This was going to be a big riding week. Wanted to get a TSS greater 800. That meant I needed to do bunch of shorter hard rides and a big hard ride. Fortunately that all worked out.
After my chains started skipping on both the Seven Evergreen as well as the MudHoney, it was time to check the wear on the chains. Turns out both were way overdue. Monday installed a new chain on the Seven. While I was at it also installed new brake pads on the Seven. Afterwards I tested out the chain and broke in the brakepads by riding up Nash hill and then via East Guinea rd and Pine hill back to Conway.
Tuesday the forecast was not good for the afternoon, I was going to skip but then Dusty had texted me in the morning if I wanted to the the NCC TT in Deerfield. Unfortunately I only saw his text too late and he was already on his way. I left later in the morning and hoped that I would perhaps run into him. That did not happen, as when we did pass eachother I had found a porta-potty :-). At the start of the TT, I ran into Henry. We call him Henry the 3rd as he was the 3rd to join our NCC indoor Zwift racing group.
The time trial was 12.5 miles back and forth on River road in Deerfield. It had a few little climbs, but for the rest was fairly flat. I did not have the legs and only averaged 255 watts and finished in 36:12 my 2nd best time, my best time was 34:26. After my finish I waited for Henry to finish his attempt. We had a quick chat before returning home. Later that day we heard that the TT was canceled as it started raining in the afternoon.
Wednesday pre-rode a short section of the Massochistah ride, did the sections of Old Goshen rd, Wing Hill and Wing Hollow rd before returning home via South Ashfield.
The next day was a big riding day, my first century of the year. I had created a route based on a gravel loop someone had posted on RidewithGPS around the Quabbin reservoir. I adapted it to start and finish in Conway, which made it a 104 mile loop.
It was a very windy day with the general wind direction from the northwest. This helped tremendously on the first 30 miles of the ride towards Northampton and then over the bike path into Amherst. From Amherst rode up to Pelham and then passed Belchertown. Soon I entered the gravel roads around the Quabbin and over the Windsor dam.
Here for the first time I had the wind in my face, fortunately I was short and I was back into the woods. I then climbed up to the Quabbin overlook where I had a quick break and enjoyed the view.
After the break rode for a while on the road towards Ware where I turned north into the wind and after a few miles went back into the woods. Soon I recognized some of the gravel roads from an earlier Ride HQ gravel ride.
I also padded the fishing station, featured in the Ride HQ rides. After a while I ended riding along the reservoir shore. Here the wind was blowing fiercely across the water and there were lots of whitecaps to be seen.
After a half a mile entered the woods again and was protected from the wind. Now I headed west towards New Salem, which was at mile 75 mile. I stopped at the general store for calories: coke, chips and a snickers bar. After a quick chat with the local policeman I rode towards Shutesbury still on dirt roads until I got to Shutesbury center, where I left the original route and rode back home.
At mile 99 mile my Wahoo crashed, not clear if it was because of lack of power or something else. I recorded the rest of the ride on Strava. I finished the 104 mile ride in 9 hours and got a great collection of various road surfaces I rode on. A 300+ TSS effort.
Friday I only had a energy for a short ride to the CSA, and bought some more calories: Barbecue flavored chips and 5 year aged cheese from SideHill Farm.
On Saturday after some work around the house, Paula wanted to do a short loop from Conway. It was a real hill training ride with the climbs up Main Poland, Bullit, Murray and Pine Hill. 1800ft of climbing in just 13 miles.
The next day I finished off the week with some more pre-riding of the Massochistah roads. The only road that had some mud on was River road near Plainfield, all other roads had been blown dry by the windy week. A solid 4 hour effort for 46 miles. And these were the flatter sections of the route. 5500 ft in 47 miles.
This busy week on Veloviewer
