300 and a ride

Had a nice mellow CCT/Light Trail ride last night. Things at WF were a bit damp in some area's at first, so we did the CCT out to the tunnel and back, then rode the creek trail to phase 4, to upper phase 1 then creek back to the rec center. It was pretty nice. Not that cold. Used the moose mitts with a new pair of gloves. Very nice, my hands were perfect.

The bike is a MESS. Gotta clean it up tonight and get it ready for Sunday's Kumbya Trail Ride at Greenbriar.

New helmet is nice. It's nice not to have old stinky helmet head. Got a great deal on a very nice 2009 Bell Volt. Hopefully the anti-microbial stuff will help keep it less stinky.

Surprisingly this is my 300th blog post here. I think my livejournal account which I've had for almost 10 years only has 400.

Merry Bike-mas to all!

Have a merry Bike-mas and may all your biking (and well non biking) desires come true!

I'm off to toddle around the hood on my neighbors old cruiser.

Santos is pretty cool, Vortex Park is WOW!

Rode the Santos Trail system today in Ocala FL. Mainly the main park. I did venture in and do the pump track, and large parts of the Vortex Red Loop (But not the actual free ride hits, I did roll past them both high and low.). Pretty sweet. I got some good photos of some of the skills stuff. They build some really narrow elevated stuff. I'm talking some stuff was 8-10 inches maybe. None of that wussy 2 foot crap everywhere thats flat.

14 Miles of Logged Riding (I expect 15 to 20% loss due to twistiness of trails/cover) had drum roll please.......470 feet of climbing. Thats around 1/2half a percent of a percent grade on average. 33 Feet Per Mile.

The DJ section was insane.

MORE later. Off to ache in the shower.

Beer - OH YAH!

Went down to the liquor store near my parents to pick up a 6 pack of something.

I ended up with 2 six's. One of Terrapin Hopsecutioner and Rogue Mocha Porter. While talking to the beer guy he told me about a new place that was on the other side of the shopping center.

World of Beers. 40 on Tap. 400 bottles. CHEAP! compared to DC. I ended up with a Barnardius Christmas Ale. $7 bucks! HOLY Moly! about a 1/3rd or less cheaper than DC. I'm gonna hit it a few times for sure this week.

W-o-B

Dr.Phillips Current Draft List

Snow, hell yah!

Awesome snow ride tonight. Great people, great fun. I'll post more thoughts and pics tomorrow. The motionbased is up and should be linked in the side bar.

Traffic to there was really pretty good!

Ho Ho HO!

Imagine my surprise to turn on the TV and see the Snow/School closing status bars of Fox 5 this morning. A quick look out the window to see a light dusting of the fluffy white stuff. Roads were fine, work didn't even seem to have any versus I saw a bit on the way in here and there.

Yesterday was a not bad day for Trailwork, the rain stopped by 9 or so. At 10 me and my other helper Ben went out and cleared the small section of rerouting where the creek was starting to washout a spot of the trail. That actually took an hour or more. We then planted 2 more trees on the slope we are re-claiming. We built up the primary water stop berm at the top and built 1 intermediate berm to slow the water more also. The reroute is bedding in great and handling water very well.

Then we went up north and did a bit of trimming and such. The rain picked up. I photographed where at least 1 more bridge needs to go in, really 2. Not a bad 4 hours out on the trail.

Hopefully we'll be able to ride trails on Thursday. Have to see how the water flows off.

Can you dig it???

Damn, winter time is a real mixed bag for riding for me. I love the frozen, hard fast speed of trails. Places like Wakefield feel quicker, and at something like the rose, you can REALLY fly. I also enjoy night riding a lot. I think I'm going to commit to more night riding in the spring and fall and maybe some summer trips to places I can night ride also. But the cold sucks. It sucks mightly. 24 and change degrees when we finishes last night.

Ooo and we have a good chance for SNOW next weekend. Damn!

ON the plus size, I have to say Moose Mitts kick ass. Mostly. The fall off my bars a bit, so i'm going to have to sew on some sort of loop/hook to hold onto the bar and and maybe something to make them a wee bit less floppy.

The big plus is once I got a bit warm, I was fine in them just wearing my normal full finger summer gloves!

Got some cool pre-ride photo's and a few shots of the Ice on my bike after wards. GPS track should be cool also. Group rolled about 10 miles in an hour and a half. Not bad for hacking a lung out while riding.

Down with a Sickness

FCK! Woke up Saturday am with a cough and sore throat. By today it had fully moved into my chest. So I am hydrating, drinking tea, and eating soup, it gets me clear for a bit but then blech it's back. Hoping to kick this thing by Tuesday but I'm not counting on it. Just hope to be fully back on track by Thursday.

Got to enjoy the new TV a bit, LOST on blue ray is awesome. Starting from the beginning. Oh well relaxing ain't such a terrible way to spend a down Sunday.

Next Sunday it's Trail Work @CJ. Supplementary work and a short re-route.

Hopefully a better week of work and a better week of Riding.

Check out the new Trail Rat achievement for MORE 2011 - HERE.

Mixed Modes and Options

Let me start off and say I've been laughing my head off at this since Thursday morning, and if you ask me a question involving MTB right now, it's probably going to start off with something about Options:

We have Options!

Trails at WF were still a bit wet, but better than I thought we would be. I got in a pretty good preride of what was almost 5 miles on the gps. Then we rallied what turned out to probably be near 20 riders in the lot and after a slight mis-start we were off. We did Rusted Truck out to the CCThing out to 50. Going under the road in the tunnel under Pickett Rd (I think) was a bit of an adventure. 12 Miles on the CCThing then about 3 more at WF doing the creek trail to sewer line, back along phase 2 to phase 4. Then the upper half of phase 1, ascent hill and berms, back to Salemander and up and out the hell hill. 15 Miles almost on GPS.

Damn nice ride for what may have been really crappy. Good to hang out and chat on the ride and in the lot afterward.

Not sure where I'm gonna ride this weekend. Laurel Hill is a possibility though I might try offering a casual group ride at Fountain Hell on Sunday. Decisions.

Fountain of frustration

I admit, I'm suffering from minor frustration at fountain head. I think the best fix would be to ride it more often. I felt like on the 2nd lap I was taking better lines and riding the place better. But I was cold and tired by the 2/3rds way through the 2nd lap. I will try to get out there more than 1 time a month is my new goal or 1 time every 2 months.

Had a Farmhouse ale for Thanksgiving from a somewhat new brewery, unfortunately the name has slipped my mind. Nice balance of hop and malt, but with the definite flavor from the belgian yeast strain. One big boy of it almost did me in.

This weeks weather is looking like crud for rides, today and Thursday. Or if anything Thursday may be the next edition of the Counter Clockwise Thing. Joy :)

Rocky Rockland Farm

Hit Rockland Farm last night for the first time. You may know it as that place that Plum Grove holds those crazy bike races like SnotCycle and Bakers Dozen, etc.

It's a neat place, not much elevation, but a fun place to ride. The pine tree section along the front and back towards Whites Ferry is a BLAST! I did this section 3 times as I got separated from my group helping a few people and then didn't know I just needed to turn right at the fence and head up across the farm. Oh well, I enjoyed working on the "Stunts" in the beginning.

Once I found a group that knew it's way around I rode with them the rest of the way. Was behind a woman for a while, and trying to be helpful but I think being behind her was making her nervous so eventually I took the hint and passed her. Some nice rock piles and stuff out there and working your speed could be real fun.

The course in some area's was a bit slick due to the light rain. Keep thinking I should order up some Nokians. Just in case for SnotCycle.

After wards enjoyed some brews and talked a ton with people. Very cool. I opted against the donuts as only 1 or 2 were left and a few people were still finishing. Might have to pick up some of those for the long weekend here at work.

Black Rock Mill Trail

Did a quick pre-ride with Neil of a bit of Schaeffer before we went and toiled on the BRM Trail. It was nice to be back out at Schaeffer. I think that was my first trip this year honestly, with the snows staying till late and how crazy the spring and summer was I never made it up there. I'm hoping to hit it at least 1 more time after the first managed hunt but before it closes for the year.

The Black Rock Mill trail is going to offer some great views in the winter! It covers some REALLY rolling ground. We found an old house foundation the park was at least partially unaware of while examining an old car. Cool stuff. We benched and clear a quarter mile in one direction up to an old wooden bridge. Then we went the other way and did a major bench up off an old trail bed getting a nice 4 foot wide tread that required in some spots near 2 feet of material removed. We then went on further and helped cut another hundred yards of trail of low to moderate bench.

