A Transportation Stage Deep into the Heart of the Catskills

Finding time to train during the spring remains a serious challenge. With work and family commitments, spring really is the busiest time of year in my household. As the result of a little careful planning, though, it's still possible to get the job done.

This weekend, for instance, we had a trip planned to visit with my in-law's in Andes, NY - right in the heart of the Catskills, so I seized the opportunity to plan a long ride as one of the legs of the journey. Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly, refers to rides of this type as "transportation stages." So rising early, I clipped in and hit the road to begin my 75-mile journey.

Undertaking a transportation stage takes a little planning, of course. On Saturday, I prepped the bike and packed a bag with a change of clothes and (mercifully) remembered to attach the bike rack to the roof of my wife's car. Unfortunately, we were out until 2:00 AM on Saturday night, so I did not get the best night's sleep, but the weather could not have been more ideal.

The trip to Andes involves some lovely backroad riding up to the Ashokan Reservoir and then a long stretch heading northwest on State Route 28. Since Route 28 is basically the only road that runs in this direction between the Catskill high peaks, there's no really avoiding it, but thankfully, the road crews have repaved in the past several years so, for much of the journey, I was treated to 10-foot wide shoulders free of cracks and debris.

There's still lots of water running at this time of year, so at various points during the trip, I was surrounded by the sound of rivers, waterfalls and creeks, all of which slow down considerably by late summer.

One of the best things about a transportation stage in combination with a family trip is the inevitable point in the journey when family and rider intersect. On this trip, I texted my de facto crew that some fresh cold water and a little nosh would hit the spot, so shortly after the longest and steepest climb of the day, I saw a familiar blue Subaru pass by complete with waving arms.

After 50 miles, a few bottles of cold water and an energy bar really hit the spot, but it was the "Paris Brest" that really took my breath away, but I decided that this gorgeous confection would serve better as an incentive rather than as a mid-ride snack, and so sent the crew off with instructions to keep the pastry in the shade.

While the casual viewer might see a mocking daughter, a shocked son and a wife trying to get as far from her stinking husband as possible in these photos, I prefer to see love and admiration. 

Finally, the glories of reaching the top of a hill are far greater when achieved by riding a bicycle. In all, I arrived around lunchtime about an hour after my "crew" feeling very grateful for the chance to have both a good workout and a fun day with the family.

Riding the Long Way Home

After a whirlwind week of transition into my new job that involved several school visits on Long Island and a three-day residential conference, I was more rundown than expected and in no shape to compete a hilly 400K in rural Vermont. That I was able to turn back is a small indication that I may actually be learning from past experience. As a result, I was able to join my wife and son in the Catskills where we helped grandma with a gallery opening. Today I decided to take the long way home rather than drive to make up for lost time riding this weekend. The first few hours were dry, but the latter half was filled with rain. While the gradual downhill tilt certainly helped, today's 70 miles were some of the best I've ridden all year. The majestic views didn't hurt either.

Did you hear the fabulous NPR story on randonneuring this weekend? If not, give it a listen. It's only 5 minutes long and you get to hear interviews with both RUSA President Mike Dayton and Bicycle Quarterly's Jan Heine. What are you waiting for?

Up next: a local 200K.

When DNS = Definitely Needed by Someone.

As an endurance athlete, it's important to look for subtle signs that your body may not be ready for a big event. The same is true for the subtle signs that your family may need you more than you need to ride your bike. I realized as this weekend approached, that signs of the latter were growing more apparent.

After registering for D2R2 back in the spring, my wife was invited by a dear friend to spend the weekend in preparation for an upcoming wedding. Sure, I could pull in some favors to set up a network of convoluted plans involving sleep-overs in all corners of the Hudson Valley, but was this really the best solution?

So rather than hammering over the dirt roads of western Massachusetts, I'll be spending the weekend with my kids. We'll fill our time with laughs, chores, a friend's birthday party, driving lessons, a movie or two and maybe even some ice cream. My son and I will even get a training ride in to prepare him for the NYC Century's 55-mile loop that we'll ride in a few weeks. 

