A nice chilly ride

Today was a chilly day for riding.  It started at about 29 degrees in the city (lower outside the city), and gradually warmed up from there.  And by "warmed up", I mean to a balmy 31 degrees.  This was officially my first cold weather ride of the season.  I got some minor ice formation in my uninsulated bottle, but not enough to call it a frozen bottle ride.  I like my bottles to be nice and solid before I put that label on.  It usually takes several hours in the low 20s to pull that off.

I like this new route.  It doesn't have a name yet, but that's not nearly as important as the fact that it doesn't repeat.  I dislike repeating with a fiery passion.  I had previously resigned myself to needing to repeat the last three miles to the bridge, along Hudson Terrace.  Basically you take 9W to Piermont (or beyond), and 340/Piermont Rd back to Churchill, over Churchill, up Palisades, and back to 9W/Hudson Terrace.  Now I've found a new way to continue past Churchill (i.e. not over it), into Fort Lee, through downtown, returning to the GWB from the south.

It's not flat as a pancake, but I think it does pretty well given that this part of NY and NJ is littered with ridges.  Certainly there's nothing to compare to Nyack's Old Mountain Rd or Toga Hill.  While we omit Churchill and Palisades, the altitude gained during those climbs must be made up somewhere.  This route splits those big hills into several shorter ones.

Total mileage is about 55-57, and it takes me about four and a half hours.

View Sickletown addition in a larger map

That said, if I'm going to do 55-57, I might as well do 60, so I'm exploring some options for extending it a little bit.  Rather than turning down Sickletown from West Nyack Rd, I'd like to try continuing on West Nyack until it turns south after Rockland Shopping Center.  West Nyack ends at Church St, so then we jog east to Blauvelt Rd, take Blauvelt to Townline (CR 42), and Townline back to Sickletown.  I've done Townline from South Middletown (CR 33) to Sickeltown, and that was pretty reasonable.  We'll have to see how the rest looks.

My success with finding a nice way through Fort Lee (I had previously thought that escaping east via Palisades back to 9W was the only way to go) inspired me to take another look at the beginning of my Philly route.  I'd been going south from Fort Lee, through Palisades Park, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, and then Little Ferry.  This involves a truly unfortunate river crossing on US-46, which is so busy that even I ride on the sidewalk.  That bridge is then followed by a very busy roundabout.  All in all, not a good time.  I had accepted that crossing as a necessary evil, but now I'm not so sure.

View Northern start of Philly route in a larger map

What if I could cross that same river at Bogota/Hackensack?  Basically come around from the north side of I-80, rather than staying to the south of it.  Streetview suggests that there are some nice crossings into Hackensack on Cedar Lane and Main Street.  Cedar Lane looks a bit busier, but the bridge is paved.  Main Street is quiet, and goes through a park, but its bridge is metal grate.  I'll need to investigate both to be sure.  Getting to those bridges might be a bit tricky, though.  Fort Lee Road / Degraw Ave is the obvious choice, but it gets very busy in stretches.  Today's route put me further west on Palisade Ave than I had been before -- far enough down that I could see quite a bit more to the west than I had been able to see from my typical crossing at Woodland Street.  Palisades definitely crosses a ridge to the west, but I'm going to give it a shot to see what it's like.  If this works, it should add about 6 miles to the ride, but it'll get rid of some unpleasantness.  Probably worth the tradeoff.

So much riding to do!  So little time.

Gran Fondo NYC

I did the inaugural Gran Fondo NYC last weekend, and had a great time.  I'd been more than a little nervous about whether the organizers would be able to pull it off, but they did an amazing job with the parts that count.

We started on the lower deck of the GWB, in the NJ-bound lanes.  They had initially capped the race at 8,000 riders, but fell well short of that.  According to the announcer, just under 2,500 people lined up on the bridge.  So, a bunch of people on the bridge, but a manageable number.  Not so many that I wasn't on my bike, pedaling, by the time we crossed the starting line.  Over the GWB, exit to the right, an overpass over the highway, and then down into Palisades Park.  There were police at every intersection, both here and throughout the ride, ensuring that bikes had right of way.  I only had to stop twice for traffic signals during the entire ride.  It would be difficult to overstate how wonderful it was to have the police directing traffic for us.