Felt good to get out and work. A bit sore today but nothing like after my previous trail day. No hauling big ass rocks I think is the main reason why.

Rolling On!

Nice night for riding last night. Lots of sticks down and 3 trees I found between Accotink and Wakefield. Trails were moderately dry if they were at all elevated. And stuff out in the sun/wind was even pretty dry like most of the powerline trails.

It was a nice 15 Miles or so altogether. A few trees down in Wakefield. Didn't see any in Accotink but I didn't quite ride the FULL set of trails.

DC Fatty's

While at Laurel Hill yesterday I saw a fellow Fat Cyclist in an Orange Jersey, I was sporting the stylish Classic Pink, 1st Ed.

I think we may need to start up a local Fat Cyclist chapter. I'm tired of just hearing about these Philly's or San Joser's, etc.

What a week

The last week's weather has been just on the high side of un-seasonably warm. And very very nice, caping out yesterday with near 70 at Laurel Hill.

I did 24 and change on the GPS. My calculations show there that it's only about 10% lossy on those trails, so about 26 miles. 2 Very nice 11 mile laps. Though on the last lap near the end I did a section of dairy farm trail loop I hadn't done in a while and got whacked by a damn thorn bush. 4 or 5 nice scratches. It's on my list for death now. Then in a fit of brilliance I decided to check out the overlook trail. Worse, tons of thorns and brambles and almost go through one face first. The pipeline work kept me from riding fully out to the overlook so I dismounted and walked over. Neat view, got a few camera phone pictures, we'll see how they turned out tonight.

On the way back I dropped the bike off for a service/checkup and Jay at TBL burke was all over me for not having both the front and rear skewers not tightened enough. Oops and that the rear wheel cups were loose, and I hadn't brought it in. Only needs a rebuild due to contamination. Also finally picked up a new 2.25 Ardent to swap on to replace the bulging AC-X junker in the rear. Should be done today but I dunno if I'm going to head out. Tuesday we are supposedly getting rain also. UGh. Depends on when I get done with work. Shit though I didn't charge the batteries so I don't think I'll be night riding tonight. ahhh well. While looking at stuff yesterday I also realized I'm right around 350 or so miles on the new bike in 2 months. Thats about half a years worth of riding or so normally.

Beers of Note

Had a good urthel last night at Quary house. Nice and dark with a flemish hint.

Last weekend's beer, the Kapuziner was top notch. A very solid and standard Hefe Weizen. Very smooth, and the yeast flavor was minimal (I didn't swirl it).

The SAM 48 Deg IPA is really nicely hopped, decent nose and nice finish.

Warm and COLD!

Good week for riding so far, I got out of work nice and ontime'ish Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday I hit accotink first and was riding by 4:30'ish. Thursday I was wheels rolling at 4:15. Made a good ride out and to the damn in just under 20 minutes on thursday. Then did a slightly longer route back in about the same. Then did the Gas Station loop and finished. Tuesday was not as good. :)

Tuesdays WF loop with the OBW crew was rough for me, I felt played out a lot of the ride and slow! Punched a tree in phase 4 ugh, hurt like hell. We finished by 8 so it was a pretty short ride.

Thursday was better but by the end I was tired as hell and in my little ring. Not fun. Did cover probably about 9-10 miles on the ride. With around 17 total for the day.

What was weird was both days at the start I was only wearing minimal kit on the Accotink section (with Endura Knickers), but as soon as the sun drops out I'm frickin freezing. Added a tech layer, and a fleece at WF.

I always question my sanity this time of year.

Hoping to do some distance at Laurel Hill on Sunday, since I haven't gotten a good long ride in a while. Then I'll drop the Paragon off at TBL for a very needed tune up and some other stuff.

Also picked up some Lat 48's from Sam Adams - Very nice.

Another TrailWork Done

Had a big project yesterday with a rather burly re-route of the CJ trail entrance off Democracy. Should have some pictures soon. But it was a lot of work and I only had 4 others show up versus the original 16 that became 10 that were supposed to be there.

The bigger brush/old logs were supposed to have been pre-cleared by the parks dept but weren't so that took a lot of wrestling, cutting and extra work.
Also we didn't have a ton of hill to work with and so we had to build some water bars and hauling those big rocks down and up the hill sucked. Also hauling tools sucked, may try and get a bob trailer eventually. Turned out pretty well but the exit to the bridge will require more work in the spring I suspect and there is a lot more reclaiming work to be done on the old trail. I stayed after the group left and planted a tree and bermed up the top so water hopefully won't run down the trail. We'll see. I may take a weekday off and go work on it in a few weeks. Riders like it in some ways, others missed the fun old descent. Shades of Fountain hell.

Photo's by Neil of Trailwork

Today is my first non-riding Sunday but the flesh is simply too sore for doing something llke the EF figure 8 of hate. Maybe I'll go look for a digital camera today. I'm tired of not having my own photo's.

Had an awesome german hefe with dinner last night. Review to come!

Rainy Day

Damn once it started last night I don't think it's really stopped raining all night.

Discharge on Accotink Creek is up 5x over mean, and the water level is 1.5 times higher and I bet it gets more later. (2ft vs 3ft right now)

Accotink Creek

Ordered a set of Moose Mits yesterday they'll be here in a week or two, hopefully they do the trick this winter so I don't end up like Chef Tony and have 9 fingers.

Rosey get your Guns

Went to Rosaryville and road with Pete and Sean on Sunday turning in 3.6 laps (1/3 lap then turned around). It was a ton of riding for me and on 2 of the laps we were pushing pretty hard, but due to flubs with start/stop on the garmin I didn't log the full laps. Only my third lap was fully logged and I was already half cooked on it, and still turned in a 63 minute lap with stopping for walkers/other riders and talking to a few of them.

Strange day weather wise, i ended up being WAY overdressed and was cooking half way thru the first lap and ended up just wearing my jersey, having removed my vest and fleece. It's always weird to see STEAM coming off you.

Was cooked after all that and had a few nice cramps in the afternoon/evening.

Weathers looking crap-tacular for Thursday so I'm planning on hitting WF on Tuesday. With 35'ish yesterday I'm right around 200 or so for the month of October. Pretty frickin epic for me. I know some guys out there are turning that in a week or weekend, but for a guy who previously had been lucky to lock 60-80 a month that's a ton.

Just a bit bigger

Weird week this week with a bit over 40 on Sunday, and 31 more between Tuesday and Thursday, it puts me at around 70 miles. For me, that's crushing it. What I need to avoid is having a do-nothing week next week. (Sun thru Sat). So I'm either going to do a harder ride at Elizabeth Furnace or head to Rosaryvile for an epic lap fest. For what will be 27 to 36 miles.

Thursday was a good night with a smallish group 11 sign ins with I think 9 riders. It was a solid night we rolled 11 or 12 miles with the group. Started off nice temp but by the end of the ride it had cooled down. The new vest kept my core warm even though it was sweaty underneath, the wind off is a huge temp change. PIcked up a pair of Endura knickers and will break them in on Sunday I think.

Time to catch up on reports/etc....

Hot and Humid - Wait it's October

Snuck in a solid ride last night at Wakefield. However it was not only unseasonably warm, but humid as hell I think I had almost negative evaporation. It was gross on that point except when we passed thru occasionally pockets of cool.

Did the bowl loop myself once as a warm up, then Joel K and I rode a bunch of the back stuff in odd order Rusted Truck, power station, Salamander, (top Phase 1 reverse, power lines to forest, to Phase 4 lower, to racecourse of the creek/old creek section, back to forest/lower power lines, and back across lower phase 1) and back. I think that was about 4 miles.

Then the group ride started with about 10 of us heading out together. We went right to the bowl, did a bunch of it, creek trail, phase 1 lower, race course creek trail, phase4 reverse (Low to High), power lines, berms/ascent, rollers, phase 1 upper, power lines to rusted truck in reverse to bowl again and done. Probably covered another 10.

Great ride to get in when I was " " that close to not leading/letting Jan cancel the ride.

Helmet light was kinda neat but I need to mount it higher so I don't have to tilt head back as much to keep the lighting/spot ideal. By the end I had to struggle to keep my head up. Having both bar and headlamp I can see is ideal.

Nice social with Joel, Ernie, Chris, Blake, Rob, and another Chris in the lot, followed by Joel and i demolishing food at Kilroys.

