recipes and ride reports

Last weekend, dphilli1 had a race out in Charlemont, so I tagged along. I'd been neglecting doing hill-climbing training, and it kind of showed in how I felt on the 200k, so I figured there were two options:

1. Ride home from Charlemont, a 200k, in what was predicted to be heavy rain. Not especially hilly, mile-for-mile, although nothing resembling flat.

2. Put together a hill ride in the area, finishing about the same time David would be done. Given that this is the land of D2R2[1], the only challenge would be keeping it mostly on paved roads, since none of the online mapping sites reliably show improved vs. unimproved roads, and there's a lot of dirt out there. Still predicted to be in heavy rain, but I'd only be out in it for 40 miles or so.

I went with the latter, which was by far the most fun I've had climbing hills on a bike. It didn't hurt that the predicted rain all dumped on us on the drive out there, and by the time I set out the roads were dry and the sun was out.

Definitely so much better than doing hill repeats, which I did today. Ugh. (I don't actually go repeat the same exact climb; I have a loop that takes me up a whole bunch of local hills in a row, but it's definitely a workout ride and not actually scenic.)



( cut for lots of photos )

[1] If you don't want to click the link, this is the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee, a notoriously hilly, mostly dirt road organized ride.