Looking to do an early ride tomorrow morning- leave BB at 7, GWB at 8, normal KCC route through NJ, hit bradley tweed, drop into Piermont for a coffee and smash 9w home. I need to be home by like 11:30 at the latest.

Let me know if you're in!

definite maybe for tomorrow  

FWIW, I can't make any promises for Sunday.  I'm taking my son to Comic Con.  Not sure what my schedule will be.

@Matt Budofsky im going to try to meet you at bb at 7. 

Sorry overslept! Enjoy guys 

9am GWB tomorrow?

mugwump said:

FWIW, I can't make any promises for Sunday.  I'm taking my son to Comic Con.  Not sure what my schedule will be.

Please tell me you dressed up?

@StephenAschkenes

GWB @ 9am. Who's in?

Tomorrow (Sunday 10/17), gwb@ 9am?

I'll be there.

When I was finishing up riding with my son, Adam and Greg passed us.  Seems like they went to Harriman.  Greg was bragging he couldn't feel his legs.

Hahaha. We ended up grabbing a route that @NigelCarreiro had done earlier this week with ~7000 feet of climbing.  By the end I was beginning to wonder if he's even human.

GregHoge said:

Hahaha. We ended up grabbing a route that @NigelCarreiro had done earlier this week with ~7000 feet of climbing.  By the end I was beginning to wonder if he's even human.

Ya that ride is brutal. It's not the most climbing of some of my regulars around here but it always feels like the hardest for some reason.

Met John, Jonathan, and Nigel at the GWB.  

Since the first two J's felt they needed to turn around early, we decided to do River Road.  Jonathan turned back after, and we continued to the Market, where John got a snack and Nigel worked on his bike.  

Nigel and I continued to the Tappan Zee, crossed to Westchester--we had a pretty sweet tailwind going over the bridge--and then started to climb onto a loop I had an interest in doing.  Just as we hit a steep spot, like 10%+ steep, Nigel shifted and tweaked his chain!  I tried to fix it, but my 20 year old chain tool kind of got damaged and we couldn't fix it there.  So we rode to the E-Bike Shop in Sleepy hollow.  The guy lent us his chain tool, I took out three links, and we went on our way.

That was a big time suck.  We did the loop I wanted in Westchester, but didn't have time to cross back across the Tappan Zee, and hit the Clausland climb from Old Mountain before rolling home on 9W.

Still, we rolled back on Broadway, with a pretty nice tailwind much of the time.  

the ride was only 65 miles, but I managed over 5100' of climbing.  The loop around Pocantico felt particularly hilly, with three or four hills at over 10%.  

https://www.strava.com/activities/6128273176/segments/2884884324219496366

GregHoge said:

Hahaha. We ended up grabbing a route that @NigelCarreiro had done earlier this week with ~7000 feet of climbing.  By the end I was beginning to wonder if he's even human.

Just took a look.

Classic ride.  I remember the first time I headed over Skyline.  It's a pretty decent hill for the first mile, but when you get to that 1.0 marker, you look and it seems like the road steepens as it goes left and then even steeper after it goes right.  Couldn't believe a major road would have a wall like that.   Long Meadow used to feel like it went on forever.  And the old 210 climb through Harriman is great.  And, much like with Skyline, the descent from Lake Welch is a screamer.  

I know it's a bit late now, but if you wanted to make it shorter out of Harriman, it would have been pretty easy.  

I'll be at the GW @9am tomorrow for anyone who wants to join.

My body is ridding itself of a cold.

I'll be there.  Not sure how I'll be feeling.

mugwump said:

My body is ridding itself of a cold.

I'll be there.  Not sure how I'll be feeling.

Beware everybody. JP is setting us up. Be prepared for him to drop the hammer on us! 

Sorry I missed the conga line due flat tire and other early morning maladies. No doubt Nigel was the one hammering!

AdamYaffe said:

Sorry I missed the conga line due flat tire and other early morning maladies. No doubt Nigel was the one hammering!

Jonathan and Nigel met me at the bridge.

I decided I wasn't feeling good, so I resolved to go to Piermont, visit the pier, and head back.

We rode a solid tempo to Sparkill, taking the low road til the road was impassable, then climbing up to Closter Dock and then descending to re-join the low road route.

