Sunday, October 28, 2012

Zombie.....Time

Wow, time flew this last week and yesterday was the big Zombie Event, Run for Your Lives north of Baltimore.  Up near the md/DE/PA border. 

Left VA around 8:30 and got up there at around 10:30, due to waiting for people we got on buses around 11 and made the 5 mile trek to the event via Cheese Wagon.  Parking in the lot took a long while and I was glad I had a SUV/non small car some of the ruts/etc were pretty deep.

Got to the event and got signed in quick and easy, though I wish they did the ID check at the same time for drinking but at that time the line was long.  Met up with a bunch of Jeff's friends and we had a group of about 8 I think.  We got in the bag check line pronto and made it out by about 11:55.  We opted to stay in our 12:30 heat and waited for 12:10 during that time my buddy from work Tim rolled in and got everything square.  He queued up with us also.  2 fast guys went into the fast chute and were 2 of the first out on course apparently.  The rest of us were halfway in the main course chute.  A couple hundred people.  And the slow people shoot was almost full too I think. 

Out we went at 12:30, though I think it was a minute in before we crossed the timing line.  Right off you dropped a bit and went down into a small flat spot where the first zombies were, a quick sprint and you were past them into a BIG field full of zombies, I made it thru without loosing a flag.  Down and around some more hills to the pipeline crawl where i lost my first flags.  Way too many zombies hanging right at the entrance. 

Then run through some soupy mud and up a hill through another zombie patch where I worked with my flagless side to protect my 2 last flags.  More obstacles including barriers to climb over then 2 more crawling ones (Barb Wire and a V thing.)  Down and around a big hill to a pond.  @#$@$ with a rope across.  Oh well into the water.  Walk and swim across but waited a few mins to pop out the water with the rope.  More Ropes on both sides would help.  UP and out and force myself to start jogging to warm up.  Here's where I lost the last of my group with 2 ahead and a bunch behind.  Climb up then a split I went right and down a very steep section with a powerline climb back up wow.  Missed a good view from the top apparently.  Pushed on down to my last flag now about 5 or 6 obsticles in, end up taking a wrong turn to a dead end with a big group.  FURK! 

Last flag gone and more obstacles now including logs, mudpits and such.  More climbing up and down terrain.  I'm splashing like a bastard feeling okay from the swim finally.  And up out onto the main field.  Time for the smokehouse.   A shocking experience though I managed to steer clear.  Others got hit multiple times and a few went down briefly.  OUt the doors dodging zombies.  Blocking for folks since I've lost my flags.  Up and down through more barriers and it's the climb up to the slide, down the slide into the pool and out.  Then slide under a chainlink fence section and done. 

46 minutes for 3.5 miles of zombies and obstacles.  Not bad in my book.  With more pushing by me I could see myself down in the 30's.  The fastest guy in our group went about 29 minutes, Jeff did 36 and I was 3rd.  Only 1 of 9 of use finished alive and she had a dedicated blocker/partner. 

Afterwards we showered a bit before changing but I was still full of mud.  When I got home it took 20 minutes with a hose to get cloths and shoes mostly clean.  Shoes may need another wash. 

WE got ID'd and grabbed our free beers.  Bands seeemed pretty cool including surf rock Buzzchopper.  We all then decided we wanted real food and rolled out for home.  We hit Frisco Taphouse and Brewery in Columbia MD.  Good food and good beers.  I had a very tasty Flying Dog Chocolate Scare -  a chocolate pumpkin stout from Cask.  Damn good if a tad sweet but one of my favorite pumpkin beers.  Then I had Oskar Blues Bobby Brown Cask also.  Damn nice super smooth and a bit hoppy as you would expect from OB.

Got home around  7 or so and rinsed cloths and shoes witth hose,  put in the wash and vegged out with some anime, and crashed out around 10.  Jeff somehow went out till 2:45. 

Thursday's Wakfeild ride was good we had a ton of riders with 26 or so and 4 groups out.  Casual was 6 I think and nice, we didn't cover much ground since I was saving for Saturday's run but it was good. 

Slip and Slide and .....

