Saturday, April 30, 2011

The great mail cleanup

Sometimes you just have go thru all the damn email. My work primary email was up over 500 messages. The 2nd'ary was pushing 150. Gmail was getting bloated. It was time to take out the trash, handle the important and kick back the crap.

4 Hours later my inbox's combined have about 100 messages. 30 in each of my work emails, and about 40 in gmail. God what a hassle but I did take care of about 20 billion little things.

Yesterday was the IMBA Laurel Hill .GOV ride with local movers/shakers in policy positions in DC. It was pretty good, 40 or so riders out with 5 newbie's, 10-15 non regular riders (at least of mTB) and another 20 regular riders or such. Good spin for our casual group doing Slaughter house and a bunch of the perimeter trails at LH. 8 miles from our start in the Occaquan Park. Nice

GPS should be in the side bar. Maybe pics to come from the after part. I need a camera bag for mounting on the bike.

Tomorrow will may be a self trip up to Gambril/shed or a ride at Schaeffer with Jen. We'll see.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Triple Shot.

Yesterday I went 3 for 3 and bagged my third ride in 3 days at CJ. Wasn't feeling awesome or fast but it was a pretty good ride. Nearly made it up the climb of doom on my 3rd and 4th try. May need to drop rear tire pressure a hair. Probably a bit hard for a quick climb then rock crawl up a pretty steep grade. Did see a guy on F/S make it. Also in general I know I'm not trying with enough starting speed.

But a solid 10 miles. Clipped a small section also, but I can see where other area's are gonna need TLC by the next trail day in mid-may. The current plan is to put in a small bridge then go from there. I'm stoked.

Off day today, dealing with sick Cat. Ugh. Poor old fella's 13 and some issues can be expected I guess.

Big IMBA ride at FH with big-wigs on Friday. Thursday is no looking bueno.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Press-fit is Silly.

Yep, thanks Trek and Gary Fisher and Shit-mano for introducing another semi-useless, more annoying technology to "improve" our bikes.

You call it BB90 with Press-fit bearings! I get how wider is better for bottom brackets. 2 Semesters of college physics plus tons of auto work as a kid helping my old man repack bearings during the summers when bored at his work. So I do get why this is a somewhat improvement. What I don't get is what MORON said hey lets put in non serviceable, not easily replace bearings that must be pressed in!

On my old bike with external bb I could pull the cranks and full clean each cup/cap set in about 30 minutes and re-install. If I had the interest with the right tools I could even open the bearings and re-grease them. (Or if pimped out with CK BB I could use the Fittings and do it very quickly).

I did my best to "service" the bb short of breaking out a chisel and investigating how REALLY dumb this design is. I wiped all the accumulated crap off the shell, the bearing faces the interior area's. I re-greased the back of the bearings that had some REALLY crappy grease. I couldn't find my high grade synthetic so I used good ole polypro from Park Tools. Re-ass-embled, and went out for a 40 minute test ride. No signs of creaking from the BB Area. Lots of bugs in my eyes though, gotta remember to wear glasses if going out anywhere near water near dark these days. UGH.

Hmmm might have to spend some money with Park Tools again in the near future

http://www.parktool.com/product/p/pressfit-bottom-bracket-bearing-tool-set-bbt-90-3

http://www.parktool.com/product/bearing-cup-press-hhp-2

Don't believe the Hype!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Clip and Ride and Walk

Did my good deed part 2 for April. After riding a fun lap at Laurel Hill yesterday I retrieved the trusty hand clippers and went out and clipped back the Giles Run trail from say Too Cool Hipster Length to more like slightly Shaggy Pretty Boy Length. Took a couple of hours, but when I re-rode it after wards it made a huge difference in not having to twist myself like a pretzel to avoid thorns, leaves, etc. Though I did see 2 spots that needed improved trimming. However I was done. 15.24 miles of Riding and probably 3 miles of walking with back and forth trimming on the trail.

Thursday was a good ride in Accotink land with a good pre-ride and a solid regular ride. 15.63 miles. So probably about 34/35 miles last week plus the clipping. I'm down with that.

Gonna have to sneak and peak rides in this week as we have lots of storms/rain. Thursday isn't looking good at all.

And taking the un-frickin believable award for the month? Dicky ate found shot blocks while riding down at Amelia Island. Scroll down about 2/3'rds of the way.
Dicky loves found food!

Beer fermentation has slowed to a couple of bubbles a minute from its rapid ferment Thursday. But it's still going.

Tonight I disassemble the cranks and see just how annoying these new press-fit bottom brackets are going to be. The guys at the bike lane (At least burke) haven't had to service one yet. Hopefully mine won't be first. But I'm not counting on it. Grrr. Best case scenario is that I can clean the grime/stuff out, re-grease the crankshaft and it will be G2G.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Bring that Beer Back

Well for the first time in over 2 years I brought out the brew gear tonight and performed mad science on malts, green goodness and yeast. I think the batch may turn out pretty good, it had aI' super quick chill thanks to cold ass water still in the lines/ground maybe 5-6 minutes to sub 100 and 8 or 9 total to near 70.

2 3.3lb Briess Wheat LME
1 Oz MT Hood 6.1% Hops for bittering
1/2 oz Mt Hood 6.1 for Aroma
Wyeast 3333 German Hefe Yeast in a smack pack.

I'll check it's fermentation in the morning.

Names Options are so far:
Summer Day Wheat
82Deg Day Hefe
Hefe #Duex
Glorius Weizen.

Damn warm today wish it would be that temp tomorrow for the ride really.

