Monday, April 28, 2014

Trail Ouch and Ride Ahhh.

Trailwork yesterday has left me feeling like a burrito that has been riding all day in a bike messangers bag in New York.  We built a BIG ass semi burmed new turn.  By digging 3 massive dirt pits.  My teammate on the dig and I dug the biggest and deepest we got 5 feet deep in most of it.  I offered to bury some people in it, but alas was turned down.  There is also a nice half mile of new trail leading up to it.  At some point we will be forced to close the old trail section on the railroad property but not yet.  With 17 people out we got a TON done.  It's always surprising to see what big groups can do.

Looks like I'll be leading/co-leading a work day on May 10 at Wakefield.  Wakka Wakka Wakka as fozzy bear would say.

Riding my ass off the last 2 weeks.  7 hours ish of cycling the last 3 weeks.  Plus technically 4 hours of trailwork yesterday.  I'm a beast.  Slowly building fitness back but speed at least on the commute hasn't come but legs are TIRED.  Gonna try and get in a run tonight before it rains.  Tomorrow maybe a rest day or maybe Wednesday.  Not sure.  I'll be at 28/29 hours for the month not counting trail work as of tonight (33 with) which will  mean I flat out did as much time doing stuff in april as I did in the ENTIRE 1st quarter of 15+8+12 or very nearly. 

Just found out I'm getting screwed out of Spring Man Camp by a training class that just got moved to Tue-Fri instead of Mon-Thurs.  Fuck.  Fuckity Fuck.

Maybe I'll try Kill Bill on Saturday. hahahaha or at least the 1st third. 

Monday, April 14, 2014

To Shjed or not to Shjed.

Solid weekend in the books.   Friday was a well needed rest day.  Saturday we did a Shed Epic 24/25 miles of  the Fred-neck Waterless Shed.  For having gotten a bit of rain overnight it was REALLY dry.  We did a bunch of trails including Dave's, Huggy, Lawn Mower, EF, Trail of Tears, No-Longer-Knucklebuster, Hairway to Steven, and at Sallamander I bailed for the road ride back to Hamburg lot.  Got a pretty good sunburn on that.  Ugh. 

We cleaned up and hit Tex Mex place in Frederick then picked up b33r and rolled on down to S'leesburg for a few hours of socialization at the Bakers Dozen.  Almost was sad to not be riding it while watching people go roundy round. 

Spent Sunday catching up on some house stuff then helping a friend fix her house after some windows were installed.  I also helped her dispose of my old TV I had given her for her bedroom some years ago when I got my LCD.  The TV was from July 1990 according to the manufacturer sticker. I did have it repaired once while I was living in Tallahassee in 2001 or 2002 I think but other than that it still mostly  worked.  But it was a big huge power sucking monstrosity.  Weighted maybe 75lbs or more.  Was a big 24 or 26 inch.  My arms and shoulders are SORE. 

Riding into work today was rough.  With sore shoulders and legs I didn't spin out or run on yesterday it was a battle at first plus a solid headwind from the west SUCKED.  After today's commute and maybe a short run tonight, I will have my most active month since December and I will be on pace to hit my best month of last Sept at 31 hours. 

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

That late in the season push.

Last week marked the start of the late in the spring season push.  Due to March's entire suck-ass-ed-ness (I'm ordering studded tires this spring/summer for next year), I'm just now starting to up my fitness push.

Jan - 15 Hours, 154M, 14 Activities
Feb - 8 Hours, 87M, 8 Activities
Mar - 12 Hours, 112M, 13 Activities
Apr - 7 Hours, 72M, 8 Activities, plus 1/15/1 for today's commute once it's logged.

Since starting on Strava last year I avg 23/265/19 and peaked in Sept with 31/420/21

April has to be a BIG month for me.  May brings Man Campage in NC with the fella's.  That's a season definer.

June is the NoVA epic, and my annual MTB trip.  To where?  I dunno.  NY?  VT?  Camp and Ride. 
20 Activities a month is pretty sustainable.  25 is my goal.  Though unless I continue 3x a week commuting ALL year my 250 goal is a bit of a stretch.  Especially now that I'm working 5 days a week instead of 6.

Big options this weekend, hoping for a shjed ride on Saturday.  Then either a 40 mile gravel ride with Pete on Sunday or epic cleanout at J's.

Monday, April 07, 2014

MORE mechanicals 2014 - A weekend rules.

The Weekend is coming.   In just 4  more days I will have 2 days off again.  Woke up at normal work time on Saturday but rolled back over and managed to sleep till 730 when the 3 beers from the night before demanded I really get up or burst like Grampa Simspon on the way back from the Duff theme park.

Errands and shit most of saturday.  It was actually a pretty busy day.  Finally replaced the old Motorola Droid with a new HTC One M8.  It's bad ass.  A tad large but otherwise I totally dig it.  Battery life rocks, sunday I played music, web surfer, facebook, mapped and took photo's while trail riding and at 10:30 (15+ hours) had 55% left.  Versus the old phone would have MAYBE been at 10% with similar usage.

New pads in the rear of the MTB made a huge difference, though the grabby/rub at first sucked some of my soul out on Sunday.

Went up to Gambrill on Sunday to do Punga's ride and had a great time the first half then one of the riders rear hub started failing and so I went back to the lot with him.  7 Miles total, we were lucky he could road ride back, just no real coasting or chain suck went horribly.  Went down and picked up some specialty Rye for a friend at an MD liquor store and then hit the 2 northern sections of CJ.  I didn't do the lollipop off of the Goya area but did everything else though I didn't ride back on trails due to running a bit late. 

Grilled up some steak, salmon and sausages to cap off a solid weekend.

Tomorrow it's back on the bike for commuting. 

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Not Dead Yet

After innumerable viewings of Better of Dead this winter (nothing else to do, it was too snowy/rainy/cold) to generally ride my bike more than 1 day a week), I got back on the commute horse today.  Well back on the Volpe and rolled into work.

Holy Sheet.  I'm #@@$@ outa shape.  Or my legs aren't used to that!   My layering was also not optimal or being outa shape is making me VERY sweaty.  I was in tights, bib shorts,  long sleeve wooly and a jacket at 44'ish and I was sweaty as a pig when I got to work, next time I go wooly and sleeveless vest and 3/4 light pants.    The bigger question is boots versus shoes with toe covers.  I'm leaning towards the toe covers. 

In other news I'm tracking my b33r/drink intake for April to try and reduce a bit. Or set a reduction goal.  For now I'm at 2.  I really didn't mean to have the 2nd one last night!  Honest!  The Perennial Sump Coffee stout is great with nice coffee/chocolate balance.  Founders Nitro Oatmeal Stout is just smooth as hell. 

For the first time in 8.5 years almost I'm going to have a regular Sat-Sun weekend starting this weekend.  Road bike ride on Saturday morning and MTB on Sunday with Punga at Gambrill.  Hell yah! 

Now if only the rains would slow down.