Trek Across Maine 2012 Complete!

I have been 100% re-cooperated from the 180 mile ride since the Tuesday after the Trek.  It was really an amazing weekend overall.  I am so proud of our team and all of our accomplishments!  We continue to grow our team each year, and have gathered interest among the other major riders for the Trek.  Team Tent City was again a hit.  Our CEO Jonathan Bush joined us for this years ride, and was waving at our corporate jet as it circled over Tent City at Colby College on Saturday.  We rode with familiar faces and many that were new.  Our team is so very large it was a bit difficult to get to know everyone on it!  I saw triumphant faces as our team members rode into our staging area so we could cross over the finish line all together.  And together we did, not a single team member was left out!
I decided that after last years trek and my lack of activity post ride that I really needed to ramp up my gym time and keep cycling all the way through as long as possible into our fall season, and get out as early as February again to start training.
I met a very interesting 50 something-year-old guy who had a very beautiful jersey, and of course I couldn't help but comment on it.  He said it was from a 600 mile ride he did in May the month before during National EMS week that goes from Boston, MA to Washington D.C.  I plan on attending, but we will see!
It being my second year riding a mountain bike, I decided to finally plan to buy a road bike.  While I love my mountain bike, it proves challenging hauling 35-40 pounds of bike up and down mountains and inclines on long distant rides.  If I am to do the 6 centuries (600 miles) this coming Spring, I better pick out a new ride.  Other highlights from our beautiful ride this year:  no mountain due to construction (I will be well prepared for it next year), the guy with a blender bike, yes that's right, a blender that is hooked into his rear tire and makes drinks as he rides!  The guy with a radio on his bike who rode past me playing one of my favorite Beastie Boys songs Body Movin'!  Team Tent City of course was our major highlight as well!
I know a lot of you were looking for my gps connection to see where I was, I apologize that I did not run it.  I was so excited that I would forget to turn it on in the morning, plus, facebook no longer allows the j.mp shortened URL that cyclemeter uses to post maps to facebook!  Cyclemeter is winning awards with it's fabulous app, I hope that changes the way it posts to facebook to make it automatic again.  So I am providing this years' route map below, it shows each rest stop for each day etc.:

And some other photos from this years Trek:

 Our Team at the staging area for crossing the finish line

 The Belfast Commons where everyone just tosses their bikes so they can eat!

 Me on the first day at the starting line

 Potato at the finish line in Farmington, I'd never been so happy to see a potato!

 The Field house at Colby College day 2

The finish line bike parking at Colby College

Needless to say, I look forward to continuing cycling and lots of gym time throughout the year, and cross country skiing in the winter.  For anyone interested in riding for National EMS week here is the link for that:
www.muddyangels.com

Again, I want to thank everyone for their donations, support and encouragement, for without you it would not be possible!  So thank you all!!

I hope to keep blogging throughout the year to share my experiences.  Maybe it will inspire some to start training, maybe it will give people ideas for new places to go, who knows.  I bike, I ride, I blog!  Live free, RIDE HARD!!!

T-Minus 4 Days and Counting!

This Thursday is it!  We depart for the Trek Across Maine!  I have every piece in motion.  I have someone to watch my house while I am gone.  All my gear is on it's way to arrive via shipments.  I have gathered a much useful packing list, as I am absolutely notorious for forgetting the most important of the little things.
I am nervous yet excited.  Having done it once already at least I know what to expect.  I am better prepared than I was last year in every way. 
Memorial day we had decided on a 60 mile ride:
 