I brought a bunch of GU and two Clif Bars, but was planning to rely primarily on the aid stations for nutrition and hydration.  The aid stations were nicely spaced and nicely stocked, allowing me (with one exception) to refill both bottles before they ran dry.  The one exception was the last aid station, which was a mile or two past when I ran dry.  If nothing else, this has convinced me that I need a seatpost-mounted bottle cage just like I have on my P2C.  Two bottles just isn't enough for a long ride.  Either you're stopping every 40 miles or less for a refill (more if it gets hot, as it did for this ride), or you're constantly in danger of running dry.  Riding dry is no fun at all, nor is riding in fear of it.  With three bottles, I'd be able to do 50 miles between refills, which would suit me just fine.  I like to eat something real (i.e. more than a Clif Bar or a GU) every 50 miles, so having my hydration stops match up with my nutrition stops would be ideal.

But back to the race.  We headed out on River Road.  So many people passed me on River Road, but I caught several on the hills.  I was keeping my speed down on the inclines, as I knew there'd be plenty of misery ahead.  Once we popped out on 9W I started to push it a bit (20mph until Nyack) until I was able to truly convince myself to stop trying to keep up with groups on the flats.  Thanks to the traffic control and my penchant for riding solo, I had State Line Hill to myself, and was able to take the entire descending traffic lane.  I've never had such a care-free full-speed descent of State Line Hill.

Up Old Mountain Rd, over Toga/Rockland hill -- basically the standard Little Tor / Orchards route.  The first timed climb of the day was Little Tor.  I'd been practicing this one, and was ready for it.  It's 3/4mi long, with just over 400' of climb.  There's a sharp incline at the start, and then constant misery for the rest of the way up.  This was my third nonstop time over (I stopped twice on my first time over Little Tor, so that time doesn't really count).  There's a picture of me grimacing my way to the top of Little Tor, with Christophe Vandaele (of SBR fame) right on my wheel.  I don't know whether he passed me or not, but it's nice to know that I was faster than someone getting over that hill.  Even if he was on a single speed, and likely working twice as hard as I was.  I finished the climb in 8:26.96 according to the chip, and 9:58 according to MyTracks/Strava, which uses a different starting point.  9:58 is a PR for me by just over a minute.

After Little Tor, on to Buckberg Mountain -- a hill I hadn't climbed before this race.  Buckberg Mountain Road is an absolute bastard.  The specs aren't that crazy -- at 367', it's about 50' shorter, and it's almost 0.5mi longer (1.2mi vs 0.75mi) -- but the profile is evil.  Rather than being a continuous climb a la Little Tor, it's a series of steep windy sections (with increasing grade) interleaved with less-steep (but still ascending) sections.  Yeesh.  It might be easier the second time around (and there most definitely will be a second time around), but it's always going to be hard.  Official time: 10:12.51, MyTracks/Strava time: 11:10.

The approach to Buckberg was through parts of Stony Point that I've never ridden before, and which are a nice change from the NYS Bike Route 9 route that goes east of 9W, through Haverstraw.  Buckberg Mountain Road can also be viewed as a way to bypass 9W through Tompkins Cove, but it's a hell of a way to do it.

With Buckberg Mountain done, off we go to Bear Mountain -- the toughest climb on the ride.  Strava rates the other climbs on the ride as category 4.  Bear gets a 2.  The grade isn't as brutal as, say, Little Tor -- the rating comes from the total climb (1200' from 9W) and the distance (4.5mi, again from 9W).  There's also the matter of just getting to Bear.  There's a lot of up and down during the few miles from Buckberg to Bear, including one category 4 climb.

But eventually we get to Bear Mountain (hooray for the police blocking traffic so we could get onto 7 Lakes from 9W without even slowing down).  I'm used to counting distance and height from 9W, but the GFNY organizers put the timed climb start at the traffic circle, which is about 3/4mi of the way in, and about 200' up.  Anyway, I decided I wanted to do the entire thing nonstop, from 9W all the way to the summit, so I skipped the aid station.  This made my ride unpleasant, as my bowels were feeling a bit compressed, but I'd probably do it again given the chance, as it let me knock out the whole 1200' in one go -- something I'd never done nonstop before.  This was only my second time up Bear Mountain.  The first time I did it, I had to stop twice on Perkins to catch my breath.

