

Sunday, back to Trevors. Well, at least Py felt like giving it a try. As it was a really cold morning, at 7am he could not even see the "Mercury" (actually red alcohol) column in his outdoors thermometer, what means the reading is some where below -10C (14F). Brrrr + wind chill, uuuch. OK, he had the chance to jump on the ride just in his home town and estimated them to come by about 25 minutes past start (8:15 fro the B and 8:30 for the As) at earliest giving a little more time for the sun get get higher and warm up things a bit. However, at these conditions you never know how riders start out exactly and he left his place by 8:28 to eventually catch up with the B's. It was wicked cold, the previously muddy ground rock solid. Dry. He rode "into" the route a bit as it was anything but advisable to stop and wait, little warmup -- felt more like a cool down riding into the wind, just icy. Not far out just over the road towards the fire house a few riders came up the little slope. Making a U-turn ahead of them to mix in -- so much better going with the wind!

Johnney, John, Robbin, Owen, Kevin and few more. Shortly later a fat fixing stop for Johnney....

Brrrrrr waiting again. Then moving up to King Rd all sudden -- no wonder with that long flat fix -- four (or was it five of them?) of A's came along and Py thought to tag on and see how it goes -- a no risk fun as the B's were behind now. They were flying as they were on a chase... Brian ahead. Sitting at the last wheel worked out just until next town, in Wading River Py lost them and let go... making it himself up the hill after the Duck Pond and 1/2 way up turned around to get back to the B's. Moving on with them, ending up pulling big part and about all the rest of the ride. One more flat for Johnney laster on Osborn. Not sure what happened, but by then only Robbin, John Johnney and Owen were left -- no one else in sight.

Initially Py had in mind to bail off at the turn into Bartlett and ride to the "Camp" to get some work done -- but decided not to do so and completed the ride. The break and no food there would not have done any good today. Get there later tonight.

Little after Yaphank all sudden two riders of the A group showed up from behind -- how can that be??? Little playing at the hill E Bartlett -- but Py lost all of them, OK, no play time, waiting up and steady pulling back (at this time only John and Robbin left..???). The other two riders did not even tried to hang on, also not sure where Own went, may be stayed with them.
The two "lost" A's got cold and tired and stopped at the Yaphank Deli as it sounded....

Back on North Country making his way home.

Weird ride. But just fine getting a bit tired back home, feeling good. Except a little dehydrated and very hungry -- as Py only managed to drink 1/2 bottle of fluids out of two. Hard to handle with that heavy gloves, part frozen either way and not time and not intentions even to try to eat this rock solid cold cliff bar he took along...

He felt pretty much fine from his clothing so, this Fugu Jack is just awesome, just right, not hot not cold. These Defroster shoes were about at the edge today without extra covers, but worked fine. Putting these Ski gloves on was a great idea and very cozy at all items :-)

But still, a hot shower felt good :-)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

RP2IPBP -- Nice, dry & Windy

A windy day, not too cold with some 4..6 C -- actually cooling down a bit towards noon and expecting a frosty day tomorrow! Six riders total today and not a single other roadie in sight all day. Good work and a lot of fun flying out east!! Doug hit some rough road on a bad spot...

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At IPBP, here in the background you can get an idea about the wind, the Sound to CT with good waves and foamy white tops...

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The return was not too bad at all... picking a little more sheltered route.


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Felt so good to get moving again! All feels fine and Py thinks it's doing the last bit of rehabilitation and restrengthening of his knee and what ever is all around it :-)

Ride stats:


Monday, February 14, 2011

1st Weekday Cyclo Commute to the Camp in 2011 -- warm, but what a mess -- roads like after an small earthquake!

Usually Py would not blog about his cyclo commutes, but this one has to be (b)logged for several reasons.

The first day back on the bike for his full (almost) regular commute route in 2011 after his knee recovery, what is about getting back to normal and smooth operation slowly, no pain any more, just still been a bit careful with his power output.