Fall in Effect

Amazing ride today with Pete, Sean, Mike, Chris and Martin. Mike and I met with Sean and Pete at WF at 8:15 and we rolled onto LH. I'd never done the final section over to LH from Prospect Rd area. It was nice. We met up with Martin and Chris and rolled all of LH. It was good and I'm modifying my loop to the one Pete led. Much more fun for sure, doing apple orchard the way he did made it feel much longer and funner to ride. Wish I could have done a 2nd lap but in retro-view I think I was cooked. I'm just not up on distance riding. Need to ride more. The return was pretty mellow as we were all feelin it a bit I think. At somepoint my phone ejected from my pack alas.

The Ride-
WF to Laurel Hill and Back by atlantis.rob at Garmin Connect - Details

I rode back about 2 miles towards Accotink looking for it with no luck. I have a few ideas where it might have fallen out. Oh well.

The weather this weekend was amazing. My clothing/layers were perfect for today with the bibs, jersey, fleece on top and leg warmers. The leaves were amazing. Just a great day.

Just enjoyed a biboy of Hopzilla from Terrapin Brewing. Truly smooth and amazing. great blending of hops on the nose and not overwhelming the palate like Two Hearted.

Back to the grill.

New Balance and Ind. Fab.

http://hubnride.blogspot.com/2010/10/independent-fabrications-x-new-balance.html
Thats some major green!

Cool Runnings

Great night of riding out at WF last night. Got out a bit late and didn't get to pre-ride accotink instead looped around WF with Jason and Larry for 30 mins. It was damn nice. It was pretty warm at the start I'd say mid 60's while the Sun was still out. By the time we went back out with the group at 6:54 it had cooled a few degrees below 60. By the end of the ride it was 50. Quite brisk when you would pop into those cool spots. My legs were a little cold, but the woolly up top was perfect.

GPS said 5 miles for the preride so I'll figure closer to 6 and the main ride was 8 so total I'll figure it was close to 15. Not the 20+ I wanted but not bad at all. Felt really good actually riding the whole time. Could have really pushed hard but did much better keeping the group together. One of my better rides lately.

Wool is Your Overlord

A friend asked about wool jerseys the other night and I just sent him this list of wool jersey/clothes suppliers. I'm gonna pick up a new woolie in November.

MORE Jersey in both long and short sleeve. I love mine. EWNR Makes it...
http://www.more-mtb.org/index.php?page=07Jersey
http://www.ewnr.com/

Good wool jersey's - Swobo makes good ones.
http://www.swobo.com/catalog/product_info_m.php?cPath=2045_2046

Dirt Rag is using Woolistic, not SWOBO this year:
http://www.dirtragmag.com/product/wool-jersey-woolistic

Ibex does good woolstuff but damn this jersey is fugly.
http://www.ibexwear.com/shop/product/1751/7827/mens-indie-l/s-jersey

Castelli does decent woolies
http://www.amazon.com/Castelli-Mauro-Sleeve-Cycling-Jersey/dp/B002OJRDNC

Does Everything
http://www.kucharik.com/

A great breakdown with other suppliers may be found here.
http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/wool.html

How Different? Very.

So yesterday I took Ye Olde Giant out to Wakefield for the first time in a month. Once I started riding I realized just HOW different a relatively SMALL change can make huge improvements in how bikes ride. The damn thing is just jumpy as hell compared to the Fisher. It feels top heavy and unstable, I nearly bailed on a bridge in phase 4 from wobble. Going over logs is weird also. Just felt all sorts of wrong. I may take it out to FH tonight if I can get out of work early enough, but I don't see myself riding THAT beast very often anymore. I'm tempted to move most of the good equipment over to Jen's bike, or at least once I get a more dedicated commuter.

Took it pretty easy out there last night. Had 9 riders out. Tons of walkers out and we saw I think a ladies jogging group on the CCT at the start. It's starting to get chilly again especially by the end of the ride. time to start leaving a fleece in the car.

Conway Wakefield Whereever

Rode Conway Robinson today as it was real close to work, and I needed to get a ride in before hitting work. Pretty short, Flat, but kinda fun with tons of log overs/piles. I think there were 4 mandatory on blue at least with 5 or 6 extra. I did a ton of them. The orange section has a couple fun rock gardens and a bit rockpile to cross. It was very good. Just put on the head phones and cranked away. Enjoyed passing a bunch of people repeatedly, they were good folk and let me pass.

Thursday at Wakefield was good, got over nice and early and did a preride of Accotink with Mike E and Jason M. Good rolling. The casual group at first had to go pretty slow as we had a relatively new rider out, eventually Neal dropped and rode with her and JoJo.

Going to try and make it out Tuesday to Wakefield as we might have rain thursday. Riding the next weekend looks a bit questionable due to commitments. We'll see.

Out and In...

The last week of September blew for riding for me with the mix of rain and work stuff. I didn't get out on the bike till Yesterday. And boy did my legs let me know that I sucked. LH half kicked my ass. The other half got clobbered by my seat when I didn't commit to a log over and the seat ass stabbed my right side. A good 16 miles though.

Though on the plus side I have already mastered re-edit TCX files for Garmin from where I stopped to help move/setup the charity ride post ride stuff for 30 minutes. I edited out the non moving time in about 10 minutes. I need to find an xml supporting editor to do it quicker. With collapsible branches editing each lap would be much simpler.

Hopefully I will be able to get back out on Tuesday maybe. If not I'm hoping to get a quick ride in at Cabin John after a trail work meeting on Wednesday. Have to see how the rain goes this week.

Weird weather this year, we basically got thru a hot weekend the last weekend of Sept and then a switch was thrown and we are now really in fall weather.

Tried Founders Nemesis 2010 on Friday on draft and was under impressed other than the fact that the alcohol was not really noticable for a 12% ABV beer. Instead I went with Widmer's Deadlift IPA. Nice but a bit sweet on the finish.

Putting Your Money where your Mouth Is.

Washington State Potato Exec goes on all spud diet for 20 days.
20 Plain Potatoes a day for 60 days

Douthat 2010 Photos

Phil VW's Douthat 2010 photo set - Check out the last photo in the set of the camp lit up at night. Very cool!

Bob Caverly's Douthat 2010 photo Set

Douthat Finally, Part 1

Finally after 2 previous years of trying to make this event I finally made it this year. And it was a blast. But really for me Douthat started Thursday as I left work for the WF Night ride. Got out moderately early and put a 6 mile warmup in, then intending for a pretty mellow group ride we laid down at 12 mile casual ride. OOps. Unfortunately we had a rider on the un-sanctioned fast group go down with a compound fractured arm in the early part of the Boy Scout trail in Accotink. He's doing well now but will be off the bike for 3 months.

I bailed from WF Early to go home and prep food/gear for an early'ish departure to meet my ride to Douthat in Man-ass-ass. I got my potluck dish ready and hit the sack a bit late around midnight. Woke up at 7:15 ate some breakfast purchased a few final items, packed the cooler, loaded the car and headed to meet about 15 minutes late. We ended up leaving Manassas at a bit past 9:30 and we rolled solidly arriving just over 3 hours later in Douthat State Park. Hit the campground setup the tents and as we were putting our sleeping bags in El Jefe rolled up. We helped him setup and by 3 we were bored and decided to hit a quick ride even though it was stoopid hot (93'ish). So we climbed up out of the campground up to the trail head for mountain top/mountain side. After a quick discussion we hit mountain side! A bit in and I mishit a gullied turn and fell back/down a gully. Suck. Got back on and caught up with Dave and Jason who were waiting and wondering where I was. We finally crest mountain side and have a nice view. Off we go to brush hollow. Descend a bit then blam! Flat on the rear. Ugh. I change the tire and right as I get the new tube in and start to pump the guys ride back up.

And Mr.Murphy shows up - My new spare tube apparently has a pin hole leak to start with. Jason loans me his spare. In it goes. Pump it up. Way up. And off we go. A bit of a switchback climb to the overlook. Another Great view northwards. We roll on and start the quick and epic brushy hollow descent. Damn fun! Meet up with the guys at the bottom and start rolling some little rocky stuff, stream crossings mostly. Blam! ARGH! Outa tubes and don't feel like patching. Start pushing the bike. Catch up to Jason and Dave near the swinging bridge near the road. I send em on and push back to camp. 2 miles later MOBL rolls by and sag wagons me the last half mile back to camp! My garmin track till my 2nd flat, Here!


Turns out lots of people had problems on Friday with flats. I know I talked with several other people during the weekend who had 2 on either Friday or Saturday. I used up all my patches and had to borrow some from Jen B to finish patching Ssturday morning.