Climbing Bear was a "simple" matter of grinding through the climb, counting off the tenths of a mile until the top.  My power meter says I was doing an average of 200 watts for 35 minutes up that hill.  First, there's 7 Lakes Drive, which is about 2.25mi from 9W.  7 Lakes is relatively easy, and even has some oh-so-very-brief flat bits.  Then comes Perkins, which is narrower, steeper in sections, and goes all the way to the top.  And oh, what a blessed top.  Pictures, resting, and then almost 4 miles of descent to the aid station.  Real bathrooms, and my newfound favorite ride food: PB&J bagels.  I started eating those at each aid station from Bear Mountain on, and was very pleased with the results.  I basically did the ride on those and GU, with a few Stacy's Pita Chips thrown in now and again for salt.

In the distant future (about 20mi away) is the fourth timed climb -- southbound over Little Tor -- but first there was a bit of a diversion over to Gate Hill Rd.  The route to Gate Hill took us back over the Bear Mountain approach climbs (a 1mi cat 4 being the most notable), to the base of Buckberg Mountain.  We didn't retrace back to the summit, thank goodness, but we did climb over the side, on Mott Farm Rd.  I think we probably did at least half of the Buckberg climb, over some truly evil inclines.  Once past the intersection with Buckberg Mountain Road, the route was flat to descending (ish) to the base of the Gate Hill climb.  Very pretty scenery back there.

Gate Hill begins about a mile before the Parkway, and climbs about 700' to its intersection with Willow Grove.  Why this wasn't a timed climb, I'll never know.  Its only saving grace was the elevation profile.  Gate Hill is a series of climbs interleaved with flat sections (perhaps they only felt like flat sections by comparison).  The motivator for that climb is the knowledge that you're going to get to descend Willow Grove.  And what a glorious descent.  About 325' in 1mi with a gradual turn in the road, and nobody entering on the right.  That hill never gets old.  Let me rephrase.  Descending Willow Grove never gets old.  Ascending Willow Grove is a different story entirely.  A very sad story.

Once we descended Willow Grove, we had about 2mi to go to the aid station near the base of Little Tor.  Rehydrate, re-nutrate(?), and up over Little Tor we go.  This side is pretty easy.  There are some individual climbs leading up to it, followed by a "big" constant climb that ascends about 200'.  Nowhere near as difficult as doing Little Tor in the other direction.  The race organizers were able to close Little Tor in our direction of travel -- northbound on the way out, and southbound on the way back.  As such, I was able to descend the south face of Little Tor without fear of traffic.  This was the first time I've ever enjoyed a trip down the south side of Little Tor.  With traffic, you normally have to ride down on a sketchy shoulder.  Without, I was able to do the whole thing in the traffic lane, which was heavenly.

We returned along South Mountain to Ridge, but kept going on Ridge to Strawtown, rather than going back to 9W via 304.  In West Nyack, we jogged over to Western Highway, and then to King's Highway, which took us to Piermont.  This return was largely flat, with some light rollers, and was a nice change from the brutality of the preceding miles.  At the end of King's Highway, a quick jaunt down Orangetown led us to Valentine, Highland, and back to 9W.  This was the first time I'd gone from King's Highway to 9W without going over the bridge.  It's a nice detour to know, even though it means you have to climb Highland to get back to 9W.

The organizers didn't see fit to give us police protection along 9W, which was reasonable, since we weren't on it for very long.  The final aid station was in the dip before IBM, in the parking deck under the unoccupied office building.  That final station was only 20 miles after the one that preceded it, but nonetheless I'd somehow managed to go through both bottles during that 20 miles.  I didn't refill after eating at the Little Tor stop, so maybe I did the 20 on a bottle and a half or less.  Regardless, I ran dry about a mile before this final aid station.  Had the last station not been there, I would've been forced to stop at the deli before State Line to refill -- no way was I going to to State Line and friends on dry bottles.

Refilling at the final aid station, even though it was only 12mi from the finish, turned out to be a wise decision for other reasons as well.  Due to apparent permitting reasons, the organizers had to change the finish line location from somewhere in NJ (Edgewater-ish?) to Palisades Park.  In order to get permission to do that, they had to have a "simple" (their words) finish line.  I had assumed that "simple" would at least mean water.  Turns out not so much.  The only thing at the finish line was a timing mat.  I know at least one person who skipped the final aid station, assuming that the finish line would have water, and ended up riding dry back to the city.  My stop saved me from that (I've done it before -- it's not fun), and left me with enough to drink all the way home.

