Saturday, October 30, 2010

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....

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

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.

Friday, October 22, 2010

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.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

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.

Monday, October 04, 2010

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.