Every year the good people at Marty’s Reliable Cycle host their “Fat Fifty.” Anyone can sign up for it so long as your tires are at least 3 inches or bigger. The route is an out and back, 25 miles each way, mostly dirt rail trail. Since it’s January in New Jersey the weather can change dramatically and today we were treated with cold (about 25 F), wind, and wet, muddy conditions. Parts of the trails looked like this:
The result of riding in this kind of muddy water at freezing temps is that your bike freezes up. I had to stop twice to clean out my upper pulley wheel because it had frozen shut. Check out the pictures of all the ice on my bike:
And here are my shoes, with a covering of muddy ice:
It was a tough day. I finished in about 5 hours, which was my target. The route this year was mostly flat (the single track section was eliminated because of the heavy rain yesterday) so that meant grinding along in wet, soft dirt at freezing temperatures. If you stopped pedaling you’d drift to a stop in just five feet. It was pretty punishing and my legs were trashed by the end. I rode mostly by myself, enjoying the solitude and the beautiful scenery, though working hard. I wore a heart rate monitor and I was able to keep my HR right around 130 for most of it, which is sort of Zone 2 or 3 for me. Enough to be really working, but sustainable for 5 hours. But I’m wiped out, and tomorrow I’m taking a day off.
I was using my fat bike with 5 inch tires, which were a bit overkill for these conditions, but I cranked them up to 10 psi, so they were pretty hard. I was glad to have the extra width for the big puddles, though.
I enjoyed the challenge, and I was impressed with how good of a job Marty and his crew did in providing a fun environment. They had empanadas, beer, a fire, and a cool hat for schwag. I even got to hang out with Marty, the man himself! I highly recommend this ride.
Payton MacDonald 