With a finish line in Palisades Park (specifically, the southern traffic circle), the end of the route has to involve a trip down River Road.  Specifically, it must enter Palisades Park at Alpine Approach, and must descend River Road.  I feel for the out-of-towners who had to do that descent (NJ hasn't repaved that road in something like 300 years) -- especially for the many who were seen fixing flats near the bottom of it.  Oh well.  We didn't want them to leave having only seen the best of NYC-area cycling -- they should see the worst of it as well.

The congestion on River Road hill wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected, and so I was able to keep to the relatively smooth parts.  A few more miles on River Road, and I rolled across the finish line in style.  102mi.  8700' of climbing.  The hardest century I'd ever done: FINISHED.

Now, to get home.  The finish line is about 1/3 the way up River Road from the water, with an ascent of the remaining 2/3 needed to get to the bridge.  I'd blown that ascent all out of proportion, and had been very nervous that I wouldn't be able to make it after having completed the GFNY.  Boy was I mistaken.  That hill was nothing compared to what I'd been riding, and I sailed (ok, crawled) up it.  A short ride home, and a nice relaxing evening.

A word on training.  I wouldn't have been able to complete this ride without the awesome training plan I got from Brad Gansberg.  That man had me climbing more hills that I thought existed.  But it paid off.  Oh, how it paid off.  Midweek rides which included several repeats of River Road hill plus a trip up Eisenhower.  Weekend rides which routinely topped 6000' of climbing.  So many hard rides.  But I'm oh so happy with the result.

Next stop -- a 10,000' ride.  Maybe one of the ones put on by the PA Randonneurs.

Evil Ride

I'm training for the Gran Fondo NY coming up in a month and a half, with a plan Brad put together.  The GF route is quite hilly, with ascents of Little Tor (northbound), Buckberg Mountain, Bear Mountain (to the summit), Gate Hill, Little Tor (southbound), as well as the various hills needed to connect them (Toga, State Line, etc).  So anyway, Brad's foul plan for yesterday called for four repeats of River Road (from the parking lot), to which I added a trip up Eisenhower, for 45mi.  (Strava link)

The River Road repeats were exciting, as always.  I seem to be able to knock out three without much difficulty (though my back isn't a huge fan).  The unpleasantness kicks in about halfway up the fourth.  I can only imagine how exciting next week's five repeats will be.  All the whining aside, it is pretty cool to know that I can string together that many repeats and still walk away from it, so to speak.

This was only my second time up Eisenhower.  The descent to Eisenhower, on Hillside (from 9W), is easily one of my favorite descents in the area.  Perhaps I'll grow jaded, but for now it's lots of fun.  I don't know exactly why I like it more than State Line.  Maybe it's that the descent is windier.  Maybe it's because I haven't done Hillside three thousand times.  Who knows.

Eisenhower has three hills.  The first and the third are brutal.  It's like force work, without the inconvenience of needing to change to a higher gear.  The scenery is nice, though.  Giant mansions (in varying degrees of tastefulness) line the road.  You could hear a pin drop in this neighborhood after everyone's gone to work, so there's almost no traffic.  Just climb, climb, climb, climb.

Here's the descent to, and ascent of, Eisenhower. Yes, the camera was on sideways. Sorry.

Epiphany

I did a killer ride today. Basically the Orchards plus some climbing around Harriman (Willow Grove to Gate Hill) and back-to-front over Little Tor. And then, of course, Rockland hill and the hills back from Piermont. All told, 7000 ft of climbing over 90 miles. (map) (cue sheet) Note that the cue sheet starts at the NJ side of the GWB. I forgot the cue sheet was written that way, and thus was surprised when a 75mi ride turned into a 90mi ride. But anyway.

Brad has been telling me that I go too quickly up hills, and it's somewhat sunk in. The problem has been that I didn't really internalize just how slow I could go. Today, after blowing up on Willow Grove, and almost killing myself getting to The Orchards, I slowed it down a bunch.

Here's The Orchards approach. The thick yellow line is 250 watts. I was dying by the time I reached the top of that climb.

To demonstrate that I didn't learn my lesson, here's Willow Grove to Gate Hill. Again, the thick yellow line is 250 watts. The red arrow points to the place where I had to stop to catch my breath. The eagle-eyed will note that this comes after about 0.6mi at about 300 watts. I rounded a bend which I thought marked the end of the climb, only to see (wait for it) much more climb ahead. I knew I couldn't pull that off at my current pace, and had to stop.

