Camp authority dicates to be or not to be *** We Night Hill Ride

Starting early out this morning riding to the Camp, still just getting awake... a nice sunny but still little chilly morning around 7:30am. A more or less normal day at the Camp. However just at the time Py got ready to leave to catch up with the we nite hill ride team, closing his office door some sad news came to his attention. Once there was a happy and pretty nice to watch ongoing goose family, mom and dad goose, breeding and hatching there eggs at the upper north rim of the little pond just behind an nice protective little wall on a really good placed and undisturbed spot. For a reason Py does not really understand at all and he be leaves totally unnecessary the Camp authorities decided they had to go. No eggs, no nest, no goose any longer -- that sucks -- would it not have been a real pleasure to watch the little fluffy yellow goslings to hatch out of the eggs and wondering around with mom and dad?
How can some people just be so bad :-(

Just an empty and demolished nest left behind, as Py was just verifying on his way out, he had to speed up a bit to catch up with the We Nite Hill Ride group on the fly, and joined them en route... A good just before sun-set workout, he did some work, a few sprints, just right.

EBs South - just back before it got messy...

After a day off the bike as Py was helping out a friend moving instead of leading the RP2IPBP ride yesterday he got out early today to get ready for the Early Birds.
A little chilly East wind and fully over casted this morning, so again long sleeves and leg warmers were needed today to be comfortable. Easy pace to the start. The group of birds grew to a decent size today. They flew out fast and worked hard on Dune Road into the wind to keep the pace up.

Py took his turns pulling, adjusting it just right worked fine, falling back to the end took some time, as the pace line counted a good number of riders... just great and fun flying today. A few drops of rain on the East End, but nothing so far of any concern. On one of his pulls toward the end three geese's occupied the road, he slowed a bit and warned the group -- two of the geese slowly waked to the left, one stayed right of the road on the green and he decided to pass in between, as this goose decided to move to the left, it got close but figured it out in last second better stay away, just touching Py's right leg gently with the end of it's wing...
But all the birds were fine and kept flying :-)
Getting close to the parking in Manorville more rain drops falling out of a few scattered local clouds and the road started being wet just as they were back. A few thoughts and Py was happy to get a dry ride back home :-) Thx!

The ride stats:

What a nice late April day...

PyZahl was just riding to work again this morning, this time, at 7:30am already 17C, awesome, just short pants and jersey were needed to be comfortable. After two days of rest he felt great and put in a new record time for his way to the Camp -- 36'20" from his house to the North Gate of the Camp. What a good way to start the day.

And yes, he made it today to the We Nite Ride and put in a few strong pulls and climbs, an even better way to end a nice warm day.

Here a few shots at shortly before sun set, this one was actually taken on Monday:


And these on his way back home from the We Nite Ride, bloomin trees and bushes all over, what a pleasure for the mind after all that winterly long grey in gray:

EBs North -- Birds are still the best

5:30am the radio turned on -- still quite dusky outside, no sun, heavy cold fog sitting over the island, PyZahl had a hard time getting up and turned around once more to figure if the other side of the pillow is any better. Time advanced closer to 6am... dose he really wants to ride today so early?, could do an Rocky Point Park/RCA MTB ride once again, hmmmm, he is undecided for the moment -- but got up and put some cold water in his face and prepared a Cappuccino and the regular breakfast, soft cooked egg and a good slice of his bread, one half w smoked salmon, that goes well with the egg and the other half w jelly. Checking NOAA -- early fog, 60% sky cover later, dry, highs in the 60F's. Getting ready to ride. Let's do it, birds are always most fun, in RCA he most likely would be on his own...
Just about 48F outside, very high humidity -- or better condensing water and droplets in the air (some call it fog). He rode at moderate pace towards the EBs start, almost tempted to return home, his glasses completely covered with thousands of water droplets making his sight really blurry and the fog seamed even denser.

Arriving at the starting point after 45mins, about 1/4 hour to the start. Some very early birds were already there -- inside cars. Good to see a few (new) old faces again, like thenlec.

Drying his glasses was a major improvement of his vision.