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 This was quite a ride!  The morning started out misty, wet and cool.  We were all very damp, and sweating.  I saw a chicken in the middle of crossing the road and yelled at it asking why it was crossing the road, of course it freaked out and went back to whence it came, it did not answer the age old question of why the chicken crossed the road!  The route took us out on 137 which goes through cow country.  We all almost vomited riding by the dairy farms in Thorndike.  I yelled to my companions: "Shouldn't the Clean Air Act of Maine cover dairy farms too!?"
They all thought that was funny.  Although on a serious note, dairy farms and cows do tend to omit a lot of methane and it does contribute to green house gasses.  Why can't they harness the power of methane from cows really?  I know methane is highly volatile and everything, but you'd think there would be some way to make that happen!  Anyway, we continued on and ended up riding through Freedom, Maine, a sleepy little farming town. We came across the cutest mini horse I had ever seen with a fresh cut mohawk, we just had to stop and say high.  We ended up on the North Palermo road, which is bumpy as hell, it would have been a road bikers nightmare!  We ended up coming out on route 3 right behind one of my favorite little stores on that road, Tobey's Market.  Route three was is fairly poor condition and one of our companions blew a tire and none of us had means to fix it on the spot.  This was a fully un-supported ride!  At one of our stops on the last 5 miles of the ride I discovered a honey bee hanging out on my camelbak lapping up my camel pack cocktail.  When we pulled into athenahealth where we had parked, I discovered she was still on my saddle pack. 
The new gear I got for this year is a super warm sleeping bag from LL Bean, ensuring I will NOT go cold like I did last year.  I got an awesome new backpacking tent from mountain hardwear, it is super light weight and very rain proof and is a three season.  I have a new battery pack for my cellphone, so I do not have to worry as much of where I am going to charge my phone ensuring that I can run my cycle meter while I am riding all three days.  I have ordered a beautiful new rain proof cycling jacket in hot pink ensuring good visibility for drivers.  I added a mirror for my bike so I don't have to turn my eyes away from my path to look behind me and some additional cycling clothing to supplement what I didn't have last year.
Next year, I do plan on getting a nice road bike hopefully built from carbon, then I will be able to go farther in shorter time with greater ease!  
So, I hope to be blogging along through the trek at the end of our days, be looking for fun pictures etc!  
 

Nobody Ever Drowned in His Own Sweat!

The way I see it, bikes are the modern day equivalent to horses.  That being said, I found a website dedicated to cowboy quotes and sayings (http://www.coolnsmart.com/cowboy_quotes/)!  Speaking of sweat, the last few rides I have come home thoroughly drenched in it, needing a shower to warm up fast.  When you burn that many calories in that short a period of time your metabolism goes a little crazy.  It's no different than needing to take care of a horse after a long run, the sweat cools you off, but as soon as you stop you need to get it off of you before you get too cold!  A trek teammate and I went on a 35 mile ride yesterday, it was his longest ride ever, and the longest ride I have done all season thus far.  We both did great.  I burned 1300 calories and came home a raging starving beast! I really feel like I am ready for the Trek Across Maine, and all my training from here until June 14th when we depart is all extra and will just make it that more enjoyable of an adventure.
Here is our ride from yesterday:



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We did two roads that had brutal hills in them, both roads had the word "hill" in them; Beech Hill Road in Northport, ME and Oak Hill in Swanville, ME.  We went through at least three towns, sometimes two passes through. I have almost officially reached my own personal goal of looking good in a bikini again, almost all of my belly fat is gone!  It has taken so much hard work to slim down, and belly fat is the hardest to get rid of!

A little update for our Athenahealth team, we now have 102 riders on our team!  Amazing!

I have reached my goal of raising $500, thanks to all who helped donate money!
I just need some new gear and I am ready to go.  Last year we borrowed small tent and things to sleep in, I have my LL Bean sleeping bag this year, it should be very comfortable.  So all I really need now is a new tent, a new pair of bike shorts and maybe some other new active wear, a couple pair of new shorts because I have none that I fit into, and some rain gear, a new solar charger for my phone, and all the little things like toiletry bags, and powerbars, powerade and other necessary things to fill my camelpak and just odds and ends.

Live Free, Ride Hard!!

 

Mountain Bike Tires Off, Racing Slicks ON!