Why have I highlighted 250 watts? At some point after those two hills, I began to realize that I can climb significantly longer in the range 200-250 watts (preferably around 225) than if I go above 250 watts. Those who are rolling their eyes at the obviousness of all of this are requested to pretend that I'm new to all of this.

Here's Little Tor, where I began to put that knowledge into practice. Happily, the route called for a back-to-front traversal, which means a 225' climb rather than a 450' climb. I swear I did a better job at staying below 250 than this graph shows, but c'est la vie. The blips above 250 aren't due to inattention -- I was watching the power meter like a hawk the whole way up. Instead, they're where I didn't think I could stay upright at the speed required to stay in the magic range on that grade. Later on, I discovered that I could go even slower.

Now we come to some familiar hills, where I really put it into practice. By this point, I had well over a mile of climbing on my legs, as well as over 60 miles of hard riding. Had I not had this epiphany regarding the power range, I think I would've had an extremely difficult time getting over these hills. Instead, over Rockland, I was breathing hard at the top, but not panting. My breathing was back to normal quite quickly. It got progressively harder for the subsequent hills, but again no panting, and no burning -- just tiredness in my leg muscles. This is significantly different than what I normally encounter going up these hills, to say nothing of when I go up them after a crazy ride.

In the above pictures, I marked both ends of the 200-250 range. There just wasn't any point to marking the bottom end of the range in the earlier pictures.

As for nutrition, I did all of this with minimal nutrition. Water in the bottles, save for one Gatorade I picked up at Bunbury (with the worlds best muffin). While riding, I alternated between a GU and half of a Clif Bar every 30 minutes, for an intake of 200cal/hr. The riding nutrition came out to about 840 calories, to which we must add the muffin (say, 450 calories) and the Gatorade (100 calories?). That's 1390 calories taken in versus 3990 burned according to the power meter. It's worth noting that I packed riding nutrition for a 75 mile ride, not realizing it would be 90 miles (and slow). I ran out of riding nutrition several miles before Rockland Hill, but didn't really pay for it until Nyack. Nyack to Piermont was ... exciting.

And finally, pain. Soreness in my right elbow, presumably due to putting too much weight on my hands on the handlebars. The core work may actually be working, as finger numbness was minimal (versus significant in prior rides). Towards the end of the ride, my knees started to get a little bit sore on/after the climbs. I'm assuming this is because the need to stay in the power range resulted in cadences which hovered around 50. My poor knees.

Bottom line: Always listen to Brad. I'd like to do this ride again with the 200-250 range for the entire thing. I suspect The Orchards would be much easier, and that I'd be able to make it up Willow Grove without stopping. I'd also like to try Little Tor the hard way (i.e. all 450' up the front rather than just 225' up the back). Last time I attempted the front side, I had to stop twice.

Central Park Raccoons

While riding in Central Park last night, I saw a mother raccoon thinking about leading her two kids across the road right around Lasker Pool. This being quite possibly the most dangerous place to cross said road, she changed her mind, and led them back into the bush. I pointed out all of this to my riding companion.

He observed that I shouldn't be sexist. That could've been a stay-at-home dad leading the kids around.

This is true.

But I like to think that dad is still laid up at home, trying to scrub the mark from my tire off his back. If he recovers, as another friend pointed out, he'll be the only raccoon scurrying around Central Park who knows his power to the watt. Assuming he's got WKO, he can also figure out his normalized power. He didn't get my cadence sensor, though, so he's on his own for that.

Work-the-hills muffin ride

The plan was to do a long ride -- Poughkeepsie, or whatever. Chatting with Brad, and given that I have only two weeks before the Princeton 200k, we decided that I should do two short rides instead. By "short", I mean 50mi -- Nyack rides. In an attempt to simulate the short, steep hills from the 200k on muffin ride, the plan is as follows:

• Ash St both ways
• Push every hill -- a gear or two higher than I'd normally do. This excludes state line hill and the one after that. Possibly the third big hill too.

Ash was tough going out. Even tougher going back. I worked the hills pretty hard -- or so I thought, until Brad started pacing me after we got off the GWB. I rode the Manhattan hills harder than I ever had before. Especially the ones in Central Park.

The wattage numbers for this ride should be ... interesting.

