{"id":2973,"date":"2018-09-18T23:30:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T03:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2018-09-18T23:30:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T03:30:38","slug":"training-montage-cycling-where-i-can-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/2018\/09\/18\/training-montage-cycling-where-i-can-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Training Montage – Cycling Where I Can Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been doing training rides to prepare for Will Bike 4 Food<\/a>.\u00a0 Because of a few factors, unlike some previous years, I have not been able to do a lot of long rides during the spring and summer this time.\u00a0 So I’ve tried to make the rides that I have done count – especially trying to get in hill climbing whenever possible.\u00a0 Here are brief summaries of a couple of rides that I did manage in July that helped me build strength and endurance.<\/p>\n

Also, speaking of the fundraising for the Food Bank, donations have now exceeded my goal.\u00a0 The total is $1049 – thanks to all those who have given.\u00a0 I’ll still be matching contributions beyond that amount, so any more donations I get will be doubled (up to my $2K limit).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 4: Hot Hills<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Independence Day, I decided to ride up to Chesterfield.\u00a0 It’s a town whose center is on one of the higher hills in the Pioneer Valley, and so it involves a lot of climbing to get there.\u00a0 It was not the best day for such a ride, weather-wise, as the temperature got up into the mid-nineties.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I went and did it.\u00a0 I rode my usual route from Holyoke to Northampton first, heading straight north on Route 5, and then followed the rail trail out to Leeds.\u00a0 From there, a few back roads get one started on the climb up to Chesterfield Center, approaching from the southeast.\u00a0 Because of the heat, I had to stop and rest in the shade several times on the way up.\u00a0 When I finally did get to the top, I headed for the town general store to get some more water, as I had drunk much of what I’d brought with me.\u00a0 It turned out that the store was not there anymore – and a local resident told me that the nearest store would be in another town – Williamsburg or Worthington.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there happened to be some activities going on on the town common, including a booth selling hand-made ice cream.\u00a0 I got some, and asked if they had any water for sale – they didn’t but said that the fire station had been selling bottles of water.\u00a0 I headed over there, where that sale was technically over, but a firefighter (or maybe the chief) unlocked the station and sold me one of several remaining bottles (which were still cold).<\/p>\n

Rejuvenated and rehydrated, I then began the long downhill ride due south, heading into Westhampton.\u00a0 After all the downhill, there was some level riding, and then a bit more uphill until I got to Outlook Farm, which was my destination for (a late) lunch.\u00a0 Their grill was closed when I got there, but they had cold sandwiches available, so I was able to eat fine (and enjoy some air conditioning).<\/p>\n

From there I went through downtown Easthampton, then via trail back to Route 5 and home to Holyoke.\u00a0 Total for the day was 50 miles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 21: Fowl and Food<\/strong><\/p>\n

On this Sunday, I headed up to Greenfield, MA.\u00a0 I did not take the most direct route up there, or back, so as to give myself a few more hills to ride.\u00a0 I started by heading across the Connecticut River into South Hadley, and then went up back roads, stopping by McCray’s Dairy farm<\/a>, as I wanted to check out their store.\u00a0 At that farm, I discovered they have a pond and several waterfowl (click to view larger versions of photos):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From there, I rode up into Hadley, and stopped off at Flayvors of Cook Farm<\/a> – our favorite ice cream place.\u00a0 I was checking the existence of special summer flavors, and ended up getting a cone with peach ice cream.\u00a0 I then proceeded up Routes 116 and 47 (and some other roads) through Montague Center, and then along the river to the bike trail in the north of Montague.\u00a0 I took it across the river into Deerfield, rode over to Routes 5\/10, and then crossed the Deerfield River into Greenfield.\u00a0 Another mile or so of riding (and a steep, short hill) put me downtown, where I had lunch at the People’s Pint<\/a>.\u00a0 It is a microbrewery, and while I don’t drink beer, I love the place for the sodas they make.\u00a0 They also encourage cycling.<\/p>\n

When I left Greenfield, I went a bit west of town before turning south, and went through some hillier parts of Deerfield and Whately before deciding I’d had almost enough climbing for the day.\u00a0 I then got back on 5\/10 to ride through Hatfield and Northampton, back to Holyoke (there is one hill one has to climb on Route 5 in Holyoke when heading south – it’s not steep, but it is somewhat long).\u00a0 Total distance for this ride was 68 miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been doing training rides to prepare for Will Bike 4 Food.\u00a0 Because of a few factors, unlike some previous years, I have not been able to do a lot of long rides during the spring and summer this time.\u00a0 So I’ve tried to make the rides that I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2977,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions\/2977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}