The fog came down mostly by the time. Still kinda of chilly morning compared to the day before.

They moved out North.

Py again tried to save as much energy as possible, but did not really got warm and up to speed for a long time, a little struggling at Penny Lane -- no power left in his legs, that sucks, got a little behind that "race" section but got back to the pack at the reassembly point :-) Now just hang on or in -- staying out of the wind as much as possible, as there was head wind going east. That works just fine and he even made a little pull out to the Deli in Cutchogue.

A hot Coffee and Cliff Bar got him back some energy, the stay was short, they seamed to be in some hurry today.



After quickly storing away the camera he got stalled on the wrong side of the road as there was some stupid heavy traffic just at that moment he needed to get back on, Arrrg. But the group figured the missing one and slowed to allow reassembly, thx to the birds.

The ride back was a flying one (averaging 36.9km/h), tailwind and a good group, that's always fun and he had a strong fast ride back and managed to regain some power to pull most of the group back at some good speed from Riverhead... moving at top speeds up to 45..50km/h for some sections. Getting back to the plot as the 4th or so.

Birds are still most fun, just the best ride on the Island.

Having a Cappuccino and Banananutbread at Starbucks w T for a little refuel for the last leg of the route going back home. He did not skipped his favorite WR-NC section, but was pretty much done home -- he needs a good recovery day or better two -- after over 12 hours training and over 352km since last Tuesday, only one recovery day Monday and a an easy ride to work from 465km and about 16 hours training the week before.

The Ride inclusive the to/from legs.

RP2IPBP as usual but so different

Back to usual, RP2IPBP. Summer is here, hurray.... A nice warm day, just perfect, little comfortable South Easy wind, dusty, dry and crystal clear blue sky. At 9am three riders started out from Tildas. They, M and Py, and G (was G, wasn't it? Py is so bad at names). G had a similar problem, just sounding little worse, as Py with his bike, the bottom bracket made crackling sounds while pushing hard, G seam so annoyed by it, that he just went little past
Church Hill section and bailed out back... -- it would have made it, but you never know... However, M and Py proceeded out east. On doctors they passes a few rides, and little later a bigger group and arrived at IPBP -- nice out there:

As they finished there snacks, the group also arrived at IPBP...

Little later M & Py headed for the return, it should be a fast one, as the route felt so different , almost like new and never ridden, today with wind from a completely other direction, South East, today!

The usual 88km they finished today with that nice warm South East wind in just about 2h45 from Tildas :-)

No GPS today, that toy was dead, out of battery this morning as it must have been left on over night o-(

Early Birds

Today, PyZahl rode again with the Early Birds, the South Route. He took a very easy spin to the start, a little chilly morning, but the sun was out. A group of about 15 took off South... a nice tail wind helped moving out east. Nice fast flight on Dune Rd... one damn stupid (blind or careless) driver of an huge red Pickup pulling out of an driveway almost in front of the fast moving pace line, however -- everything stayed under control and nothing happened, just a few upset riders at the front.
The return into the wind from the wait up after the bridge went smooth fast and steady non-stop.

Py finished the group ride with an quick stop at Starbucks Manorville, got a Tall Cappuccino and a slice of Banananutbread :-) Before he rode back home -- further into the wind, it got a little chilly, as there were a few dark clouds blocking the sun.

One more good ride day.

A little smeared out speed distribution, slow go to the start, two fast peaks of the group ride and little slower return in between.

RP 2 OP - Century

Planned for a while on the USCC board... questioned by the always changing April weather...

Sat, Apr 12 2008 7:37 am Subject: Re: Extended RP2IPBP to Orient Point Century next Saturday from Rocky Point, Tildas 9am -- Sat 5th Century No1 && Sat 12th Century No2 again. SAT 12th 10am??? Right now I can hardly see my trash can in 100yds distance.... so dense wet fog is around. Not really inviting for a longer ride. I rode at similar or less dense fog conditions on Thursday morning, I got quite soaked w/o any rain and my vision with glasses was not so good, as I'd needed wipers on them...., but this day cleared up greatly. Not so sure how today will develop: Saturday, April 12 at 2pm Temperature: 67°F Dewpoint: 55°F Wind Chill: N/A Surface Wind: SW 15mph Sky Cover: 64% Precipitation Potential: 25% Relative Humidity: 65% Thunder: Slight Chance (10%-20%) Rain: Chance (30%-50%) Snow: <10%> There is nothing "big dogs" like on the radar, what is good. What do you all think? I's is and will get really warm. Do we want to meet at 10am again and see find out how it is developing?

