This Saturday is the Mt Washington Road Race, the second event of my “Challenge.” This will most likely be the toughest! The Auto Road is 7.6 miles long with an average grade of 12%. The good news is there is only one hill on the course :-)!
I am very happy with where I am at today. I believe I have kept my life in balance, and I might not be racing at 100% fitness, but I sure am racing at 110% happiness! Who could ask for more than that?
So stay tuned to my updates, things are going to start happening pretty quick in the next few months, and around 10am Saturday think some good thoughts for me as I will be on the hill suffering :-).
As I mentioned in my last post, I believe the work on the car has been much tougher than my training! However I still am training, most weekends involve 5-6 hours of working on the car and then trying to find the energy to get in a few hours of running or cycling.
Saturday was some focused run hillclimb repeats…. fun 🙂 Luckily I am surrounded by hills where we live, so off to Finley Hill for some suffering!
Sunday found a similar type of day but ending on the Computrainer
Tough effort but glad I did it!
Sas and I ended the weekend in the race car for a little Sunday evening drive and some DQ 🙂
As tough as I am making my life right now, it is still the best!!!!! Thank you all!!
The car is looking pretty good for 21 years old and still with the factory paint!
We are almost done with the car, some final toe adjustments and some rear fender work and I can load it on the trailer!! I think getting the car ready has been more work than all my training!!!! I will be glad when it is done!!
Yea I know….. I have to cover the “Ran” up until after this Saturday 🙂
A week from today Sas and I will be heading up to Mt Washington for the Road Race and the Auto Hillclimb. Everything is coming together with A Lot of help from Bob Legere. Here is his writeup of the completion of the front strut fabrication.
Finished up the struts today. Welded on a tab to mount the brake lines to, then sandblasted the housings. Finally I did a quickie home powdercoat (Eastwood) and assembled them.
The trickiest part by far was adapting the camber plates from the Ledas to the Konis. But with a stepped bushing machined by my friend Dan, it went together pretty quickly.
Thanks for the amazing effort and craftsmanship Bob!!!
B13 front strut fabrication
I had to build these struts today to replace the blown out Leda struts in Tim Mather’s car. We couldn’t get the rebuild parts in time for the Mt. Washington hillclimb (from England), so I decided to do a quicky Koni (B15) yellow insert. But as it turns out, I only had one stock B13 housing and it was too small of an ID to fit the B15 inserts. So I said ‘screw it’ and just made them from scratch.
I used 2″ x .120″ wall tubing for the main bodies, and I used .250″ x 1.75″ steel for the mounting ears. I had an old Ground Control sleeve kit for my old ’72 Corolla just sitting around which I never used.
The materials:
The ID of the 2″ tubing was too big for the Koni inserts, so I made a sleeve that fits inside the tubing to take up the slack and make sure the strut it a proper snug fit inside the main tube. I used this tiny slip roller to form the sleeve from sheetmetal. I also welded them in place so they don’t slide around.
I made the bottom of the strut housing from a piece of the .250″ steel, and drilled the hole for the 14 mm lower attachment bolt. To keep the strut insert better aligned at the bottom of the strut tube, I decided to weld a piece of small tubing in place which the lower strut extension sits inside. Then I pressed the strut bottom into the strut housing, and welded it in place.
Mounting ears cut and drilled.
Then I fit the ears and the strut housing to an old hub/upright for proper alignment, and welded it together.
Finally the perches were welded in place, and the threaded collars test fitted. I still need to weld a tab on each strut housing for the brake hoses, and then I will powdercoat them and assemble them.
The plan for this year is to just enjoy a little of everything! Not to be great at any one event or try and prove anything to anyone, especially to myself! Just to have fun!!!!
With that in mind, I decided to jump into the local Thursday night sprint triathlon on Lake Terramuggus in Marlbough, CT. With almost zero swim training and the fact that I have not even sat on my tri bike this year, it was looking like just a fun night!!!
The temps were cool with a very steady wind. Choppy water and cold temps, I love it!!! The turn around bouy kept blowing away and I am pretty sure the course was a bit long because of it :-). No worries, all in good fun. The swim was tough but I tried to just enjoy it… out of the water and on the bike. I brought the “race”‘ bike with the fancy wheels, but left the geeky aero helmet at home :-). The ladies were given a 5 min head start on us so I spent the first loop passing a lot of folks. I came out of the water 54th overall and 30th out of my wave…
Not training at all for triathlons this year I just rode how I felt, I had the powertap but really did not look at it… I felt pretty good on the bike, passed a bunch of folks!
Through transition, and onto the run. This course can be tough, just a bit out of transition there is a nice uphill that really hurts!!!! Once up that, you can settle in for the suffering. Again with no watch to guage my pace, I just settled in on what I thought I could maintain. I pulled in a few more people and finished strong 8th overall and 2nd in AG.
VERALL WAVE DIVISION |--- SWIM --| |-- BIKE --||--- RUN --| WA
PLC Name A/S DIV TIME PLC/TOT RANK SPLIT RANK SPLIT RANK SPLIT VE BIB
I was very happy with my time and effort!! Of course, most of the really fast guys were resting up for a number of half ironman races that weekend, that’s ok 🙂 Also, 7th place was 3 min up on me and the winning time was 57:15!
This week I am planning on jumping in another local spring race in Chester, CT…
The pressure of preparing the car and myself is starting to wear me out a bit, I could not do this without the unbelievable support from Sas, my wife!! I love you hun!
