Cycling

Close, but….

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No Cigar!

Again, I really liked the route – got to learn some roads I wasn’t very familiar with and see some nice houses 🙂 but I definitely would avoid a couple things also.. like Farmington River Turnpike which turns out to be a dirt road :-O. 

 

Now that we have the bike computer on your road bike, I won’t need to do this anymore, so this should be total miles on your bike prior to installing the bike computer. Few!

Rachel’s road bike total mileage w/o computer:
131+30.9 = 162 miles
 
Anyhow, it was lucky that Mema was able to bail us out by picking us up with the truck in Riverton, so that you could make it in time to put a deposit down on your new car!  Good thing, because look how happy you are in it!

 
Cycling

Lake Congamond Loop

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This was definitely one of the most difficult rides I’ve done so far… probably the most.  If we had time to slow down it wouldn’t have felt so difficult towards the end, but unfortunately we didn’t since we were late (per usual) to meet my siblings for the Hooker brewery tasting afterwards. 

For comparison.. these are the two other long rides we’ve done that were closest in total climbing:
The Summer Breeze Half Century (50 mi): 1,630 ft
Shires Marathon 2013 Course Out and Back (~55.5 mi): 1,750 ft
Climbs we haven’t done, but also for comparison:
Mt. Washington Auto Road (7.6 mi): 4,618 ft
Mt. Greylock Auto Road (8.75 mi): ~2,700 ft

 
Look how happy you were at this point in the ride… after a huge downhill and then several miles of mostly-flat riding and good scenery 🙂  It would have been nice to be able to spend a little more time at the lake, but at least we got a good picture of you and your bike!

Miles 7-25 were especially nice, I enjoyed riding on the back roads through Granby, Southwick and Suffield. It was such a nice day, and it was fun to see all the little houses, farms and just explore some back roads that I wouldn’t normally use. I would even say that up until mile 35 it was nice because then we got another good downhill to the reservoir which was nice to look at while we crossed, but the last ~8 miles were pretty rough because they were all uphill, we were both completely drained, and there was no downhill to enjoy on the other side since my parent’s house is at the top! 

That’s a total of 10.16 miles of climbing, jumping jehosaphat!!
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the ride and I hope you did too. Thanks for joining me! Just think how much easier other rides will feel now, compared to this one 🙂

 
Despite the difficulty, and having no time to spare inbetween getting home and leaving for the tour, we cleaned up pretty well and still had a fun time!
 
Also – just ftr… # of miles on your bike before installing bike computer:
From last post about mileage, ‘skinny tyres’: 32 miles
Minuteman path ride (Rachel only): 23 miles
Half-minuteman path ride: 12 miles
Fells reservation loop: 20 miles
Congamond loop: 44 miles
 
Total: 131 miles
 
^^^…let me know if I missed any here…^^^
 
Goal for next ride: Plan and execute an appropriate length ride based on our other plans afterwards (i.e. not underestimate how long it will take and be late for what we had planned to do later on), and also set a starting time for the ride and not miss it!  We’re becoming notorious for both of these…
 
Oh, woah!!! :-O  Look what else Rocky can do!  No wonder he’s so smart.
Dinner, Recipes

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

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Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
  • butter and olive oil for cooking

Instructions:

  1. Mix the spices together, and coat the chicken in the mix.
  2.  In a pan, heat up butter and olive oil on medium heat.
  3. Add lime juice and saute the chicken for about 6 minutes on each side

Chris + Rachel