As my kids get older I realize two things: 1) they need me more than they let on and 2) time passes very, very quickly.

Sometimes DNS means "definitely needed by someone."

A Little Cross (country ski) Training

Since it's been a few years without any sizable snow accumulation in the Hudson Valley, I've basically put cross country skiing on the back burner despite how enjoyable I find it to be. But as I packed the car to visit my sister-in-law and her family in Maryland for Presidents' Day weekend, I opted for the skis over the bike. Based on the recent epic dump of snow they've received, I'm confident I made the right decision.

For each of the past two days, I've logged in 90 minutes of cross country skiing at a moderate aerobic pace. My family's house sits within a small suburban development in Montgomery County that backs up against a large public park filled with hiking and biking trails now bisected with snowmobile and ski paths.

This exercise in the crisp, clean air has been refreshing and the almost total lack of fellow human traffic has made my multiple falls mercifully less embarrassing than otherwise would be the case. If the pace of global warming slows enough for reasonable snow accumulation to again return to the Hudson Valley, I may actually buy a new pair of skis and learn how to do this the right way. The parallels to cycling are obvious and the benefits during the base training period are clear.

How the 5:1 ratio is saving my marriage.

In Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100, Roy Wallack and Bill Katovsky ask readers to guess the ideal balance between “deposits” (generous acts we offer our families) and "withdrawals" (demands we place upon them) in a healthy relationship. Most men responded 2:1 while most women say 3:1. Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that an ideal balance involves a 5:1 ratio to keep a marriage/relationship going smoothly!! In other words, people should make 5 “deposits” for every “withdrawal” to keep things feeling fair and respectful. No wonder the divorce rate is so high in this country. It is easy to lose track of the impact that being on a bike for 10 hours a day on back-to-back weekends with half days of driving and overnights in hotels can have. No wonder my wife was getting so testy every time I got near my bike.

My wife and I both work in schools and have two young children. Let me tell you, the month of May is an absolute killer. Evening after evening, weekend after weekend, we are beset by events of all shapes and sizes. Learning how NOT to fight this inevitable feature of my life makes everything much smoother, though. Last Saturday, I gave up riding altogether to be the Guy Friday at my wife’s annual spring dance concert. It was actually a lot of fun and it felt great to repay some of the tab I’ve run up for all of my time away.

During my first season of randonneuring, I made the serious tactical error of underestimating the impact that all of my riding was having on my wife and kids. I will not do that again. I made several concrete changes to get closer to that magical 5:1 goal.

1. Don’t talk about cycling all the time. It just makes people angry. My family easily mistakes talking about riding with riding. I don’t want to squander valuable time on the bike.


2. Offer to take the kids so my wife can go off and spend time with her friends or on activities she enjoys. Don’t wait until she asks me.


3. Do nice things for my wife and kids without being asked.


4. Say “yes” more to opportunities to be together as a family. Look at the calendar carefully and work alternating weekends of long rides into the schedule.


5. Commute to work whenever feasible (usually 2-3 times per week.) This is tricky for me as I work in the school that my children attend. A carpool to work has helped me squeeze miles in.


6. Ride to family events whenever possible. My in-laws have a house in the mountains 75 miles north of us. If I add a few loops in, it becomes a 100 mile ride. If I help pack the car the night before and head out early, we can arrive there at the same time.


7. Ride at night and early in the morning. My wife is a light sleeper so waking up at or before dawn often involves waking her as well unless I sleep in another room.


8. Try to involve my family more. In addition to entering a few events with my son, this year, I’ve also asked my wife and kids to crew for me at the Saratoga 12-hour race. We’ve secured a lovely B & B right near the staging area so every lap of the 32-mile course will bring me into contact with “my team.” I’ll really benefit from their help, not having to refill and mix my bottles, and moral support. I’m hoping that the thrill of the race will rub off on my loved ones and they will understand a bit better the pull that events like this have on me. I also hope to add miles to my results with their help.