Princeton 200k Frenchtown Asbury Practice Ride

Princeton 200k Practice Ride
Trenton Frenchtown Asbury
March 20th, 2010
119mi

I'm signed up for the Princeton 200k on April 10th. This practice ride was advertised as a way to ride the middle 50mi, including the worst hill -- on Adamic Hill Road. I wanted to see if that hill was all that, so I wouldn't have to encounter it for the first time during the 200k. This turned out to be an extremely wise choice.

The initial plan was to rent a car, drive to Frenchtown, do the ride, and drive back. This would've entailed an hour and a half drive in each direction, only to do about 50 miles of riding. It barely seemed worth doing. But wait! There's a crazy way of doing the ride! Much more fun.

The 5:15am NJT train from Penn Station to Trenton would get me to Trenton around 6:45am. A 30-some-mile flat ride up the Delaware would take me to Frenchtown, and thus the ride. Do the 53mi ride, ride back to Trenton, and we get just under a 120mi ride. Whee! That's just under the distance for the 200k (124mi), so it'd give me the same distance, if not the same exertion.

First, a word about trains which leave Penn Station at 5:15 on Saturday mornings. Last call in NYC is 4am, which ensures that the 5:15am train is chock full of club kids returning home. Such an interesting crowd. They were loud when boarding, as to be expected, but everyone quieted down pretty quickly as soon as we pulled out of the station. Everyone was either passing out or staring dully out the windows, trying to will the train to their station as quickly as possible.

I stayed up too late Friday night making my own cue sheet for the ride, and ended up getting maybe five hours of sleep (more likely less). As a result, I was pretty quiet on the train too, trying to get some sleep during the ride. I wasn't able to get any sleep on the train, but I don't think it affected the ride.

Anyway, the train pulled into Trenton on schedule, and off I went on my ride. I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the route into and out of the city, so I was over the Delaware without difficulty. The Pennsylvania side of the Delaware is impossibly scenic. The route to Washington Crossing is ok (I've done it several times now, as part of NYC/Trenton and NYC/Philly rides), but it gets even better above Washington Crossing. Barely any traffic, houses that were old when my parents were young, quaint little towns...

I liked New Hope, PA -- at 8am. On the way back, at about 2:30pm, it was overrun, but in the morning the streets were clear, leaving nothing but a quaint main street. Just north of New Hope is the intersection to the left. For me, it pretty much exemplified the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. The road comes in, hits the stop sign between the two houses, and makes a sharp turn to wind between them. I'm sure this made a great deal of sense when carriages were the order of the day. Now, it's a reminder of time gone by.

The plan was to take River Rd all the way up to the bridge to Frenchtown, but I saw signs indicating that the road was closed beyond the bridge to Stockton. The practice ride started at 9am, and I had no time to waste back-tracking, so I decided to cross to Stockton, and to complete the ride to Frenchtown on the New Jersey side. Not very much to report between Stockton and Frenchtown -- the road was pretty flat and unpopulated. Tree-lined, some surrounding hills, the river off to the left.

And then the battery in the PowerTap hub died, just a couple of miles from Frenchtown. With it went my wattage and distance. No data for the rest of the ride. I'm convinced that made the ride seem longer, since I had no idea of my progress.

Arriving in Frenchtown, everyone had gathered in the Citgo parking lot. A quick briefing, and off we went. Overall, the ride was hilly. Very hilly. I'd been expecting something equivalent to a Nyack muffin ride, but nothing like this. The return from Nyack has long gradual hills, like the one to the NJ state line. This ride was largely composed of relentless sharp relatively short hills, punctuated by some truly evil hills.

The most memorable hill was 0.8mi on Adamic Hill Road, just outside of Riegelsville, PA, but on the New Jersey side. It's like Ash St in Piermont, only longer and steeper. To make matters worse, I was doing it on a tri bike, with a 12-25 rear cassette. Thanks to this training ride, I'll be doing it during the 200k with a 12-27 rear cassette. One only hopes that that'll be enough. I've never ridden a hill like this before. It has an average grade of about 15 degrees, with maximum grade around 25-30 degrees.

I wasn't able to make it up the hill in one shot. I had to stop twice on moderately flat sections to catch my breath. I'm proud to say that I didn't have to walk -- I was either stopped, breathing, or riding. My goal with the 12-27 is to ride the whole thing, but we'll see. A lot depends on what the first 30 miles of the ride are like.