Camp that night was a blast, we hung out, talked bikes, riding places, and had a good time. I passed out in my tent around 11:30 or so. Put my headphones in and was asleep even with being in one of the central camps in 20 mins or so!

Saturday was a better day :)

Growing Pains

Everytime you upgrade gear or move to a new bike you have to expect some growing pains. Mine hit last night at WF. A short preride followed by a late start, I was climbing the access trail the powerco uses to the top of the berms and while powering up a next hill section: KAPOW! The chain blew out. After the long walk back to the car I tried a 10spd sram power link and a 9speed. The 10 was too short and the 9 speed would have fit but the rivets were too tight.

So off to TheBikeLane in burke I went this morning around 10:30. Took it in and the mech looked at the chain and promptly tossed it in the bin. After a quick exchange decides to go with the KMC X10SL - Nice chain. And since it was so soon after I got the bike I got it at cost. A much better chain! Sweet.

Picked up some perpetuem for the big ride day at Douthat.

Now I have to figure something out for the potluck dinner on Friday.

Fountain Head Revisited

Went out to FH today after picking up a new saddle at TBL. Much better, I think it's the same one as on my giant. My problem I had today was that I think I need some bigger/fatter grips and to move the break levers in a bit more. going down the rough/steep stuff I was KILLING my hands holding on.

Also tried out one of the new garmin edge 500's. It dropped about 1.4 miles of the course making me look even SLOWER than I was.

Fountain Head Mid Day by atlantis.rob at Garmin Connect - Details

As I was entering for my 2nd lap I realized that I'd passed a mother-daughter set in the lot who were obviously not expect what FH really was so I cut my lap short popping back up the exit and down the first bit again where I met up them about 3/10ths of a mile in and they were turning around. i helped them out a shortcut and gave them directions to laurel hill and suggest wakefield also. Oy vey.

On the way home poor ole carney had problems and I think the rear driver side is messed up as even with the parking break on I could turn the wheel, vs the passenger side held fast.

Wetness.

Last night was a weird weather night. On the way to WF I drove thru at least 2 different storm bands of moderate intensity where traffic slowed and everyone's wipers were on high. However it appears those bands never crossed the Wakefield area. Surprising because one was up near Mason on Braddock Rd. So I called in a cancellation to a coworker who also rides. He posted on forum. Once I parked and looked around at WF I saw that anything under trees was still bone dry and even the wettest of gullies was really only Tacky.

Ended up with 5 riders out. I took out on new night rider and Delmar led out 2 other guys. We didn't ride for super long but it was nice to get out and till the rain started picking up at 7:40'ish it was pretty nice riding. By 8 the canopy was dripping and trails were starting to move towards slightly wet from a nice level of Tackyness. My bike only really got dirty in those last 20 minutes. Oh well.

Accotink was reported to be "GREAT" by Mike P's group. It was nice not to be running into tons of other cyclists out for a change. We passed Dylan 2x and I saw MP's group pass once near 7:35 as they chugged up the CCT/Creek Trail towards phase 1. The XR's held better on the damp logs/etc than I thought they would. Probably 12 miles I think between my short preride and the small group ride. That puts me at about 50 miles on the new bike and I love it more each time. And for the week I'm near 42 I think. Not bad. Going to try and ride maybe tomorrow and sunday after work.

1000 Words

From just before last weeks first ride. I also found I can mount the battery/seatbag under the seat and the cords still reach. +1!!!

Final Word- Weather

The weather this time of year is amazing for riding here in DC. Sure it getting dark around 7:40 sucks. But the temps, lack of rain, and clear skies lead to some amazing riding. I love the sensation of the cool air moving past, the smell of the semi moist earth, the half moon in the sky and the crickets chirping. I intend to enjoy the hell out of this fall if I'm in town.

2nd Ride Thoughts

Blasted around Accotink from 5:30 till 7:30'ish. By Myself till around 6:45 when I met up with El Jefe, RickyD and tuba who were riding up the fire road. I hung off the tail of there group the rest of the evening. Tuba was a bit off form and the group ran a bit slower than normal I'm sure but it still pushed me hard to try and hang. i need to ride better :) Less braking. More fitness also. But still felt decent.
could pushed myself harder. next time.

Tuba tore a sidewall out of his racing ralphs so an emergency repair sucked up about 15 minutes I figure while he booted the tire, put in a tube and stuff. He rode it the rest of the evening no problem. I was impressed.

Trails were in best shape I've seen in a while due to last Sunday's rain. Hope the Thursday night rain holds till post ride.

Must gotten in 20 miles or more. That puts me in a decent 27 at least for the week. May try to do a partial ride in tomorrow. We'll see.

Oh and the seat HAS TO GO! Its killing my ass! And my magic shine cord fits fine using the seat bag to hold the battery! that is awesome! Moved in brakes and shifters helped a ton also. Might need to adjust the angle a bit more of the controls. Bikes got a solid 32 miles so far and it's super sweet.

Light Weekend

Let up a bit this weekend, should have pushed and done a ride Saturday but I was lazy and really hoping/saving myself for Sunday morning at Fountain Head. Alas it rained in the AM enough that our organization master cancelled. I spent a lazy day cleaning, doing the whites, and COOKING like a FOOL (did a huge batch of bob flay style fajitas). It was awesome, just grilling takes so much more time on charcoal with prep/etc. Oh well can't win em all. The sun in the afternoon shoulda gotten me going but I wanted to get started cooking/eating early. It was awesome to be done with dinner by 7.

Finished up watching a bunch of LOTR on TNT till 10 or so but was wiped out and went to be before the big battle of doom!

Rode partially into work today to get some activity in. Realized 1 problem with the older bike already. I think the setback seatpost needs to go. My knee acted up on it within nearly no time. Felt the difference in my power/stroke. Need to do a good bit of work to that bike anyways.

Tuesday back at WF to get my official Trail Monitor paperwork done hopefully nearly a year and a half after starting it.

Also had a good new to me IP from Mendicino Brewing Co, White Hawk IPA I think it was. Nice nose, good balance. I think it was $9 at Giant. 7% ABV.

A few Tweaks and it will be ready

Shakedown was last night. It was a damn good first ride. The beast climbs like a mountain goat, and it does roll over stuff that slowed the old bike a lot, I rolled right across a rock garden in Accotink that had frustrated me for a Very Very Long time. (well a few weeks of trying and failing). Descending is a blast, and as I make a few small adjustments it will get better. And the 3x10 is actually pretty cool. I think I spent more time in the 2nd ring than I have in a while as I did end up in 2x2 (32x34) a few times to make climbs I'd previously granny'd on.

Blasting around Wakefield was a riot, I was really letting the bike go on the powerlines and it blazed thru.

I'm feeling very happy about the new bike. Picture soon.

Issues -
Brakes and shifters need to be moved in on the bar. To grip the brakes the way I like my damn hands were almost halfway off the bar!
Gotta drop some air out of the tires and see if they're a bit more stable. So far I'm holding my opinion on the Bonty XR's.
Seat - I like the seat in some ways but it feels too wide.

It's like......

comparing a .22 to a 30-30 or maybe a 30-06. 5.56 vs 7.32. It's the smallest changes that can make the big difference. Tonight we shall see how things go. :)

Get out and Push!

With the onset of nicer weather and a kick in the pants from my scale I'm getting more motivated in my riding. Today was my 3rd ride in a row. 13 more miles pushing me to 36 since Sunday Morning. That puts me at probably 52 since Thursday. This is probably my best week since the early summer in June I think. Now if I can hold and work in some longer rides.

Nice ride today at WF. I did the WHOLE bowl on my preride for a change. It was great and not overly dry like the rest of Wakefield seems. Then did Accotink as part of Matt's small casual++ group. We got in a nice run over there hitting some stuff in a neat order. If only I remembered trails better over there. Oh well. Season there is rapidly winding down for the regular ride. By the beginning of October it will probably mean an early group if people want to hit it for more than 15 or 20 minutes. And really by 15 till 8 lights are really almost necessary! SUCKS!!!!!

Riding is Good

Got out again for some light trail riding with Jen and rode down the canal/towpath to G-town. Pizza Paradisio was closed, but we went down the the inner harbor and hit a places called Founding Farmers I think. Very tasty, good beer. Good fish taco's. Win! Not a bad day for working 4 hours.

Might hit wake again tonight. Dunno got see how the day goes. It's supposed to be a good bit warmer today and tomorrow so I may wait. hmm.