The fellas went to do some hills.  I tried to noodle home.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6161406191

Love to find out what they did.

@mugwump too bad you were under the weather JP. You missed a hammerfest back up 9W. We met up with a group that @JonathanAdler knew. About 5 or 6 of us just laid down the watts basically from the state line back to CNBC. Tried an attack late but knew it wasn't a great move when I looked down and saw I was going 32mph and a group of 3 guys from the group just breezed by me haha. Fun times tho!!!

I'll be at the GWB at 9.

I was there!

At the start of the week, I was considering starting my 'cross season at Chesire, but I was feeling congested and sluggish Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I decided I didn't want to drive four hours for a meh sensation.

No Kissena's showed at the bridge, so I started out with a friend, Marco Leona.  He was short on time, so we ended up riding up and down the ridge a few times on route to Palisades, NY.  He went back.  Not a lot of people out overall.  Maybe it had to do with wet roads, which stayed pretty much all the way.  9W and other roads that get sun were dry.  Those in the woods remained damp.  

I went on to Bradley, Schuyler, Old Mountain, Sedge, a lap of Rockland Lake, 9W, Old Mountain Road, around to the backside of Clausland, and home.  I regretted not dropping to downtown Piermont to climb back out of it.  

Sadly, not many people out on 9W to chase down, so i didn't go quite as hard there as I would have liked.  

When I got to the GWB, I was both ahead of schedule and was at 4700' of climbing.  I could taste breaking 5,000', I I rode down Riverside to Central Park, and around before heading home.  5085' in 69 miles.  

https://www.strava.com/activities/6193654779

Nice!

mugwump said:

I was there!

At the start of the week, I was considering starting my 'cross season at Chesire, but I was feeling congested and sluggish Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I decided I didn't want to drive four hours for a meh sensation.

I'm very curious about that. How do you manage to be in good racing shape now and again in the early spring? I'd love some tips on that.

Remy Forgues said:

mugwump said:

I was there!

At the start of the week, I was considering starting my 'cross season at Chesire, but I was feeling congested and sluggish Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I decided I didn't want to drive four hours for a meh sensation.

I'm very curious about that. How do you manage to be in good racing shape now and again in the early spring? I'd love some tips on that.

A few things about this.

First, I'm not sure I'm in good reading shape now.  The last few CX seasons were pretty unsatisfying for me in terms of form, and I was trying different things to improve my fitness.  On the balance, I didn't think they were working.

But, last fall, while I wasn't racing, i was showing some pretty good power numbers.  I think my new weekday regimen of chasing Strava KoMs in October might have helped.  It was intense, and goal oriented, but I wasn't focused on repeats, and it was something I promised myself I'd only do for three or four weeks.  This fall, I tried that again, and it seemed to work, at least in terms of the numbers I was putting out.

Second, I don't think it should be hard to be in decent racing shape for much of the year.  Especially for cyclists who are short on time, figuring out a varied diet of intervals as well as blocks of rest now and again, can keep you in pretty decent shape and, in my opinion, basically ready to race much of the time.  

mugwump said:

Second, I don't think it should be hard to be in decent racing shape for much of the year.  Especially for cyclists who are short on time, figuring out a varied diet of intervals as well as blocks of rest now and again, can keep you in pretty decent shape and, in my opinion, basically ready to race much of the time.  

Thanks.

I have often wondered if I would not be in better shape if I was consistently following a 6 hours training plan year round. 

Remy Forgues said:

mugwump said:

Second, I don't think it should be hard to be in decent racing shape for much of the year.  Especially for cyclists who are short on time, figuring out a varied diet of intervals as well as blocks of rest now and again, can keep you in pretty decent shape and, in my opinion, basically ready to race much of the time.  

Thanks.

I have often wondered if I would not be in better shape if I was consistently following a 6 hours training plan year round. 

I don't know so much if you need an exact plan.  But definitely mixing up efforts helps.  For example, if you could do what we used to call a "spirited group ride" for an hour in a park once a week for much of the year--even if it were just March-October, that would probably go far in terms of keeping fitness.  

so, Sunday.  I'm hoping the end of Daylight Savings does me good.

I'm heading to the Philly Bike Expo early tomorrow morning and back by evening.  Lots of walking.  Lots of bikes.

See you there.  9am.