Mother's Day Treat

What did the mama wanna do when she woke up on Mothers' Day? Go riding!! She must have been really motivated too because it was the fastest 6 miles we've done together yet. About 33 minutes.

She tried to get me mid-air on a bunny hop but I guess I wasn't getting much air time and didn't give her much of a chance to snap the pic in time.

Beautiful day. Great ride.

The Week in Biking

Very productive week with 6 rides in total. My last post showed the 2 rides from last Sunday.  

Tuesday I took a ride in Bethel near home in Huntington State Park. Ran into some guy who knows the trails well and followed him for about an hour. Felt great on all the climbs. Thursday I took a 6AM road ride before work. Love those sunrise rides. Then Friday afternoon did the rail-trail with Sherri after work.

This morning I went with my buddy Mark to hit the trails at Waldo State Park right near home. The trails here are new and really well designed. It was a great workout and a great way to start the day. We were done by 8:30.

bike porn

great scenery along the way

Another Two-fer day

I did an hour ride at 6:45AM. Part on the road and the rest on the Gussy trail near home. I pushed it a bit and finished this route 6 minutes faster than I've ever done it. Felt good and my HR averaged about 150. I hit high 170s on a couple of hills but otherwise I was usually much lower.

Then at 10:00AM Sherri and I rode the rail-trail again for another 6.5 miles. Later in the afternoon I had a gig. Then at night we did a ballroom dancing class. Never did that before. Its more work than I thought. I am freakin exhausted.

2 Rides for Friday

I did 10 miles on the road at 6AM in Westchester.

Then Sherri and I did about 6 miles on the rail-trail in the afternoon.

Family Ride

We rode the rail-trail as a family today. Everybody kept up and all the bikes were in good shape. It was 72 degrees today.

What ride would be complete without at least one mechanical. Well, this was really more of an adjustment than a mechanical.

4-17-2011 Winding Trails Race Results

4/17/2011 Fat Tire Classic, Winding Trails, Farmington, CT

First Name	Last Name	Gender	Category	Age Group	Bib #	Team	Time	Place	Points

Marc	Carson	M	First Timer	19+	766		0:29:11	1	60
Kevin	Cunningham	M	First Timer	19+	772		0:31:05	2	55
David	Hayes	M	First Timer	19+	775		0:31:42	3	50
Chris	Phelps	M	First Timer	19+	410		0:33:10	4	46
Michael	Eastwood	M	First Timer	19+	769		0:33:14	5	43
Rick	Brodsky	M	First Timer	19+	765		0:33:38	6	41
Christian	Cordier	M	First Timer	19+	767		0:34:20	7	39
C. Matt	Sbordone	M	First Timer	19+	771		0:35:53	8	37
Craig	Damaschi	M	First Timer	19+	774		0:36:20	9	36
Shawn	Craver	M	First Timer	19+	768		0:44:54	10	35

My First Race Ever

These are the only pics I got just after completing the race. I finished 6th out of 11. I feel like I did pretty good, but I started too fast. At first I was in the top 3 as we completed the first climb and headed into the singletrack in the woods. My heart rate was racing right away. As you'll see in the stats I was at 180 within a minute or so and never recovered. I couldn't sustain the pace and was passed by 3 bikers in my class before the race was over. I passed at least 5 riders from other categories. One guy passed me in my catergory but I later passed him.

Go here for my race stats http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/XFQ2ZZOSAP526K3BZFMWTBGSCY

All in all it was a good day. The weather was beautiful although it rained heavily the night before and parts of the course were a muddy mess. This is where I probably excelled the most compared to other riders. I never dismounted (except for one ridiculous muddy climb), never crashed, and never had to detour around the heavy mud. I just powered right through it. I feel like it was a victory of sorts. Next time I want to better pace myself.

Here are a few more pics I lifted from my friend Mark's blog