I'm off to bed, brewing is a ton of work!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Back to Normal here in DC

Well it's raining so things seem back to normal. Legs are almost fully recovered from being miserable Monday and Tuesday. My shoulder is still frickin weird, though trying to do push ups yesterday did not help. D'oh.

I was right in my estimate of our position in the Bakers Dozen results, in that we finished 27th of 39 teams with 8 laps in 11H:10M. 2 More laps would have moved us up to probably only 20. Top team had 17 laps duo, then 4 16 Lap teams, then 2 14 Lap Teams. Ugh! It was still a fun time and I'm hoping to try it again next year.

Looks like stuff clears up late today then we have a couple decent days then rain again Saturday. Awesome. Not.

Works blowing the up and I may be skipping a trip this weekend I've been looking forward to since the winter. Damn it.

Bakers Dozen Links
The Start - Youtube Video With yours truly cruising along near the end 30 to 32 seconds.

Carl Bruce - Photos

JCS48 - Flickr Photos

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Mud Racin is Rubbin.,,

Left here a bit late on Saturday morning at 6:15 with a quick stop for Ice and hit the Race Course a bit before 6:50 AM.

Nearly got stuck pulling in, but managed to escape the muck. Found an okay parking spot away from the existing crowd and started scoping for a good camping spot! Picked one up near the trees/rocky hill in the center but it was the cows favorite spot to poo apparently. Found a mostly patty free area to put my tent then used a tarp up front to give me a safe entrance.

Barely used the damn tent. Changed/lived in the car mostly. Next year I need to bring some spare gloves, and more headbands especially if I'm doing laps. More/easy food to eat early when finishing laps. Maybe post lap kits, having longer down times would help so with getting food in easier.

1st lap was a bitch with how muddy it was. Traffic was pretty well split up 2 miles in. Pushed a bit to hard on the lap. 2nd lap the course was pretty wet still the new section was really rough and stayed/got worse the whole race. Rode a better pace I think. 3rd lap was really rough cramps and stiff on the way out. If I had not been starving I should have doubled that lap, then gotten a final 5th. Oh well. 4 was good really except being tired and nearly falling near the end of the pine forest. Ugh.

Adjusting for GPS lost time I think I had around a 7.4 to 7.8 mph average. I'm pretty happy ATC.

Ate 2 sausage links after, then later 2 slices of peporoni pizza, then crashed early. Woke up a few times with cars leaving and a few loud neighbors. I was wiped out. Going out to the porto-let blew it was miserable getting out the sleeping bag. Terrible.

Woke up and gathered gear, helped pack the XXL area then packed up my camp site.

Back at home doing laundry, ate a bunch of pancakes and eggs. Relaxing.

Friday, April 08, 2011

Ready, Set, Rain then Go

25 Hours from the big race start and the nerves are starting to flare just a bit but I'm practicing mindfullness of The Force(TM)(R)(C), and keeping all thoughts positive.

Had a good but pretty short ride at WF of a logged 7.5 miles so I'll round up to 8. Kept the HR out of Zone 10 and my legs only feel lightly spun right now and thats good. We made a good pace and it felt pretty frickin easy. TONS of riders out I think we had 28 or 29 sign in and with a few late folk who didn't. And a ton of non-group riders. It was a blast! Conditions over all were good on the trails.

Good weather thoughts....Only minimal sprinkly rain today. Good weather thoughts!!!

Gear is mostly assembled for the morning. Have to pick up some snack supplies and some post ride chow to grill/donate. Water is purchased and in the car already. Gotta pull together the newt-trition gear though I realize (Gu's, Supplements, Hammer products, etc). As usual potassium loss will be my big enemy, and since I can't eat @#$@#$@ banana's its all on the supplements/additives. SUCK!

Monday, April 04, 2011

Crushed like a beer can at a Frat Party in 85.

Subject sums up how I'm feeling physically. 4 rides in last 6 days is awesome but I'm wiped out. Gotta relax the rest of the week for Bakers. Do a light ride on Thursday. Gotta remember to carbo load a bit extra this week though.

Rode Cabin John today and it was in great shape. Schaeffer was pretty damn good yesterday.

We'll see how things go. Better update tomorrow. Today's weather was unreal. Saw 86 Degrees on the way home.

Nice, Nice, Naughty?

WEIRD Frickin weather the last few weeks. The best way I can some it up is that if you are prepared to ride, you may be able to. For me to get in 3 rides in the last week was nearly unheard of since maybe the fall. Yesterday turned out really nice, thursday blew kinda but tuesday was nice.

At Schaeffer Farm yesterday we had the first Ride Leader Clinic. Only had 3 people attend but I feel that any of the 3 now do feel able to lead/organize rides, where I don't think they would have felt comfortable setting up rides on their own before.

Good people.

We then rode the farm doing Yellow, blue, yellow field loop to the cell tower then back up that to yellow then did the orange bypass then back on the blue bypass and back to the lot. FElt good. My 2nd ride up their on the new bike and when it wasn't wet it rode REAL nice compared to the first time when I was slipping around on everything that was wet.

Gonna slip in another good ride today, we're supposed to hit mid to high 70's!!! Gotta decide if I'm going to punish myself and do a Fountain hell visit or go maybe lake ffx. Hmmm.

Stoked for the race coming this weekend, but also kinda scared of the weather, calling for scattered T-storms. Tents/popups are bad things along with being on bikes during t-storms.

Nice, Nice, Naughty?

Friday, April 01, 2011

New Sponsors

New Sponsor - Derma-GU

And my new favorite thing Here!