Who knows? The 5:1 ratio may be impossible. So far, though, the effort has been paying off. The fact that I love my wife more than my bike has never been in question. Making her feel that this is the case is not always a simple matter.

Family Mitzvah Day and a Quick Century or Some Days You Can Have it All

In Hebrew, the word “mitzvah” means commandment or blessing. It is a gift or responsibility that we share to make the world a better place. This past Sunday, my son’s Hebrew school organized a “family mitzvah day” for the community on the weekend before Passover. The day included options for spring cleaning, singing at an elder center and delivering food to a local food bank. It was hard to mobilize the troops to get up to Woodstock at the required hour, since we were out late at a family party in New York the night before, but we felt it was an important family responsibility, so we soldiered on. Jessie and Izzy and I chose to deliver and organize food while Eli raked and mulched.

One of the most difficult challenges for the endurance rider, in my opinion, is squeezing it all in. Sure I do everything I can to plot and scheme to get the rides in to keep my legs fresh and my lungs in top shape. I commute to school several days a week, get up before dawn most weekends, ride at night when necessary and arrange to cycle to meet the family at various destinations when traveling. The trouble is, these strategies often pull me away from the people I want to be spending my time with and sometimes don't even enable me to achieve the desired training goals. With my first race of the season, the Connecticut River Double Century, fast approaching on April 19, my need for a long training ride this weekend was unavoidable. How to do it? After speaking with my wife about the options, we decided on the following plan.

After completing our work in Woodstock, I suited up and jumped on my bike and rode off into the beautiful spring-like day for a quick and hilly century. It was a truly blessed day both off and on the bike. It reached 60° and the birds were out and there was barely a cloud in the sky. I wore sunscreen for the first time this season and needed not a single “warmer.” Not toe, nor arm, nor leg, nor knee. The direct route would have had me home in about 30 miles, so I added a large loop and reached the house in 100.6 miles instead. It was a quick ride. I’m trying my best to increase my average riding speed as well as my endurance for long miles. My on-bike time was 5:45 and my total time out was 6:02. Cutting out time spent in controls and rolling at a higher speed are both increasingly important as the season heats up.

The mitzvah my family gave to me, of course, was the time and freedom to ride on this most beautiful spring day. While it is often a struggle to fit it all in, some days you can have it all!

A Chip off the Old Block

I went for two rides yesterday; one was uneventful and the other I hope to remember for the rest of my life. Every Sunday, after dropping my son off at Hebrew school, I hop on my bike, lay down a 32-mile loop and generally screech into the parking lot just as class is letting out. It’s a lovely loop, actually, full of rollers throughout the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in and around the town of Woodstock, NY. Today, however, rather than throw the bike in the car and head back home; Eli and I had planned the inaugural ride in his new endurance cycling challenge.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we recently learned of a new endurance cycling challenge designed for kids aged 9-20 sponsored by a group named Team Get Outdoors (TGO) located in (where else?) Boulder, CO. Eli was all over it from the beginning. With the weather making a turn for the better, we decided to dust the cobwebs off his bike and ride for 10 ten miles along the beautiful Ashokan Reservoir on Sunday afternoon. The day was warm and sunny, with temps in the mid-50s, which stands in stark contrast to the weather we’ve been experiencing the past few months. We could not have asked for a nicer day to begin our journey.

The Ashokan Reservoir is an engineering marvel started in 1915 to supply fresh mountain water to New York City faucets. It contains over 122.9 billion gallons of water, is 190 feet deep at the deepest point, spans 8,300 acres and covers at least six former towns that were drowned or relocated so that New Yorkers could drink fresh water. Along the banks, there is a short bike trail and a closed-off service road that together stretch about 2.5 miles providing unobstructed views of the high Catskill peaks. It’s “mud season” now, yet there is still snow on the hilltops.

In the driveway this morning, after pulling Eli’s bike out of the shed, we raised the seat, oiled the chain and inflated the tires. We were set to go. After classes let out and we picked up a quick bite to eat and a warm coffee for dad, we unloaded our bikes at the reservoir parking area and took off along the paved bikeway. I was impressed from the beginning how much stronger my son is on the bike this season. Gone are the tiny legs and whiny complaints. As we pedaled along at speeds that ranged from 10-18 miles per hour, I could see the cycling peer inside him beginning to emerge.