Damn good ride last night.  Had a small core group of casual's rolling hard all night, we did over 11 miles in pretty good time.  Ian, Neil, Tony, and now i've forgotten.  ugh.  I'm sooo bad with names these days.

The weather threatened on and off, we got minor sprinkles but it stayed nice and warm the whole ride with the clouds that came in near 4 trapping a lot of the warmth.  I was walking around air drying with my shirt off while I tore down the bike gear and put it away.  Wasn't even cold. 

Did a bit of trimming in a few area's where the thorns were just too long in the back of the berm area. 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hold the Storms, Extra Daylight Please!

Storms coming in tonight, a bit close to ride time.  Grrr hoping to sneak one in till at least 8. 

Still a 40% chance as of 7PM tonight.  Ugh.  Must pre-ride. 

Cool video from the 2012 MoCo Epic last weekend:



Jim does awesome video's for all the clubs big events.  Eventually I think he plans to have a 5 minute version. 

Looking at new locks for JRA/Plan B Rides, etc and found a very interesting type - The Abus Bordo series from germany.  Made like a folding ruler, just a billion times tougher.  The damn things are pricey but seem like an excellent deterant and more easily transportable than a Ulock or a cable lock. 

http://www.abus-bordo.com/html_en/bikelock_bordo_granit_x_plus.html


Monday, October 15, 2012

Bikes for the People

Saw this on Yahoo today and thought it was really cool option for bikes for the poor. 

http://news.yahoo.com/cardboard-bicycle-change-world-says-israeli-inventor-090732689.html

I wish more people in the US got the "power" that bikes offer.  Fitness, outdoors, fun, less gas, etc.  I've been a biker forever.  First as transport from my house to the general store that was 1.5 miles away as a kid.  Transport and Commerce for biking to school and being a paperboy.  And taking a couple of cute girls to school on the handlebars and rack was never a bad thing.  Transport as a teen.  I regret my time away from biking but really blame it on cheap bigbox bikes.  Nothing like banging your knee on your handlebars when a chain snaps to make you hate a bike.  Now I try and commute to work at least 1 or 2 days a week and I ride another 1 or 2 times a week. I'm luck in that 80% of my grocery shopping I can walk to the store and back. 

Hoping to go for another run today but it's looking a bit rainy and the quads are still quite sore.  We shall see.

Tomorrow I might get to do the Little Bennett ride.  We will see if this rain causes it to cancel.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Failure abounds

Last night I've come close to declaring my batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout a complete failure.  I tried a bottle finally but to say it tasted like shit may be generous.  Smelled okay but wow the peanuts just gave it a slightly off/green taste and it's ongoing effervescence bothers the hell out of me.

So on top of that not only do the O's fail and fall to the evil empire of baseball, the Nat's have a choke of epic proportion.  Almost Redskinian.  Maybe Dan Snyder should buy the Nats and the Whizz-ards and make a sweep of it....OH thats right what about the NHL?  I have serious doubts about an NHL season happening.  Even at half a season it's a failure.  BAH.

And now I'm betting my smoked porter thats in the fermenter has failed while I'm at it.  I don't entirely trust bucket fermenting at this point, using glass I never had problems with fermentation.  UGH.

Got a good run in last night but ran weird at first and apparently messed up my middle back again.  Sigh.  Last night and today on the heating pad is helping.

FunkMnkyz show was a semi-bust.  The space was so small the band was doing 2 and 3 man short sets and letting friends bands play.  Plus a late start, I had to leave at midnight since I turn back into Slob Rob then and had to work this morning.  Getting up wasn't as bad as I feared.

Tonight it's the parents and hopefully some better live music action.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Boy that was cold

Last nights ride started out pretty nice.  The sun was up for my tiny pre-ride, but I new it would get pretty cold pretty damn quick last night.  I just didn't realize how damn cold.  I hope this is not a sign of the winter to come.