New Section at Fhell

Did a ride at Fountain Head today it was a great day for a ride. A ton of riders transitioning in and out as I arrived. I never got passed by anyone and I did pass one guy.

The new section will be a hoot as it beds in. The upper half already is the lower/first part will take time, but its good trail in that it makes you work. Much nicer to do than the section of woodpecker it bypasses for sure. 8.6 miles today. Very cool. Wanted to do a 2nd lap but a lack of snacks did me in and I bailed home for cookout action.

It was a Guadalajara. Steak, Corn, Asparagus, Broccoli, Salad, Baked Beans, and Garlic Bread, Pasta also. And good beer. Damn good day off.

New bike on Tuesday or Wednesday perhaps.

Facing a work trip to England for 2 month straight. Gotta start some riding research. I know there are places that run year round there also. I'm sure their north of london however. Grrr.

New Month

Well September is looking up in part at this point as temps finally seem to be ready to drop after I think 61 or 62 90+ degree days this summer versus like 30'ish the last few years.

Had a good ride out yesterday at Wake-o-tink. Punga and I rode WF for 4 miles of warm up and that was solid fun, then did a fair amount of Accotink including the new trail in reverse. Pretty fun but one tight section where I almost hugged a tree. Damn it gets dark early now. I always forget I have better night vision then average when several riders start complaining it's too dark 15 minutes before I need lights at all. Oh well. We rode out a bit early but it was fine. Ended up loosing a few people as the ride went on till it was me and 1 other guy doing the power lines in reverse, and the race course section of the creek trail in reverse. Think I totaled out near 16-17 miles.

Todd swears the new bike is allocated and will arrive and be ready maybe Tuesday probably Wednesday. I'm stoked and impatient as hell.

IN unstoked news my breakfast habits are hitting me negatively and I weighed in post ride at 198. Not good. So I'm going back to watching my intake a bit of what I eat. I want to be regularly 195. That usually leaves me post big ride 193'ish.

Nice weather this weekend should help I'm planning a big ride I think sunday at fountain hell. Gotta check out the new section.

This weather sucks

Did I think a ton of good deeds yesterday, perhaps some karma will go my way and my new ride will appear tomorrow. Otherwise it looks like the 15th. Not a HUGE deal really. Though my rear wheel disagrees. :(

Trailwork at Accotink was a success. We added 3/10ths of a mile of new trail that will eventually replace I think about 200 yards. Maybe. Another Quarter mile to do in the other direction. The apparent plan is that the trail along the railroad will be left alone with no maintenance in the future due to park concerns and the railroads request. The RR may fence it off also is another possibility. They are nervous about their own liability for people on/near their tracks.

Got the ball rolling again on getting myself and another official set as Trail Monitors for Wake-o-Tink.

Helped a friend change his car battery that went dead. Fixed my inlaws I-pad and one of their bikes at dinner, and replaced the bulb on my wyf's driver side low beam that has been out while she was away.

Was going to ride today but with the 95 degree temps I think I'm going to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Catching Up.

With how crazy work and life's been this spring/summer I'm finally catching up on that most horrible part of being a major ride leader - Paperwork. I scanned, I wrote reports, I emailed. I updated Logs.

I've got 1 missing thing in July. and parts of may and april to finish and I"ll be caught up.

I've reset up my reminder system that died a long time ago so I shouldn't fall behind again....I think.

Trailwork at Accotink tomorrow.

What a great day for a ride

Got out of work a bit early and headed over to Wakefield at around 4. Messed around getting ready and took off for my first ride at like 4:30. Rode all the WF trails for about 7.5 miles of distance. Took a break ate a snack talked in the lot. Rode the Race course and a bit more. Finished pre-ride with 12 miles. Lead casual out a bit late and we headed over to accotink. We rode well and had a good time, got back intime to ride the powerlines at Wakefield and ended up with another 10 miles.

I'm wiped out. Tomorrow the rents are intown. Give me strength and patience.

Weight post shower/ride 197. need to watch things a bit! Should drop 5 in the next week or so is my goal.

Excitement

New bike should be in next Tuesday. Ordered new pedals yesterday they should arrive Friday or Monday. Debating taking off Tuesday entirely to go over and play. Maybe a half day instead? Or the next day? hmmmm.

Regardless it's coming just in time. My rear wheel on the Giant needs a full rebuild really. It's got 1 fully blown spoke and another with the wrong length. I may disassemble it myself and see how really messed up the rim is. If it's not bad I may have it rebuilt.

Stoked to ride today should be a great day and the next week/10 days looks awesome.

New Header Photo

New header photo courtesy of the Wyf's blog, Glacier Boat Trip around Svalbard

Pretty frickin cool! The sun truly never sets up there this time of year. I've skyped with her at 2am there time and the sun is still out, just a hair dimmer than mid-day. Like 7pm here right now.

Suprisingly Rideable

Wakefield was in much better shape than I thought it would be and Accotink was damp/tacky and a great place to ride yesterday. Only the power lines near 495 were unrideable along with the lower half of phase 4 as usual.

Had a really small turn out I think with 10 riders signed in. At Accotink we split into 2 groups of casual and casual+ of 7 and 3 riders respectively. Great weather though a bit humid. We in casual rolled for near 11 miles. That gave me a solid 17 miles for the night. Pushing me to 25 so far. I'm hoping to hit FH Saturday evening but it may not happen as I realize everyone and their mother will be pre-riding for the race on Sunday.

Little Birdy Says

That my new ride should be in RSN.

I'm stoked as it's been since the middle of June when I decided to pull the trigger.

Now to order the incidentals (Pedals, Pump, etc, etc). And consider how to hotwire the tires to be t00ble33.

Wife's Blog

http://adventuresinsvalbard2010.blogspot.com/
Her blog about her work Trip to Svalbard.

Trimmed

Also did a bit of trimming at WF and accotink. At WF it was only near the big HILL on the creek trail where the briars were out of control.

At accotink I did a bunch on the 2nd part of boyscout and then also cleared the lower exit/entrance near the paved path in accotink it was WAY overgrown and I was tired of fighting the overgrowth.

Back In.

well The gear I tried to order 2 weeks ago turns out that I was too late and they didn't have as much in stock as they thought. I optioned to cancel the order for now. No biggie, as I still have no bike to put it on.

So after an insanely wet Thursday CCT ride 2 weeks ago I rebuilt the Giant the next weekend. While trying to install the new RearD, I realized that something was very wrong. The 2010 X9 is a POS! The cage is WAY to flexy/bendy I was suffering from chain jump in any outbound/inbound gearings (chain was coming off the bottom pulley) And I could never get the damn thing adjusted near a 6mm gap using the b-nuckle. I've installed 4 or 5 rearD over the last year or two for myself and friends and NEVER had problems like this. Hell my old x9's I"d just hold together and adjust to similar look and 10 minutes of fine tuning on the bike be done.

However I do think I have my best adjustment on shifting in a LONG time on the bike currently. Shifted great last night under load or normally.

Did 20 miles last night 9 by myself before of WF and Accotink then rode with Jackson's casual group for another 10. then did a final mile in the dark myself to break 20.

Wanted to ride into work today but I was way tired and didn't get up in time...Weak. Maybe friday. Tomorrow I have AC guy in the morning. ugh. but fixed AC is good.

Sales of Love

I just got a sale flyer from Jensen and ordered some PIMPED out SLX 2011 crank and cogset. Now I just need a chain. May just use the existing one that will come on the bike. Though I Prefer to be prepared and use SRAM chains so that the power links will always work. Vs maybe/maybe not that Shi!mano chains seem to yield.

Now I just need the bike to go along with parts. Maybe in the next 2 weeks I suppose.

Lots of TW not so much riding

This is the time for insane trail work apparently. We did a WF one today and made major fixes to the destroyed power station descent. We fixed major rutting and put in 3 minor grade reversals/rolling dips to help get more water off the trail. We need to build one more somewhere in the first area though to get the worst off. Also teams weed whacked the powerlines and trimmed the bowl entirely. That will be very nice!

Last week I did an epic 6 hour trail ride/work binge at CJ and boy was i wiped out after wards. Only got in 1 other ride last week at WF and that was a bit of bummer as we hung around WF and I wanted to to Accotink. So I think I had 26 miles last week and this week will like be the same as I only got 13 miles after wards today. Unless I do W@W or hit FH on Tuesday or something but we have a lot of t-storms in the forecast for this week so who knows?

Still not sure if I'm gonna try and do the curse of dark hollow next weekend. Wait and see I guess.

