6/16 Fitchburg to Amherst

Today featured some real intense climbing for 50 miles. There was the threat of heavy lightening storms all day, so ratherthen taking an easy day, I went all out in an effort to beat the rain. I managed to beat the storms that wound up not occuring until much later, but wound up soaked again in some heavy torrential downpours shortly after lunch.

Total distance= 51.7 miles
total time= 3hrs 16 minutes
Average pace= 3:48 mile
Average speed= 15.8 mph
Max speed 42.7 mph
Total calories= 3422

Today featured over 4,000 feet of climbing, although thankfully the last 5 miles were all downhill. I had fun attacking our first day in the Berkshires, riding tempo/race pace up every steep hill we encountered.

We arrived in Amherst, where we stayed at the UMASS Hillel, showered at the local UMASS gym and ate a meal at a bike and build alums house.

Some interesting sights/stories from today:

Everyone has named their bike in the past week and I've renamed my bike Chuck Norris instead of its former name of "race bike", because its orange and it kicks ass.

I had an amazing slice of pizza in the town of Amherst at Antonios- Mariachi pizza which consisted of guacamole, black beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese

We were supposed to stop for lunch at this town about halfway. The "town", if you can call it that, consisted of a church, post office and some sort of store, although there was not a single person out midday on a monday, which was extremely creepy. It actually reminded me of
the story from the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

I was able to pick up a pair of gloves at the local bike shop in Amherst, along with a washer for my cleat that hopefully will get me to Pittsfield, since one of my bolts and washers fell off today.