You know it’s my off-season when my post delve more into calorie consumption than calorie burning, and counting down the intervals, in fact counting in general is replaced with chit-chatting and joking with friends, and mid-race premes have now been supplanted with mid-ride hulu hoop breaks…
What follows below are three short recaps of rides that each deserved a stand-alone post of the own, but when you’re feasting at the smorgasbord of fall riding opportunities here in CT, there’s not a lot of blogging time left-over once I finally get off of the saddle.
Pie Ride
My plans for a weekend jam packed with sun-up to sun-down riding adventure almost started with a DNS for me as I took a few wrong turns and had to hammer it to meet the crew in Marlborrough for the Pie Ride. Fortunately for me the rather large group took a few more minutes than planned to depart, and included a wide range of riders, so despite getting lost I arrived with minutes to spare, and the social pace at the start gave me ample time to recover.
I chatted it up for the first few miles, especially with the ride organizer Karen (who’s efforts to mark the roads provided me worry-free navigation, even when I was at the front) and I made every effort to keep the pace tame when I was at the pointy end of the ~25 person pack. Overall though I didn’t socialize enough on what was supposed to be a social ride, but I tried to be on my best behavior and leave behind any testosterone fueled hammering, even if a town line came into view.
I honestly thought I was still keeping things tame as we ascended a hill that climbed for maybe 6 or 7 minutes. Frequent checks over my shoulder confirmed that I had a rider on my wheel, with glimpses of several more riders lined up to his rear. But my “tame” pace going up a hill was probably an all-out effort for some, especially those who trained more for the PIE and less for the RIDE.
When we crested the hill our numbers had dwindled to just 7 and even pulling into the middle of the lane away from the other 6 so that I could safely sit up for a full look behind me wasn’t enough to catch a glimpse of those who had fallen behind. So as penance for breaking up the group (unintentionally, I swear!), I resolved to sit at the front until reaching our final destination. With winds in excess of 25 mph mostly howling against us on the way out, I had hoped to repay those that stayed with me by taking on the worst of the wind’s force. Unfortunately though with my slight frame I’m sure those behind me still felt about 24.9 mph of the 25 mph head wind.
I’m guessing the effort to block at the front must have been somewhat appreciated though as nobody ever really made an attempt to bump me off the front and start me down the rotation. One thing that I am sure of though is that the effort eased my conscience. Not for breaking up the socializing, but instead, by off-setting a few more calories and lowering the guilt level I’d feel after the gluttony that followed.
Behold, the pie man! 45 apples were peeled, sliced, and slathered in butter, sugar, and spices to make this behemoth.

A single slice is as tall as my helmet

Real Artways Ride
With 4 hours of riding under my belt (which surely moved up a notch after Man-vs.-Food sized lunch-time slice) and some afternoon volunteering at the local Apple Festival keeping me up on my feet for hours, my body was telling me that Saturday evening should have been spent curled up on the couch. But after basically ignoring the social-side of cycling for the entire 9 months of my 2011 training & racing season, I now feel compelled (almost obligated) to say “yes” anytime someone asks me to join them on a fun-ride. Expo-mate Dave J thought that the family and I would have fun at something called the Real Artways Ride and mentioned that we’d see a bunch of friendly faces there, so recovery would just have to wait a day (actually, two days, but I’m getting ahead of myself).
I must say that Dave J did a stellar job in expectations setting. We did in fact see some friendly faces, amidst the nearly 150 who gathered for the night time ride in downtown Hartford. Even the faces we didn’t know though were pretty darn friendly looking (though with Halloween coming up, a few of the faces were “fiend”ly looking as well); in fact, as our large and wild looking pack snaked its way through Hartford, we seemed to make the faces of all that we passed by turn “friendly” as well.
We passed through several neighborhoods where I’m guessing that recreational cyclists are a rarity, and we frequently blocked intersections and slowed traffic, and we constantly made way too much noise for the after dark hours. However, rather than hearing f-bombs tossed our way for delaying people’s travels or interrupting their quiet Saturday evening, we saw smile after smile in ever car that passed us by; people set down their beers and exited the local bars to cheer us on; and little kids came pouring out of apartment complexes to give us a holler.

If you ask me, cruising with Mrs. D and the girls in a rowdy and brightly lit cycling caravan on a Saturday evening alone would have left us with fond memories. But given that this was an “arts” oriented ride, the evening’s ride was broken up by three different 15-20 minute entertainment stops. The first was a improv show, and the last was a stop at triangle of dormitories at Trinity College where rudimentary musical instruments were passed through the crowds. The highlight stop, at least in the opinion of my girls, was the middle of the trifecta. Only in the off-season will you read about rides where hula-hoops are distributed for a mid-ride fun break!

Uber-Epic Rail Trail Ride
After nearly 9 months of hermit-like isolation while training for this past racing season, you now know I’m feverishly approaching this off-season trying to cram in as much fun and adventure as possible. It’s as if I’ve been fasting for a week, and now I’ve been set loose at an all-you-can eat pasta deal at The Olive Garden. My legs were telling me on Sunday that they had had enough to “eat” over these last few weeks, but the memories of the months of “fasting” erased my better judgment and when I said “yes” to the invite to partake in the “Uber-Epic Rail Trail Ride” on Sunday afternoon.
I’m not so sure that the ride quite lived up to the “Uber-Epic” moniker, as for me that’s a title that forever will be associated with last year’s Detour De CT, where over the course of 9 ½ hours of riding, Connecticut’s rail trail system offered up dilapidated bridges, mountain biking on a cross bike, swimming with said cross bike in the CT river, and many more trials and tribulations. But while the ride fell short of achieving “Uber-Epic” status, it did go down as quite the autumn adventure.
Too many smiling faces for this to be called an Uber-Epic ride

Starting off with a crew of 23 at just about quarter to two on a crisp fall afternoon, the goal for the day was to explore as much of the Airline Rail Trail as possible. Given that it was mostly an out-and-back ride, you could (and people did) reverse course at any point once you’ve had your fill of the crushed stone pathway. But if your appetite for miles and adventure exceeded your appetite for the kick-ass post-ride food and beverage selection (a big THANK-YOU is in order to the Thread City Cycle team for inviting me and organizing such a delicious post-ride spread!), there was nothing to stop you from riding well into the night, as there were plenty of bike lights to keep you on the trails.
Almost time to don the lights

I suppose that Saturday’s apple pie had my belly still feeling full a day later as it was clear that my appetite for miles and adventure won out and kept me and a hardy (or crazy?) group out well past dark. By the time I opened my first frosty beverage and began to chow down on the jambalaya at just after 8:30 PM, we had logged nearly 5 hours and 45 minutes of riding 85 miles of rail trails. Our time in the saddle only rarely encountered anything remotely resembling a hill, but for the most part our pace was set just a few notches north of a social ride, with yours truly out at the front setting the pace for extended stretches of time. For the second consecutive day the calorie-burning engine was set to “high” for hours at a time, thereby affording me guilt-free indulgences amongst some new friendly faces.
Hmmmm…riding with friendly faces, setting the calorie burning engine to 10, and indulging in food forbidden to me during the season…sounds an awful lot like my plan for next weekend too! Check back again for what will likely be my next post after next Saturday’s Donut Derby.
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