Full Sail's Session black is excellent and very drinkable, I enjoyed it while doing laundry last night and watching The Girl with a dragon tattoo, very cool.

Long Day Done

Went out a bit later than I wanted today for some Ad-Hoc Trailwork on Cabin John. When I'd visited a few weeks ago it was starting to get bad. Well the goya drive section was real bad. 1 mile of trail took me almost 3 hours alone to trim. Though I also did saw out the better part of one tree with a folding hand saw.

I got to about 1/4 of the way into the section to river rd at around 6:30 and decided to be done, rode out to River Rd and headed back. To towel down and pick the wyf up from here trip to NYC this weekend. Ran out of water crossing the powerlines near the baseball fields.

Quick rinse off in the bathroom at CJ of my head arms and torso and I was done. 13.5 miles of riding and probably walked 6 or 7 I figure in pruning/trimming. Still need to do the last .9 miles from river rd up to near uhm watchama-call it. Though the first .3 miles from river rd in doesn't need much, just one spot where there is a log down, and the ride around is in the bushes.

Maybe one day after work this week. We'll see.

I love the Sugoi RS bibs. Best money ever spent. Also traded in a recent gift and a gift card from the hols at City Sports on a posh new set of Oakley Jawbones. Sweet! Need to order some clear lenses for night riding stat.

TNR - Hot as H3ll Ed

Another warm nite tonight, not as warm supposedly as yesterday but pre-ride it felt WAY worse in the WF lot. Once out and riding it was better though. Even felt a few cool'ish breezes.

I had a rough incident pre-ride with a cliff bar gone wrong. Nearly hurled a few times. Not fun. Got a coke at WF and it helped a bunch. After a 2.5 mile spin I felt human and was able to lead a pretty snappy casual group of what was 7 riders but due to an early flat ended up at 5 including me-self.

We did a pretty epic loop at Accotink and only rode a tiny bit of the creek trail at the end. It's already getting dark earlier and I'm fucking bummed out. I've been really enjoy using no light the last few weeks. In the next month I intend to keep it up but will have to think about charging it soon. ugh.

Everyone had pretty good rides it seemed. Another good TNR.

Lake Fairfax Fun!

Finally got out to Lake Fairfax and followed the intermediate pace group around the trail last night, the new stuff out there is really pretty burly! Some good size ups and downs with logs makes it kinda tough. We then blazed out to Difficult run I think and back. Or maybe it was thru Wolf Trap stream park. I'll ask next time. It was the 7.5 mile out and back we dropped 1 section of single track on the way back and ended with 14.7 miles. I drank almost 60 oz of water I think. IT wasn't bad except in the lot and crossing major streets. Felt good to push my pace, I might be able to lead an intermediate minus in the future at wakefield without it being casual ++. 10.2 avg though that was due to the fact we flew on some sections of the CCT.

2 Moderate wrecks on the ride, 1st on the return was crossing that is apparently very bad normally and has some bad log/limb armoring, the guy tried to go thru some dips/gullys and basically endo/side crashed narrowly avoiding the log. The second guy went down in some gravel on a turn.

Lots of semi-gnarly gravel along the trails. I almost lost it once as I was riding to forward.

Looking forward to much torture and misery at WF tonight.

Another Slowwwwwwwwwww week

Last week was a slow riding week, 1 day of cycling to work, 1 night of riding, 14 miles. So last week was a 21 mile week.

This week I snuck out to Trail Work at Rosaryville yesterday and pickup up 5.5 miles while riding and clipping. Then I went ahead and blasted out a lap in what I think is a new record for me in 53 minutes, avg just over 10 mph. It was a hoot. I figure with the clipping and walking I did another 2 miles at least clearing trails. not bad. it was pretty miserable by the end when I finished around 2.

Rehydrated on the way home and enjoyed a nice Founder Scotch Ale afterwards.

Thinging about Lake FFX on Wednesday. We'll see.

Riding in Hell

DAMN it's stupid hot here in the capital.

Thursday I eecked out another 14 miles and Sunday I went nuts and pulled my first sucessful double of FH without cramping/dieing for a final 16 miles, putting me at around 45 for last week. Not shabby. Still not commuting to work much but reports are out that the heat is going to start relaxing in the next day or two!

SO hot on sunday the first lap the heat was miserable. The 2nd it was less noticable it felt probably because I was soaking at that point. Even a fall didn't bother me. Made it up a couple good hills and in both laps I never got passed and passed a few people. Moving times on the first lap was 1:05 and 2nd was 1:10. Not super fast but getting faster. week after this my goal is to move to 3 laps at FH.

Normalcy is not an Option

Things are in a semi-state of Normalcy right now, work has calmed a bit versus the last 3 weeks of 60-70 hour work weeks, I might only hit 55 hours this week on 6 days.

I got out for my first extra ride of the week last night at Wakefield and we got soaked by a very brief thunder storm. My bike was super muddy by the end. Spent 30 minutes cleaning it off last night after the drive home. It had dried up enough to be able to wipe most of the crud off. Still need to clean the chain fully though, gotta find where I stashed the degreazer.

New bike on order also finally. Moving up to Big Wheels (tm).



Just kidding but it is a big wheel bike (29'r) the new 2011 Trek Paragon by Gary Fisher. Not sure that I really care about the ending of the official brand of Gary Fisher and it now being a line of bikes for trek. Thats really how I've seen it for the last 2 years as tech from one has been very obvious in the other, especially 2010.

2011 Trek/GF Paragon

Upgrading the Cassette, Cranks and Chain will be the first things. Along with probably the stem and maybe the bars. Also it will start off being tubeless. Not sure on the 29-2 tires, I really think I may go with the XDX up front to start with, as I've had excellent luck/life out of the one on my Giant. The 10spd rear mech is also a bit of a question. When I do upgrade I will probably go 24-34 upfront and drop the 44T ring for a bashguard. Though I'll keep a spare 44 for those days when you want to mount a BIG GEAR!

Better Week than expected

Had a good group for TNR and the Casual-ties ran a pretty fast group knocking off 10.5 miles. Toonces/Neil lead a bunch in accotink and showed me a few trails I'd been looking for a while.

He also took a ton of great photo's! Big thanks.

Today I went out and cranked 35 mixed miles of trail/cct/road while tring to find my way to Laurel Hill. Stoopid bad blazing. Missed the turn right after popping out of the town house neighborhood on 7100. Again. Got a ways down Pohick rd but new I was nearing my limit at 25 miles already and turned around. Managed a quick run thru of Accotink on the way back and finished up in the lot. I had wanted to do the bowl but I was toast.

Had some fun cramps at home when I got out of the car. Should have stretched after finishing.

Big thumbs up for Moor Porter from Cisco Brewery in Nantucket. Very smooth with notes of caramel up front and a nice roast finish. Tasted almost like a homebrew!

To New Bike or to Craigslist

Well due to a glut of OT, and a few odd factors I appear to be on the verge of getting my new ride. Shocking I know.

Now the tough question. I have in my budget of general X enough to cover a Gary Fisher Paragon, from this year that is a pretty nice bike with damn good components (fox f29 rlc, x9 gear, elixir 5). I could easily move all this stuff over to a MCR later if I don't end up loving the thing. Excellent local support via The Bike Lane.

Or I found a good deal on an MCR on craigslist.
Fox Fork (info requested), tubeless on stans rims, hyrdos(i.r.) thompson stem/seatpost for a bit less $$ than the paragon.
CONS - Used, unknown source, cash deal (versus a it of CC to offset quick pocket hit), no idea who built it. Having that local support is nice for warranty/etc.
It's been on craigslist for a while so I might be able to levrage the price down a bit more. I think it's been up on there since late May.

Final CON on MCR - Root Beer might become the official color of Thursday Night at Wakefield.

Steel is Real.

Fridays I'm insane

Great ride last night trails were in fab shape due to Toonces hard work and the very dry heat of yesterday. I blasted a quick race look with Mike and Adam preriding then lead 4-5 other adventurers out onto a 8 mileish casual adventure. We warmed up on the creektrail, hit most of the bowl, then did the race course mostly including phase 4 which is in much better shape now. Did some skills sections in the phase 4. then creek trailed out. Nice nite for a ride.

Woke up late and tired and didn't ride in today. Still ATC I'm at around 33 miles for the week. I'll ride tomorrow for sure. That will push me to 40.

Work is killing me. And not softly. More like BOHICA.

New set of bib shorts on order from REI to lower usage on my poor felt set.

