first crack at snowboarding

Braintree Gap training ride

There is a photo somewhere... 4:35 pm on top of Braintree Gap on Feb 15, 2010.  Third day of riding in a row... DaveB and Geoff Wade off riding the Canadian Ski Marathon.  I figured it was a good day to go long... but a bit of a late start required extra permissions and taking the Ayup light. (mounted to helmet)

Bike after the ride with frozen on mud.

Braintree Gap ride stats:

time out: 5 hours - 2:30pm to 7:30 pm
Max speed ( North Road by Tremblay Rd) 38.9 mph
Avg moving speed      10.6 mph
avg total speed         9.8 mph
total climbing    4167 feet
max elv             2425 feet
min elv                 582    feet
distance                49.6 miles
time moving           4:40 hr:min
time stopped         22:31 min
riding in dark         1:15 hr:min
walking/pushing in snow: 2 miles?
my house to top of bt gap: 25 miles
bt gap: 2.7 mile climb
780 ft to 2425 feet
Tire pressure: 18 psi front, 20psi rear!
water carried: 48 oz
water consumed 31 oz
water undrinkable due to temp:17 oz
food consumed:
choc chip Clif Bar 240 Cal
2 peanut butter crackers 65 Cal
total bike weight at end of ride: 35.4 pounds
clothes:
beat old Hincapi bibs w/ Craft warmup pants over.
vb socks
ss ibis wool bike shirt
ls light Louis garneau base
rain shell
wool hat
Louis Garneau gloves
bandana - for road dust

clothing layers worked well - a little light and began to get a bit chilly at night but good for 20"F and not stopping.

This was a no (little) stop fast (besides the hiking) pace ride at TD race pace... but I ate and drank way too little.  Mostly because I knew I was only going to be out for five hours.  300 calories - should have been 3,000 - though I doubt I could stomach that amount.

Waitsfield Gap

Randy and I did another snow ride - this time with 1-2 inches of fresh snow. We met at South Hill - rode up Moretown Mtn road over the Moretown Gap. Mostly frozen dirt with a few bare ice patches. Flew down the other side into Devil's Washbowl - which had surprisingly been plowed sometime this year. We then rode to the end of Bear Mt Rd and got on the VAST trail over Waitsfield Gap. This would have been ok but only two snow machines had been on it and that was about two storms ago. Here is a great shot of Randy hitting a surprising stream crossing:

Coming down the other side was a blast.  I made a little movie of Randy crossing one of many ice patches:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP6hiGi3OBw

We then hit Floodwoods road for about 20 feet then got on Elwin Neil's VAST trail - awesome down hill to Pony Farm,  Then a mellow ride home.  A completely normal ride despite the 20'F temp and snow and extra layers and cold feet and frozen water bottle.  Bike remarkably clean for a 18 mile mountain bike ride.  Just a krummholz of snow off the bottom bracket.

stats:

total ascent 2500 ft
max elevation 2208 ft
max speed 34.1 mph
distance 18 miles
moving time 2:13 stopped: 31:18
8.1mph avg 6.6 total ( we had to walk a mile or so)
Like they say - every mile on snow is equal to two.

Excuses

                                                         Fracture of the Radial Head.
                                                           (top of lower left bone) 5/1/09

Some days I can come up with dozens of reasons not to go off on a 2750 mile bike ride. Creaky knees, family responsibilities, money, mosquitoes, agrizoophobia, coulorophobia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.... but the one thing that keeps rearing its ugly (radial) head is my elbow. I broke it last spring and it still won't open all the way. When I try to open it all the way - it aches. I couldn't do a push-up with it until about two months ago. I have been working on that. I have also been hanging from the chin-up bar and doing some pull-ups. Pull-ups are palms out - right? I am trying to reach my PB record set in 1975: 13. Of course in 1975 I had an incredible power: weight ratio being just 50 pounds. I now weigh three times that and can't do nearly as many chin-ups. I have had my sports chiro working on my elbow. He wanted it re-x-rayed to see how it has healed. Here's how it looks today - nine months later:

                                                    2/12/10 Healed Radial Head Fracture.

Not too shabby looking - right?  Especially considering I was doing a 240 mile ride four weeks after I broke it.  Thanks Charles Martley and Akhil Kaplan at Three Moons Wellness!   Now if I can just get full extension.

Oh- how did I break it?  Hmmm people don't get it when I explain I'm a 46 year old skateboarder- I have now cut back on the skateboarding but I still love it ... I am just getting too old and too big to fall.  Next year - hope to work on my falling.  Below - me and the skatepunks back in the day:

                         L-R John Champy, John Siudut, me, Mike Seeley, Mike O"Connor  circa 1980?
                                                       On my 1/4 pipe of salvaged wood.