next stop: Wrentham, MA

With back to back weekends away from home riding and then a few days falling off the horse from writing here I accumulate a back-log and then interesting thoughts I have fade away into the abyss.

As a result, this may be shorter in words than I originally anticipated yet some of you might like that.

A week ago yesterday I set off for my first official "Ride my bike to my race. Race. Ride home." It would be a tad over 100miles out to Wrentham MA to Thom's house. Then we'd do a 70mile race around Boston. The third day I would ride the 100 or so miles home. All in all, it was a great success and the testing I have done paid off.

My route, which included about 50 miles offroad:

View Home to Thom in a larger map

The Airline Rail Trail in Eastern CT

The good news is this was a success. I made it out there without destroying myself that Saturday. I felt a consistent level of energy racing on Sunday. The ride home on Monday started out sluggish but after 25 miles I finally got my legs back in me and even had some energy to run some errands on the way home.

 The new bridge installed on the rail trail in Andover CT. More on that soon.

Willimantic CT, about 40miles in

The ride out to Mass was fairly uneventful. The 29x1.9 tires and 61.6inch gear (34x16) were a good choice. The rail trail was both a good thing and a bad thing. The good was that it leveled out the mountainous area of Eastern CT. The bad thing was that I spent a lot of time seated. Something I typically don't do when riding my singlespeed.

The ride to Willimantic I've done many times. Willimantic north I've never ridden so I was in exploring mode. The trail went from being very sandy and rocky to nice and smooth to very muddy and rutted out from trucks and ATVs.

Old converted rail station in Pomfret CT.

Around 1pm, with a few miles left on the rail trail, I was getting hungry so I stopped in Pomfret for a big caesar chicken salad. An hour later I was back on the bike pedaling north to Putnam CT. In Putnam I hopped on Rt44 and headed east to RI and then meandered north to Mass and into Wrentham.

 Putnam CT (end of the rail trail)

I did managed to find some singletrack along the rail trail :)

9.5hours after leaving my home, I arrived at Thom's. Ate half a pizza, took a shower and then took a nap. 2hours later I awoke and we went over to his family's farm for a few drinks and some live music.