New Week good riding

Off to a better start this week by riding tonight at CJ and racking up a respectable 13 miles. Not bad for a back to back with Sundays FH visit. I'll do the short versionn into work, giving myself 8 miles of riding then. Wednesday due to storms looks to be a wash unfortunately, but who knows. I have high hopes for being back at Wake-o-tink on Thursday.

Got to figure an ad hoc trail day for CJ to do some trimming in a few area's and I have a tree down that must be removed. busy busy.

Slow Week

Due to work stuff, rain/storm threats and such last week was a SLOW start to June with a whopping 16 miles, in 2 rides. An extra-sized work loop on Tuesday and Sunday I got out and road FountainHell. It was miserable for the first half as I kept feeling breakfast about to return, the bad way. I need to finish eating at least an hour before riding somewhere like that. And I only took 1 water bottle with me. It wasn't really enough, by the I really had to regulate and when I got to the car I drank about 12 ounces straight off.

Today I'm going to hit Cabin John after an appointment at 3:30. Hopefully the rain yesterday will have dried up mostly. Would be nice to roll out 12-16 miles tonight to start the new week. Hopefully we'll have better weather also, as things look now.

Big Finish

Well I'm pushing thru in the last day of March to increase my riding/mileage. This week I will be near 50 miles in the last 7 days. Tue and Wed I road in for 14.6 miles, picked up 16.4 at Wakefield on Thursday. Yesterday I rolled another 12 at Laurel Hill. Today I racked 7+4 on my commute to total out at 53 for the week.

That would put me at 114 miles for the month. Not too shabby considering I was bikeless for a week and change.

Also danced like a fiend at a good friends wedding on Saturday, things we're really just getting going when it had to end at 10! Great tunes from the dj. Bowie, Cure, lots of good old alt/progessive.

Tick Tick Boom

Well got my first tick today.

Riding up to my car drop point. Riding near some tall grass near Westfields High. Wasn't even in the grass and all of a sudden I feel something scuttling on my leg and look down! TICK! Pick him off and flicked him off into the road. Take that you damn vermin!

Nice day for a ride otherwise. Even passed a ton of people and my new trick saves me I think about 15 minutes versus how I used to get to 66 via 28.

BTW Day

Well I got the bike fully back together Wednesday evening after the parts came in on Tuesday. The front D change/adjustment took a while so that's my wimpy excuse for not getting it done Tuesday. Wednesday I took a casual spin around the hood to test it out and made a few small follow up adjustments. Just a mile or a bit more.

So last night I hit WF but just wasn't feeling it really. Did a 6 mile preride but felt off my game. Racked up another 8 with the casual group but it was a somewhat light weight considering a 3+ miles of that was the over and back to Accotink. We even wrapped a bit early for the first time in a few weeks finishing up at 8:20.

Got to enjoy some tasty brews thanks to Bandit and SteveO. The terrapin brown ipa was very tasty as was Steve0's Lagunita's WTF.

I'll pick up another 7 today. Still having a pretty good month for being off the bike for basically a week and change.

68 miles for me this month.

Blame it on the Rain

AARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can only blame my wife for this, I was working on cleaning up a Karaoke song for her, Put the Blame on Mame sung by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1945), when while checking the weather for the week my twisted mind morphed it into Milli Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain! ARGH! Can I get my head lopped off now. ARGH. One of my best friends sisters loved them during their heyday. I heard that album all the bloody time while watching PPV WWF in the early 90's! SUCK! And nothings clearing it out right now!

New brakes should be in tomorrow night, plenty of time to set them up for Thursday with all this rain, no riding Tuesday I'm sure and wednesday's looking non-good either.

Fuel Ex 8

Borrowed a sweet Trek Fuel Ex 8 from Todd and Anne at The Bike Lane for last nights Thursday night ride. Casual group was not super casual. We rocked down a solid 12 miles ish even with fairly regular regroup stops. We did all of Accotink in both directions then did the all of the Bowl, creek trail to phase 1 to powerlines, down the berms and then back up the final section of powerlines to finish around 8:40. Ended up hanging around in the 'lot till around 9:30. Good times.

The Fuel was a very different ride as it was my first Full Suspension in probably 3+ years on trail (Vs some light monkeying around in parking lots). It was sized large and I needed to raise the seat I think another inch or maybe 2 over where I had it for most of the ride. Also a setback seatpost would give me a hair more rear balance. In general the balance of the bike felt weird with all the extra weight of the rear suspension/plus sag was odd for sure. But when riding flat/twisty non drop/up terrain the damn thing flew! It tracked super nice. I had some speed sprint sections where it felt like a sled just keep going faster. Doing boyscout on the way out was a blast as were powerlines, creek trail, etc.

I REALLY want to try out a HT/Steel Niner or such. Maybe I'll pester scud to borrow his SIR9 I think it is.

Cub Run Around

After 3 years of being in the area I finally stopped and visited Cub Run Rec Center in Chantilly. Its' insanely close to work, but its not really a MAJOR trail. In fact the real trails there are very limited, though riding the powerline/area around the golf course in each direction turned it into a nice ride. Though on the way back out I had a bad restart and managed to crash and burn in a small rock garden beating the hell outa my left knee. It impacted right on a rock of course. Thanks Murphy. This was after tackling a signal box with my shoulder. Damn, its getting stiff already.

Neat area in some ways. The area down by the damn was pretty fun/cool.

So lets see here is my riding this week. 1 Day of Commute, 7 Mi, 9 miles at WF, and just shy of 16 miles. So that makes it about 32 miles. Not Bad. Next week I'm going to try a couple more commutes and with WF and some other riding I hope to hit 50 miles. But we'll see on the knee.

Monday if the knee is up to it I'm going to pay my dues at Fountain Hell.

Also considering what my next mtb really will be. I'm strongly leaning towards an MCR right now. As cheap as I figure I can do it is the 1800-2k mark.

Stone Smoke porter continues to rock my socks!

May I have this Ride?

Wimped out big time this morning on riding in. I doing remember even turning off my alarm clock, just waking up at 6:50 and being like, OOPS! Way to late to ride in. I'll do it tomorrow is my goal. My alergies are also blowing up.

With last nights ride I've logged about 16 miles this week. I'm thinking I may venture out to Fountain Hell on Sunday. We'll see. Hmmm storms on Saturday, maybe monday for Fountain Hell.

112 Miles..

17 Miles today put my with a strong finish of 112 total for april. I think I have a good opportunity to smack that down a bit in May. We'll see.

Did a 6 mile pre-ride and for me scorched around Wakefield avg 10 mph. Thats pretty good for me and I felt like I wasn't full pushing either. That kind of pace would put me on a 17-18 minute lap for W@W which would be real nice. Might even get me near podium in beginner on a weak raceday. Of course as a 3 year rider I feel a bit silly riding beginner, especially there. May have to consider sport. Who knows.

Anyways I'm off to shower to remove poison ivy residue I suspect I got into.

Yup

Once again between saying I wanted to hit 120 to 150 this month with my ambitious plan, fate smacked me down delivering a 1-2 punch of Rain alot of the weekend and being sick Saturday thru Monday really. And being behind on other stuff means I can't go out tonight really. I might do a short spin up a nearby paved path if I can get out of work on time.

Due to breeze and sun, we'll be up for a big ride I think at Wakefield on Thursday.

Riding We Go....Bad Rob

I was a bad ride leader yesterday and blew off part of the Casual Ride group at WF. It was chris, a new girl who was taking it slowly/carefully, and Jason V. I felt bad, but led the other new area rider around showing him all the trails/etc. WF was in pretty good shape and a blast to ride as everything was nice and tacky. I did a 7.5 mile pre ride and ended up with just shy of 17.

The week before i racked up another 8 miles, so for the month as of today I'm at 95 miles, with potentially 3 more ride days available on Sunday, Monday and Thursday again. I'm hoping to crack say maybe 120 to 150. I intend to push like a MOfo pace wise. Hmmm weather indicates Monday may be the day to ride, so I'd still like to break the 120 mark.

Come may I'm going to up the mileage a good bit, hopefully with some other rides.

Had a great beer I hadn't before from Long Trail in Vermont that Sarah brought down called Double Bag, a strong Amber. Very good I wiped it out REALLY fast. Had a Dale's second it was good, especially with Skittles. Chips ahoy however didn't go quite as well. Also had some of Tony's old stout joel found a growler of that was excellent! I think maybe the same one from the Bootleggers Bliss 3.

Current Weight 195 post ride just for my own tracking.