This morning getting on the road by about 7:30am, the air feeling amazing warm with nearly +7C, almost like a spring day -- but still snow and ice masses left and right on the road shoulders. Possibly a bit overdressed for this day -- but it's a windy day, so it will be OK from that point of view. To be expected -- gritty dirty sandy roads with snow melt running across about every where... Making his way out East on NC to Wading River. Down the hill side slopes along the road -- still fully snow covered -- a weird wet cold stream of air mixing with warmer air -- little feeling like in front of an open refrigerator door -- made him all sudden not feel a tiny bit over dressed any more!

Reaching 25 via Lake Panamoka a few minutes behind usual schedule and finding him self 4 minutes slow at his benchmark point what he usually reaches in 34 min on average regular moving speed. Hmm. Well, OK, he still used the small ring all the time again and took it fairly easy. From there he decided to take his regular route into the North gate via this old back road, well, almost to be expected -- it was still impassable deep snow and he had to walk for some 300 meters, clean his cleats from ice and proceed. (Yes, these steps in the snow are all Py's, both sets, one older already! And if not gone today, they will be frozen again tomorrow)

Shower -- Work.

Returning home almost the same way. Dusk is just about to set in. Going around the snow covered road now, what works kind of OK in that direction, except that one wicked ramp has to be taken up to 25 East again. Besides huge holes, way more water running all over as it even got warmer and windy. Slick roads! A few times he notices a slight slipping of his rear wheel.

And not only holes (huge holes) -- but sick dangerous cracks in the middle of the road shoulders at several location on 25! Several bike length long and at sections badly offsetted by a few inches!! Hitting this unprepared will send a bicycle eventually out of control :-( And with more warm/wet + freezing cold cycles to come -- this will get even worse.

Seams like an extended Cyclo Cross season is on us.

Well, safely home in the dark. Good that his light works and put a lot of lumens out to see hopefully enough of the gaps & holes.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Return to the real roads -- RP2IPBP

After haven done number of shorter (1..1h30 range) rides outdoors and feeling fine while and after Py put up his RP2IPBP ride for Saturday again. This will be the first over 2hours (almost 3h today) ride. Still a I little concerned this morning...

A really good number of riders showed up this morning at 9am at Tildas to support his ride, this was great and big help as well! Thanks to all for coming -- and even more joined/left 'en route! Up to some 15 riders at max today.

A frosty chill in the morning air, trees at some spot looks pretty in a white frosty cover.

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Py stayed all times in the small ring (except one short downhill) -- possibly the highest cadence on this ride ever -- 91rpm average.




Sunday, February 06, 2011

Ice Climbing -- a fun adventure

This weekend Py was a bit adventuresome to try some new sports -- Ice Climbing. Signed up via http://meetup.com for a Ice Climbing Class (by High Xposure Adventures) in the Catskills to explore some outstanding frozen waterfalls.

The road conditions on the Long Island are no fun and dangerous due to icy snow banks taking a lot of room left and right of the roads. The weather also kind of unpleasant for the weekend -- not really freezing -- what would be OK as things at least tend to get dry, even a sandy salty mix of dust. But this mess getting wet + melting water and eventually rain -- just nasty gritty slippery mess. This said, a road trip out of that into a different adventure where weather does not matter as much seam even more reasonable thing to do --plus seen a few new faces is always a good as well! The drive was fine, a little dusting of snow in the morning -- fine. Meeting with the organizer's guides at MD exit 20 -- getting boots and harness, with following short drive up to Hunter proceeding left onto 214 to the final destination.


At the trail head to the icy climbing spot "Stony Clove Notch" on 214:

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a short steep hike up to the frozen waterfalls...

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setting up camp...

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the guides getting up there real quick installing a several of ropes...


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and some climbing...

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Py did a few climbs at different spots -- a all new first time experience, fun!

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More pictures:


Thanks to our great organizers and guides! Was really a quite relaxed and enjoyable adventure!