Yesterday was the first really nice weather day we've had since our weird little heat wave back in early March.  It was a wet start in the morning from the previous nights' rain.  It was mild and partly sunny, perfect for riding in my book!  We went around Swan Lake again, it was very nice.  There are some extreme hills out there near Monroe Road, of which I didn't do so well the last time we rode this particular route.  This time however I was pushing it really hard.  I ride a mountain bike, and have so for pretty much forever.  I am starting to envy those with their hybrids and sleek looking road bikes, but I keep reminding myself that while it's very hard work hauling a heavy mountain bike with knobby tires and tools and gear up extreme hills is not only building incredible muscle but character as well.  I have thought of buying a new road bike next year.  I fell in love with a bianchi that I saw at my local bike shop a while back, we'll see.  While I was falling back on hills my cohorts passed me or were already ahead.  I worked so hard to keep up.  I kept noticing I would almost catch up on flats, or downhills.  My average speed yesterday was a little over 12 mph, which is incredible, it is the fastest I have gone since I have been keeping track. I got up to 45 mph, which is also the fastest I have gone since I have been tracking my stats!  I am sure I have gone faster even but wasn't tracking it.  I then proceeded to meet another fellow Trek Rider for yet another ride, with more extreme hills.  My muscles by then had almost just about had it, but I kept pushing through.  I am actually feeling like my muscles are growing more and repairing themselves today and have taken today off.  Needless to say, off with those damn mountain bike tires!  I put my racing slicks back on last night and was able to fill them up today. They are so beautiful and sleek with barely any tread on them, just little grooves so I don't hydroplane!  I can't wait to see the difference from riding with them last year to this year. I am so very much stronger!  I plan on commuting to work and back with training rides in between as much as the weather permits in the next few weeks.  It's supposed to be pretty nice tomorrow and Tuesday and I will be sure to take advantage of it.

A little update, our Trek Across Maine team for Athenahealth has reached it's goal of 100 team members!!  Absolutely amazing!!  Our jerseys have been ordered as well! I can't wait to see mine. I am working on getting a matching grant through a friend at Bank of America. They have a matching program there, so if it goes through, not only will I have raised my $500 minimum but about a hundred more on top of that.  Hell, I might just go for $1000 if I can!  If you want to support me in my effort follow this link to my personal page for the American Lung Association http://action.lung.org/site/TR/Bike/ALANE_New_England?px=4448937&pg=personal&fr_id=4000 Your donation is tax deductible and very much appreciated!

Here are our routes and stats from yesterday's rides:



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If click on view larger map, it will take you to the route on google maps and it shows all the stats from that particular ride.

Wind, To Hate, or To Love? How About Both!

It's a rather chilly finish to April here in Maine.  A couple days this previous week we had downpours of rain followed by freezing cold days with blustery wind gusts that just take your breath away.  I did two training rides today in this cold windy weather.  I live in an area that is a few miles away from the breezy ocean so it wasn't too terribly bad, although we crested a hill that overlooked many surrounding hills and I had a hard time breathing through all of it.  All I can say is, layer up!!  You end up taking them off, putting them back on.  Some areas are warmer than others.  And some areas were so windy it made it a huge challenge for me to haul my heavy mountain bike up and down hills.  I hate it, but know that it's only going to make me stronger, so therefore I love it.  This type of weather is certainly not for everybody, but honestly, you burn more calories in the cold than in the warm.  I am a lucky person that I have experienced enough cold from cross country skiing in the winter and biking as early as February that I can handle it!  So our first training ride was about 17 miles and I got to ride some unfamiliar roads that my friend knew.  I was feeling pretty good by the end of it, but had also made plans to go ride with another Trek Across Maine teammate too.  We ended up doing almost 11 miles in a big loop through town.  My endurance is definitely getting better, but I really need to work on going up steep inclines, that is my weakness especially with the heavy mountain bike with a saddle rack that holds all my tools just in case something happens.  I have suffered with enough flat tires on the road that rather than being stuck stranded in the middle of nowhere I can just fix it myself!  We might go out again tomorrow, but maybe not, it's supposed to be cool and windy as hell just like today was!  All in all I am closer to my goals of where I want to be when we actually do the Trek, already I am twice more prepared than I was last year!

Saturday Ride

We decided that even though the weather was kind of iffy to go out any way, and on a new route we hadn't done before.  The air was damp but the road was dry.  If you can understand what it's like to be hot and cold at the same time with dampness then that is what our ride was like today.  I didn't have to drink a lot from my camelpak since it was so damp in the air, it makes for retaining water a little easier.  Our route from today is below, it was 20 miles around a nearby lake.  We did it in 1:48:25 with 20 of those minutes taking hoodies off, and putting them back on blowing noses and wiping of sweat.  It was warmer on the east side of the lake with very little wind, the west side however was much chillier and the wind was coming right at us most of the way back.  It was a great ride!




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And here's an interesting picture from today.  It's a beaver dam, complete with beaver swimming nearby.  We live in Waldo County in Maine, and seeing a satellite dish on top of a beaver dam in Waldo County doesn't exactly surprise me at all, but it's still really funny.  The landowner put out big huge signs nearby that said "no hunting" because they raise deer there.