Blegh. And maple syrup.

The briefest of notes about today’s 15km CL mass start: woof. I was pretty tired coming into the race after four starts in the last five days, and definitely felt the fatigue in my legs at the start line. Because of yesterday’s finish I was seeded 8th in the mass start but quickly lost the leaders and from that point focused on staying smooth and conserving my power for the long climbs without totally blowing up. I kept dropping farther and farther back but just didn’t have the gears to make up time. Not the best day.

After the race I took the opportunity to replenish my spent glycogen stores with some tasty Vermont confections at the Mansion House Sugar Farm in Johnson, VT. This weekend is Vermont Maple Weekend and a lot of the sugaring shacks opened their doors to visitors to share samples of syrup and other maple products. My folks and I had some “sugar-on-snow” – reduced maple syrup poured over snow which then cools to a taffy-like consistency. Also, maple creme donuts. That helped recovery.

Sampling the different grades of syrup

This particular sugar house processes between 700 and 1300 gallons of syrup a year, in a season which generally spans from January to late March