Cabin John Return

Finally got a FULL ride of CJ end to end. About 15.5 miles currently from Goya Drive to the bridge on 7 Locks past river and all the way back. Some mud in 2 spots, that are known bad area's the rest was great. The last section from River/7Locks to the Bridge on Seven Lochs was in need of some more trimming, but it's actually a pretty fun little addition. Not sure though if it's worth the half mile road connection each way though. Still pretty cool. Trails in pretty good shape. Only 2 small trees that could be cut out.

The new area for the shed on the Sunday trail work is set behind the tennis court building. I'm stoked.

Gotta pick up tools I guess 1 day this week incase we do get to some trimming work. Hu.

Schaeffer Farms next monday for sure! If I don't have ot do finishing work on the shed that is. Pushing milage on this month. I'm at 70 so far, not bad considering I've ebeen stuck at 20 a month since the beginning of november. UGH! Legs still aren't at optimal strength. Need to spend some time suffering at accotink the next few thursdays.

A little bit of Better

I think I'm finally having some success in beefing up my conditioning with 4 or 5 Thursday rides now in a row and getting in last Sunday's semi-epic ride. Maybe I can get Jen to hit schaeffer gently tomorrow. hmmm.

I REALLY need to tear down the rear wheel and fix the still not right spoke/nut issue and then reseal it, but that requires a bit o Stans so it will have to wait till after next thursday I guess.

And once again I proved thinking while riding is a big no no, in that after JoJo made a comment about me not compressing the fork before hitting an logover or such, I went up to a curb and proceed to hold my brake while trying to hop it and pulled an OTB and ended up resting on my back with a nice roll. Ouch.

Todd and a fair bunch were out we had I think 26 riders! Boy did it pour from about 5 till 8 till about 8:10. We then had clear skies from 8:15 till we rolled out at 8:45. Trails at Wake should be perfect by this Thursday.

Beer Notes

Also while downtown for the cherry blossom fest we stopped at the elephant and crate (not positive) and they had 3 fuller's ale's on cask! I had the regular ale. The esb would have been a bit hoppy and the porter a bit heavy for the return ride I suspect. Pretty good, and good food!

Another raging bitch and beer garden from flying dog. Both excellent!

Jeez my posterior is outa condition.

Did a 30 miler down to the cherry blossom festival on Sunday and by the ride back my posterior/sitbones/etc were just sore as heck. My seat conditioning has really suffered over the winter it seems. A 30 shouldn't be any bother, especially a smooth 30 like that. Eeesh. Legs actually felt okay but it wasn't that strenuous of a ride either.

Thursday we had a pretty large turn out for Wakefield TNR with near 30 people. Casual started off small with 4 people but by the end we hit 9 or 10 I think, picking up stragglers of other groups. We did near 11 miles and had at least 1 night riding newbie. It was good.

Busy is Good.

Been a busy couple weeks, we've now had our 3rd TNR at Wakefield in a row, and it was the third one with 20+ peeps out on the trails. Last nights casual group started out at 10, but broke down into 2 or 3 groups since we had a complete new guy out. Sarah and I took him around and showed him the ropes. Sarah really has the teaching thing down, must be from being a ski instructor!

And managed a respectable 8 miles, not bad. The new guy had only done 4 miles of pretty flat stuff before.

Now if only the trails would get a chance to get really good and dry.

And the SHED is in for our trailday build at Cabin John. Hopefully we'll have enough volunteers to have a shed crew and a trailwork crew.

Beers Ahoy!

Had a few other good beers recently that I forgot to mention.

DCTony had his new imperial stout along for tasting, it was super tasty and smooth with real nice balance of hops and malts make it very drinkable with a very smooth mouthfeel/drinking experience. Well done my friend!

Had a FlyingDog Raging bitch tonight on the way home waiting for traffic to die down at Wholefoods. Very nice, and with a hint of candy-sweetnesso of belgian beers against the bitter hops worked suprisingly well.

The new high end counter at the cheese stand is amazing in what they have, stuff like Golden Carlous, Founders Red Rye and a few other monsters I can't remember. Very cool.

So THATS what mountain biking is!

Had our first MTB Ride on TRAILS at Wakefield since the end of January. It was only the 4th trail ride of the year. Casual knocked down near 8 miles. Everyone was I think feeling a bit off their A game from so many weeks of trail riding. Even road riding isn't quite the same. Had 20 riders out in total. Larry took out one group with about 6 or 7 and the Jason Fast Group went out with 5 or 6 also.

Afterwards some of the Fasties were trying to ride over one of the last snow piles in the parking lot. A few people made it over but it tended to be the lighter weight guys I think. Frank rolled around in the snow on his 2nd attempt!

It was a really nice night out and I was over dressed, shorts, tech long sleeve with MORE wooly over that. Didn't really need the tech shirt I suspect.

I do need some new gloves my hands we're killing me! Several tears in the palms have rendered them too torn up for regular use. Time for another pair. DirtPaw Gloves

Now that our riding chances are getting better I need to do a teardown maintenance on the bike. Especially the drive train. Lube the cables and all that jazz. I will say having the rear brake line finally trimmed and bled has made a huge difference in control with it. I really need to do the front.

At some point I can mount my snazzy new 2010 X9 rd, but I think I'll wait till the current one gives up the ghost. Averages show that my current one will die at some point over the summer.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I have had some REALLY good beers lately, 2 major standouts

Avery Maharaja 2009, Batch 9. A hop monster with nice malt. Amazing hop balance for how hopped it was. Smelled like gold. Tastee,drank the whole bomber myself on Friday. Felt like crap though the next morning. 10.5%. Hope they make it again this year. Imperial IPA.

Terrapin Brewer (GA, not md suprisingly) Dark Side Belgian Stout - Project beer for them. We had this on Saturday before thisone at Jen's birthday thing and it was amazing! The mouth feel alone was superb, excellent balance. No one thing really jumped out at you like say toast, coffee or chocolate. It was all just damn fine and really strong. Very nice to sip and drink and savor. I got the last bottle WF Fairfax had on Friday. Yeh haw!

Other good beer. Tuppers Hop Pocket, Duck Rabbit Milk Stout (v.nice) and Bells Consecrator Double Bock.

bad beer - Yeungling Double Bock, Butt Wipe wheat, it was on a dare.

Did about 3 hours of cleaning up the north section of cabin john today, some clean up and some prep for the season pruning back annoying plants in bad sections.

Tomorrow I may ride it or work on another section. not sure.

Less Riding so far.

By my current calculations if i maintain my riding pace currently. I may log 100 miles this year! WOW! Thats so f'ing much, I thinking I'm going to cry.

The snow has murdered riding for the last 3 weeks. Unless your a roadie or love your trainer. Neither of which describes me.

We did a TNR last night with 3 other brave souls in 5-15 mile an hour winds with gusts in the 30's, thru a mostly well plowed series of neighborhoods near Wakefield, racking 18 miles in an hour and 20 minutes.

March better be a damn good month or my next race will be the kiddy division at W@W. And my new epic ride will be Wakefield with Accotink.

Busy weekend on the horizon, with a play tonight (Anthony and Cleopatra), MORE Winter Party Saturday, a Birthday Party Saturday Night, Sunday (god knows what?) and Monday a return to the dentist for some tooth grinding action.

Had some good beers recently including a Coffee House Stout from some williamsburg brew co. I'm really digging flying dog's porter these days also.

New Year, More Riding I hope

I had my first ride of the year last night at WF. It was great to get out and spin a bit to clear my head, it helped me deal with a good bit of the stress that this weeks events have imparted, not all but enough to leave me feeling more clear headed. Thats why I do love cycling.

We had a TON of people out for the ride last night. I'll update with a count later but I think it was near 20 riders. I had 2 others with me in my group, a couple guys went out fast and the rest went on a large "intermediate but more casual" ride.

I looked at my log on my cycle comp and realized I'd logged about 860 miles on my bike this year (not counting various beach rides and other stuff while traveling). My question to myself is can I be 100 mile a month guy regularly and right now I just don't think so. 860 means at least i was riding about 72 miles of primarily ST a month, and thats nearly 20 a week. At this time until I can get a normal Monday thru friday work schedule I assume that I'll RARELY ever ride on Sunday's and Mondays are often spent TCB. Until I either take up road biking, can commute on bike I just don't see myself being 100 mile a month guy with any sort of regularity.

I need to get out to frickin Cabin John Trail and figure out WTF I want to try and accomplish this year, but this damn snow freeze/thaw cycle is working out badly for me making it out there on a Monday. Grrr.