Beyond that, nothing jumps out at me about the ride. Lots of hills, lots of beautiful NJ farmland (yes, I did actually just say that). Hopefully I'll be able to pay more attention the second time around. The hills were so tough that I spent most of this ride trying to catch my breath.

The ride back was similarly uneventful, though New Hope was a pain in the neck. Temperatures were in the 70s, so everyone and their brother was out touristing. New Hope is apparently one of the places one goes when one tourists. Traffic was backed up for at least a half mile in both directions, in and out of town, which was fun to weave through. I held a pretty good pace, though. I was aiming for a minimum of 15mph, to get me back within two hours -- in time to catch the 4:30pm train. As it happened, I made the 3:59 train.

Arriving at 6:45am, getting back to the Trenton train station at 3:45pm, gave me a 9 hour ride. That's about a 13.3mph average, though that includes all stops (at least 15min each in Frenchtown, Asbury, and Frenchtown again). A 15mph average would require an hour's worth of stopping, which is possible.

I didn't take any pictures, but I came away with a souvenir of my ride: a sunburn on my arms. I was wearing gloves and a bike jersey, which left me with a burn from mid-bicep to just short of my wrists. Extremely well defined starting and stopping places for the burn. Oh, and I noticed that my lips were getting chapped as I returned to Frenchtown, so I stopped to get chapstick. This saved me from some of the unpleasant recovery needed for the NYC-Wilmington ride.

All in all, the practice ride was the 50 toughest miles I've ever done. I'm very glad I did it, as it let me know that I need a hill-climbing rear cassette. I also need to do more hill work so rides like this don't kill me in the future. I hadn't been taking the 200k very seriously, as the distance didn't/doesn't scare me. I'm taking it seriously now, as the hills are a cause for concern. I'd been thinking I'd be able to move on to the Princeton 300k without too much trouble. Now I know I need a lot more practice. I'm confident that I'll finish the 200k -- it's just going to be hard. The first hard century I've done, so that's nice.

Wilmington Ride

NYC to Wilmington, DE

March 6th, 2010

160mi

I'd ridden NYC to Philly a couple of times. The short route (107mi) through Jersey City and Newark, which sucked, and the long route (130mi) via the GWB. The short route is not fun because you end up on US-1/US-9/Lincoln Highway (not the Pulaski Skyway, which oddly also carries US-1/US-9). A more bike-unfriendly road I've never ridden.

Going via the GWB is much better. You add twenty-some miles, but the trip is much more pleasant. The highlight is a three-mile trip through Branch Brook Park in Newark. Very little car traffic, and it's a park. Also fun are River Road along the Hackensack River (light industrial, but relatively little traffic on weekends). The rest of the detour is pretty in spots. Much better than US-1/US-9. One downside is that the Bergen Turnpike bridge just west of Ridgefield is closed until April, which requires a detour over a short stretch of US-46. That's a highway, but you're only on it over a bridge, after which you can jump off into an office park.

I had prepared for a trip to Philly, which was kinda fun, but kinda ho-hum. Somewhere in the first 10-15 miles, I made up my mind to extend it -- to go to Wilmington. That had been my next distance goal, but I'd assumed that I'd want to do the Philly ride a couple more times before going to Wilmington. I guess not. :-)

Deciding to go to Wilmington made the beginning of the ride fly by. Getting through Newark is fun (no, really), but it can get to be boring on the nth time through. Anticipation of the unknown changed that, and I was past Newark before I realized it.

One "fun" part on the way to Newark. The previous day had been warm -- above freezing -- but the previous night had been below freezing, so there was some black ice on the roads. Specifically, on 8th St in Palisades Park, NJ. A big sheet of it -- maybe 12' wide. As I approached it, I slowed down, figuring that a high-speed crash would be bad, and that I could control my bike better at low speeds. I realized, as my rear wheel slid out from under me, that 8th St is on an incline. Not in the direction of travel, but side to side. So over went the bike, and I bounced on the ground.

I picked myself up and said, out loud, "well, I'm glad I learned that lesson." A few blocks later on, there's another wide patch of black ice. This time the road is flat. So, says I, I should be able to make it over this one. Just to be sure, I'll unclip so I can steady myself. No sooner does the back tire get completely on the ice than out it goes, and down I go. Apparently I didn't learn that lesson. From now on, I'll be walking over black ice. To make it even worse, I had gone the entire winter without falling on ice. As far as I know, I've never fallen once on this bike, over the course of two years. And yet here I did, twice in less than a mile. Go me.