As on most long rides, our conversation jumped from cycling to family to all sorts of other random things. At one point, Eli observed that cycling is so great because it is three things in one:

1. Energy-efficient transportation
2. Great exercise
3. Fun

The Ashokan Reservoir is also a Bald Eagle nesting area. In 44 years, I’ve never seen a Bald Eagle that wasn’t in a zoo, a TV commercial or on some form of currency. This day was going to be different. As Eli and I climbed a short grade among a tall stand of pines, we saw a small group of people looking skyward. We glanced up to see a majestic adult eagle looking out across the water from the top of a tall dead tree. It took our breath away.

After seeing the eagle, Eli added a fourth reason to his list:

4. Biking is an amazing way to see the world around you.

In all, we did two laps of the bikeway totaling 11 miles. We rested a few times, watched the eagle on three of our passes and dined on Clif bars and water. Children in the 9-11 year age group, like Eli, need to log rides of at least 10 miles to qualify. Older children must ride longer. When we got home, Eli was relentless in his desire to complete the TGO registration forms and submit today’s mileage.

As Eli and I talked about the exciting rides that lie ahead, my 12-year old daughter Izzy popped her head into the room to announce that, “EVERYTHING THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH A BICYCLE IS STUPID. I CAN’T BELIEVE HE HAS YOU BRAINWASHED!” Oh well, one out of two ain’t bad. She has her own countless gifts. They just don’t involve bicycles.

Next time we’ll shoot for 20 miles. In addition, we’re working on handling skills like holding a line and braking quickly so we can take this activity onto the open roads. I’ll always remember the look in Eli’s eyes as he looked over to me and said out of the blue, “I’m so lucky I’m your son. You can teach me how to bike like a pro.” Whether or not the last part is true, he sure set the bar high for me as I hope the bike challenge has for him.

"Breaking Away" with my son

Being an ultracyclist means that, by definition, I have to put family time on hold more than I would like. While my cycling is not a rejection of my kids, I know they must feel like it is.

Including your family in the fun is, of course, the logical place to start, but riding on a 3-mile rail trail is not quite the same thing as a 100-mile training ride or a 300K brevet. The cycling I did as a boy fuels my love of the bike even today, but my dad wasn’t a cyclist and I’ve noticed that kids can quickly develop an aversion to the passions of their parents so I try not to push too hard.

The other day, I was stuck with a conflict between a two-hour training ride and an afternoon of caring for my 9-year old son. I decided to set up the trainer in front of my laptop, invited my son to pull up a chair and the two of us watched “Breaking Away.” The film is one of my favorites and he’s always up for an excuse to watch a movie during the middle of the week.

As we watched the film together, he asked a range of questions about the cycling, “Are you going the same speed as them, dad, or faster?” “Why doesn’t the main character just tell the judges that the Italian team cheated?” “Wow, I don’t want to get my finger stuck in that rear wheel of yours!”

As you may recall, the film is also a timeless story about the powerful generational dynamics between a father and a son. As if in counterpoint to my own story, it is the son who is obsessed with cycling and the father who just can’t understand the attraction. By the end of the film, the two reconcile and the middle-aged father even takes up cycling for fitness. As the credits rolled, my son looked over and asked, “Dad, will my bike fit on the trainer, too?” It brought a tear to my eye.

By some odd coincidence, I received an email yesterday from a group called Team Get Outdoors that is sponsoring the “International Challenge of Endurance” for children aged 9-20 to spread the good word about endurance sports and love of the great outdoors to the next generation. There are four different age groups each of which has different minimum distances for qualifying miles and certificates and medals are awarded to finishers and mileage leaders.

When I mentioned this opportunity to my son, he said, “Sign me up! How far is it to school, dad? Maybe we could ride together.”

Maybe our interests won’t be so far apart after all . . .