I had a great couple days up in Franconia at the Wheelworks
Multisport weekend. I got up to the Kingdom Trails on friday afternoon and got a great MTB session in. I've been thinking about trying out some Xterra triathlons this summer and figured I better spend some time on top of the X-C saddle. I felt pretty comfortable cruising around their phenomenal trail system. I kept thinking that it's awesome to bike solo because you have no idea how bad you are. I have a steel Barracuda A2T that's about 12 years old. I got it working well last fall, and it gets me through. But the biggest problem is that it has a wicked long wheel base and is pretty poor at making tight turns. Needless to say there were more than a couple of sketchy corners that involved a lot of brake. But I had a blast and am ready to get out there again and try some races soon.
Saturday started with a totally kick ass breakfast. I had wholewheat pancakes with berries that were very well done and cooked all the way through. (So sad to hear about your's Kimmy) Had to double up with the oatmeal too since it was all included. We all ponied up and hit the road about 9:30 and mostly road together for the first 30-40 minutes before we hit the first of our 4 gaps. Kinsman Notch was an unexpected climb. It came early and wasn't very long, but the pack got pretty well cut up at that point. Coming down the east side of Kinsman into Lincoln was a totally unexpected bonus. A ripping downhill with nice pavement and few turns which made for a bombing ride. I topped out at 57.8 mph. .8 off of my all time speed record. We had a good tail wind and if I had any idea that a steep hill was coming I would have pushed the top to gain a little more speed.
Quick water stop in Lincoln and then on to the Kancamagus Highway. As we started up the long ascent Pat took the first pull on the pace line we got into and was hitting it hard. I was sitting back a couple of wheels waiting for him to peel off wondering how long he was going to be able to hold on. (The answer was not very long) But we all regrouped with the view at the top and had another long tricep burning decent.
Up over Bear Notch and down into a pit stop at the Bartlett general store. Which, by the way, is for sale. Our attention was politely drawn to this fact by the hand written note tacked between a bakesale flyer for the 'Chuch of Our Lady of the Snow' and an offer to trade two tickets to NHIS for a '73 Starcraft Swinger six person pop-up trailer. Store was only $350,000 (plus inventory) if you're interested.
From here the ride started to get challenging. About 60 miles in and we're heading up towards Crawford Notch into a fierce headwind. To make the ride complete I popped a flat. (3:56 to fix it. I thought that was decent.) It was beautiful heading up through the notch. I felt surprisingly good through the last 20 miles. I thought for sure that I had a tail wind or was cruising slightly downhill back towards the Inn. It was a good sign to be feeling so strong throughout the ride. I was expecting to pull off the bike with hurting legs, but made it through a 30 minute run pain free. Up and Up.
Saturday evening involved some quality lounging on the front porch. A quick trip into Franconia (home of Bode Miller) for some post ride food. (Chicken parm at the "other bar in town". The first bar was catering a party but didn't have an open kitchen, go figure.) A wade in the cold brook and then a pretty amazing and unexpected four course dinner.
We had a pretty nice 39 mile '30 mile' ride Sunday morning. The legs were not feeling snappy on any thing that went up. But the company and another rippin' downhill made the ride.
Then it was on to Mt. Lincoln. Jamie, Adam and I grabbed some sandwiches and threw down a furious assault on the Falling Waters trail. 
Wicked steep, gnarly stream crossings, snow packed upper half, bitchin' views from the top, and an amazing ridge run from Little Haystack over to Mt. Lincoln. 2500 feet in about 4 miles, not bad huh? Hill climbs don't get much better than this.
Pretty much an awesome weekend all around. And by far one of the best weekends of training ever.
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