The rest of the ride to Philly was uneventful. I had an easier time of Cherry Valley (my traditional bonking spot) than I have in the past. The thought of going all the way to Wilmington may have helped. Nutrition was pretty standard. Alternating Clif Bar and GU every 10 miles, lunch at the deli Warren, NJ (52mi), second lunch at the State Road Deli in Croydon, PA (107mi).

I followed PA State Bike Route E around Philly. I've never gone that way before -- generally I follow Aramingo to Girard to 2nd, and into the center city. Bike Route E took me around downtown along the water (or close to it) on Columbus Boulevard. After circling the city, it's pretty much a straight shot to Wilmington via PA-291 and US-13.

I've never gone south of Philadelphia before, so I had no idea what to expect. Now I know the business of South Philly: petroleum refining. Refinery after refinery. I thought it was pretty cool -- I'm a big fan of industrial porn. There wasn't too much traffic, so it was a relatively leisurely trip, aside from the exit from Philly proper (see Route Changes, at the bottom of the post). Three things made it less fun than it would've otherwise been.

First, I left one of my bottles at the State Road Deli, leaving me with two. I finished the second one just south of Philly, leaving me dry, and didn't get around to refilling until I was well into Delaware. Second, it was getting dark. I didn't know the precise distance (I thought it was only 150mi, when it was actually 160mi), so I spent Philly-to-Wilmington pushing the pace, trying to cover as much ground as I could before the sun set. It didn't help that one doesn't find the nicest neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity of refineries. Third, I didn't get extra food at 150mi. I may not have needed food then (my second lunch was at 110mi, so it hadn't been that long), but lack of food combined with lack of fluids wore me out pretty quickly. The last ten miles were somewhat fuzzy.

Oh, and I flatted two miles from the finish. And one of my replacement tubes had a hole. I'm so happy the second replacement tube (out of two) was fine, as I had no desire to have to start walking just two miles short of my new record.

But the new tube worked, and I made it to Wilmington. 160mi. 12 hours. 4 states. Whee!

Nutrition: 7 GUs, 6 Clif Bars, 192oz of Gatorade (1.5gal), two turkey sandwiches. If we assume 400 calories for the sandwiches, that's 7x100 + 6x220 + 192*6.5 + 2*400 = 4,068. According to the PowerTap, I burned about 5,500.

Aches and pains: I took two extra-strength Tylenol before the start, and two more in Warren (52mi). That was enough to keep the lower-back pain under control for pretty much the entire ride. Some intermittent soreness in my right knee during the last 20mi and the next day.

Recovery: I was moving pretty slowly on Sunday. Knowing that Tiffany would yell at me if I didn't, I went to the gym in the evening, and did 20 minutes on the elliptical. Those 20 minutes made a world of difference.

Route changes: PA Bike Route E has you turn right on Oregon from Columbus Blvd. You then take Oregon to Passyunk, and take Passyunk over the Schuylkill. Oregon is worse than Springfield through New Jersey. Block after block of busy busy commercial traffic. Almost three miles, to be precise. Passyunk is very busy (highway, as opposed to commercial), though most of it has a bike lane. You have to use the sidewalk on the bridge over the Schuylkill, due to traffic volume and bridge type (it's a metal grid, rather than a concrete surface). There's an alternate route which looks like it might be much better.

Rather than turning on Oregon, I'd continue on Columbus Blvd, which bends right and becomes Pattison Ave. A left turn on Penrose takes me over a different Schuylkill bridge, and rejoins with the route. Pattison is green-dotted in Google Maps, which means that it's a "recommended" route. Satellite suggests that there's a wide shoulder. Regardless, it's a much less heavily-trafficked road, and runs next to a park, rather than a busy shopping/residential district. Penrose, which becomes Industrial Highway / PA-291, looks quieter than Passyunk to the bridge, at which point I have to jump to the sidewalk, just as with Passyunk. I'm going to try it next time.

Next Time: If I go 20-25mi past Wilmington, I hit Newark, DE, and then the Maryland border. That makes five states in one day. I might (very strong emphasis on might) be able to return the same day, from Wilmington, if I start at 6am or earlier. It'd be really tight, as the last Saturday night train back to Philly from Wilmington leaves at 8:30pm. There are trains as late as 11pm from Markus Hook, PA, 10mi back towards Philadelphia from Wilmington.