After a great weekend at Mt Ascutney we spent the week afterwards drying out 🙂 and going over the race car. I need to replace the front suspension and install the sway bars before the Mt Washington event.
Memorial Day Weekend found Sas and I back up north to the family cottage. Our cottage is nestled in the heart of VT Gaps, so of course I was planning on bagging a few before the weekend was done. There is also a very nice route around the lake that can include a nice 1000′ climb up to Silver Lake.
Saturday was a very hot and humid day but I was determined to get out for a solid run! The fire road to Silver Lake is a bit under the halfway mark around the lake. My plan was to run the short way around, then up the fire road, then see how I felt for the return route. Everything was going to plan, the run up to Silver Lake was tough but manageable. It was shortly after I decided to take the long way around the lake, and at the bottom of the climb, that the wheels kind of fell off… The heat and humidity were just a little too much, and yes, I probably pushed a little too hard going up the fire road… I ran/walked (the hills) back to the cottage.
The next day I headed out for my “Two Gap Ride.” The plan was to ride the Middlebury/Brandon loop “backward” — or, the tougher way.
As you can see from my Garmin files there was a little climbing involved! I had my Mt Washington bike with full mtb gearing so I had plenty of bailout gears. It was a nice ride with great views!!!
I finished the weekend off with a mtb ride and brick run with my buddy Rod back home.
Overall, a great weekend with Family and some training…
Friday morning Sas and I loaded up with an eclectic mix of gear and headed for Mt Ascutney in Vt. We got there early and before we even set up camp, I changed into my run gear and up I went. It was overcast with some light showers. I have never run up anything as long or as steep as Mt Ascutney so I had no idea how to really pace myself. I just went with the flow of the hill and with how I felt. As I wrote in my last post, the road ascends 2300′ in 3.7 miles on an entirely paved course. Average Grade 12%. Some sections in excess of 19%. The thing that makes this road tough is that the grade varies quite a bit. One minute you are suffering up a 19% grade then the next you are on a flat section or there is even a short downhill near the top. I kind of like settling into a pace and suffering, not very easy on this hill!! Here is my file from the run…
I was really looking forward to being back in my car for Saturday. We got in two runs before lunch and as we setup for runs after lunch the sky opened up and it poured for the next 3 hours, really poured!!!! They shut down for the day.
I was pretty surprised how quick my car felt! I had a real blast, slipping and sliding around on the wet road. I was also trying out my “Hans” device which will be required at Mt Washington. It was a bit of a pain to put on and take off but overall not too bad.
Here is some in car footage from Saturday’s run.
I am really having fun with my GoPro cameras!! Here is a roof cam shot of the same run.
After the rain stopped, it was an opportune time to jump on my bike and ride up the road. Again, just like the run, the varied grade makes this much tougher than Mt Washington (in my opinion).
My bike time was pretty much the same as my run time!!! To the minute! Here is the garmin file and power tap file
Here is the Powertap file
I finished both on the same min! Crazy … and gives you an idea of how tough a climb it really is!! However, I think the tougher part of each was that I had to walk/run back down the 3.7 mile hill, once after the run, and then the next day with my bike in hand… that hurt a bit 🙂
Sunday I was back in the car… I got one run in before I noticed I had blown my right front strut. With three good runs under my belt we called it a weekend and packed up our very wet campsite and headed home.
Overall we had a great weekend! It was Sas’s first “racing” experience and a great reunion for me with a group I have raced with for many years. I was also very happy to be back in my race car!!!
So, I ran, I rode my bicycle, and I raced my car up Mt Ascutney, now that is a bumper sticker!!!
So here is the plan for this weekend… stay with me now.. Arrive early Friday morning, setup campsite and unload car. Change into running gear and run (on foot) up the road (Ascend 2300′ in 3.7 miles on an entirely paved course. Average Grade 12%. Some sections in excess of 19%). Run walk back down. Spend the rest of the day helping to setup the hill for the Auto Hillclimb.
Saturday I will be back in the car for the first time in over 8 years to race up the hill.
Once we are done for the day I will change into my cycling stuff and head up the hill one more time (on bicycle)… (Ascend 2300′ in 3.7 miles on an entirely paved course. Average Grade 12%. Some sections in excess of 19%)
Sunday I am back in the car again to finish off the weekend.
It will be good to get a small feel for what I am in for the rest of the summer!
I am very much looking forward to seeing some old friends at the hill!!
After a little R&R I am back at it, I do have a few climbs up the Auto Road in my future!
Monday night I enjoyed a great ride with my buddy Rod. We were both on single speed mountain bikes. Rod is about to toe the line at the American Zofingon Duathlon. This race is a 5 mile trail run then 84 mile Very hilly bike then a short 15 mile trial run to the finish… Rod is fit and will crush this race!!! Good luck buddy!!
Since Rod was racing this weekend he opted for one loop. Still having to much energy I headed out for some more technical climbing on the single speed! Great Ride
Tuesday night is the night Sas and I head to the 99 Restaurant for some good times with friends. Coach Al is good to me and just writes me a Vasa workout and some Strength Training.
Wednesday night was running hill repeats, fun times!!
After my run my buddy Lee stopped by for an overdue deep tissue massage. Man was I sore the next morning!!
Last night I was back on the single speed mountain bike again :-). Feeling really good I added an extra hour to my planned ride. With a ton of climbing and some pretty technical trails, I truly enjoyed the ride!!
After the ride it was time to load up the race car to bring over to see Bob tomorrow. We need to check the corner weights and install the new racing harness…