By the end of the ride Mr.GPS reported 41 degrees.  Car in parking lot reported a slightly warmer 47 degrees.  All I know is I think it may be time to drag out the Lake boots and the heavier gloves.  The fox mid-weights just weren't warm enough and more poor fingers don't need to take anymore abuse.  In an attempt to protect my poor digits into the fall/early winter I'm buying another set of gloves.  This time I'm trying the Gore Xenon 2.  The feet were also suffering so the lakes may be coming back out on nights where we may get 50 or less.  Though admittedly I was wearing a too light sock. 

Still drooling over the 45NRTH Wolvhammer boots.  WANT! 

We had a TON of riders out enjoying the frost fall weather last night with 34 signed in and I think about 12 on each ride at least.  Huh.  Knew I missed a few chumps in the lot!  Trek had a women's group out with 8 demo'ing bikes at night and then there must have been another 10 or 15 riders in various groups.  It was a parking lot at times.  Main casual covered about 8 miles then I took the 3 fastest out for another 25 mins for 4 more miles'ish.  It was a blast.  Always good to ride with the regular's. 

Never heard as much crying though about a little bit of Mud from Ian and then later Neal!  I'm shocked!  Sure I knew that back area of the upper baseball diamonds was bad  :) 

Tonights plan includes Whole Foods, avoiding parents who are in town, and maybe a trip up to JamminJava to see local band FunkMnkyz.  Check em out


Straight outa Burke Baby!

Saturday brings dinner with the parents and hopefully seeing another buddy's band Justice Monkey at Blue Water Grille in Chantilly-ville.


Sunday brings a possible quick trip down to Charlottesville VA to look at some property with my parents. 

For now it's back to work.  Kinda.  :P

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Up and down the EC

Busy weekend for a slightly long one.  Worked late on Saturday, slept like crap.  Missed Sunday ride at the Shjed.  Did make a kick ass breakfast on Sunday to make up for not riding.  Nothing like pancakes with chocolate chips and sausage to make things better.  Especially Maple Sausage.  Sunday afternoon I spent some time running bike related errands for odds and I needed and J needed.  Ended up picking up a Cygolight 400 for her for 90 bucks for night road rides out west and once she gets regularly back here.

Then it was up to MD.  Hung out up there with J for the afternoon/evening watching TV and relaxed, we did go out and get J some new fully finger slightly warmer gloves and she got another pair of shorts and some more, ROAD specific shoes....But we will see. 

And on Monday morning we woke up to on and off rain especially up on the northside where we were planning on riding around near Poolesville.  Ugh.  So after getting a late start we ended up heading into VA and riding the WO&D inwards from Spokes down to the Airport. On the way down we saw Larry and Ernie on their way back from a Hills of Arlington/Airport Loop ride.  Shot the shit for a few minutes and went on. 

14 miles from Spokes down to where the Mt Vernon meets Four Mile Run at DCA.  From there we went north up to the Custis and took that back to E. Falls Church then the WO&D back to Vienna.  We then finally hit Panera for some hot food and back to MD.  A quick powernap was in order and then it was Dinner, Fringe and more TV till 10'ish. 

In today's other fun news I see ole Jerry's got 30 to 60.  This one is for you Jerry.


Friday, October 05, 2012

Well not an epic week for the bike this last week between rain and lazyness.  Got a short 18 miler in last Sunday around the hood.  The week till Thursday was shot due to rain and other factors.  Thursday I got in a pretty good ride probably another 18 miles total.  With today's ride to work and back I should hit 50'ish miles.  Saturday will be an off day, then Sunday I'm seeing about joining a group up at the Shed if it isn't too we, but right now my attendance on that is running about 50% if it is a 9AM start. 

Monday I'm taking the day off and going biking with JS up and around Sugarloaf Mtn.  Planning a 40 to 50 ride.  Found some different loops on RidewithGPS.  I will say I do like the searching interface better than Connect. 

Forgot my gloves for the ride into work.  My hands were almost claws by the time I got to work.  Did ride it in sub 18 minutes moving time.  Not bad for no warmup 4.5 miles.  Won't be that fast on the way back.  Gotta decide if I am running today or not and how far if I am.  Honestly I just wanna take a nap. 

Picked up a 6 of Peg Leg Stout last night.  Damn good.