Three of the USCCs, C, M & Py meet at Tildas, it was still all wet, no rain, a few scattered rays of sun made it and felt nice and warm, Py decided due to the expected "warm" (for the season) and muggy weather to ride with shorts and short sleeved jersey, it was just fine going out east on a ad-hoc made up route with an nice tail wind, they did a good steady moving pace and arrived after just little over two hours at the Point -- the weather was fine all the way out, they took a few scenic "avoid the sound ave" detours -- however, as they arrived a big scary dark cloud showed up and a few thick droplets of rain and a little thunder hit the Point... this was just a second before the rain hit and they found a little shelter at the unfortunately closed Deli at the Orient Ferry:



So they waited until the rain seamed to stop....


... looking for the Point restaurant -- also still closed. An attempt to ride a little out the the Orient State Park was stopped by one more hit of some scary lightening and one more poor down, by the time the road was almost flooded. One more wait under the shelter of State Park entrance hut... The rain tapered a bit, so what, a few more drops from top were almost insignificant compared to the water spray from the wheels in front -- they raced TT like to Greenport looking forward to a hot Coffee and some Sandwiches:




Here, in a nice Coffee shop they warmed up and refueled, that was perfect -- sorry, we may left some wet butt prints, will dry :-)

And by the time the rain stopped and the sun came back out a bit again, low fog from evaporating water on the roads developed...


Moving on back west, they experienced some head wind, but not too bad, some work was to be done...



Returning on the south side of the North fork towards Cutchogue. Py insisted on taking the EBs N route back from there. That worked just fine, little shelter from the wind, mostly dry roads from here. A few more thick rain droplets, but nothing of any real concern. At Riverhead they took 24 and then River Road and back to Wading River. And no no no we are not cutting short on 25A, retuning on NC to RP.

Back. Done. Good job! Just 5 hours moving time and a total of little over 6 hours for 166.6km or a good Century.




The ride:

RP2IPBP2Cutchogue pre Century ride

After some longer debates and unsure weather to the last minute finally a shorter and little later start of the originally planned RP2OP Century No. 1 started out at Tildas at 10am.

Riding out on wet NC road, taking soem of the WR hills for warmup, they got quickly out to Sound Ave and waited for an expected rider at Fressh Pond, as it just was 10:30... nothing for a while, they proceeded and found him little later after Boy Scouts Hill.... They moved fast out east and especially heading South. Approaching IPBP a thick dark and wet cloud -- some condensing moisture in the air -- it looked scary and felt little cold -- at IPBP the decided to add an extra loop (proceeding on the EBs N route to the Cutchogue Deli). A good hot Coffee...

... and the Cloud disappeared and it got really nice :-)

... for the return.

Stats:

Back to the We nite hill rides

Today PyZahl took out and put on his knickers as temps were somewhere around 7C in the morning and also left home his booties, started out early. It felt some what much colder than expected and he got little cold toes as the wind was going strait through his shoes and the tooooo thin socks, but still, he rode the extra hilly route to the Camp, the slower moving sections at wind protected climbs were nice as the sun was very welcome for a little warm up. Howerver, a quick hot shower felt really good after that :-) ... usual business at the Camp ... wrapping a layer of clear packing tape around the toe ventilation of his shoes to keep the wind out helped to get a little more comfort for the following ride to finish the day with the We nite ride (all laps and zigzaggs overlapping here...) routine, well starting over with this routine for the season of just long enough days. He added a second lap of the climb starting at the bottom at Pond before heading back on his his way home on NC again.... The sun was very low, but still up as he got back home -- good workout after two rained out days.