Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Vermont is SHARP!

Back from a 6 day trip to Vermont.  Hell of a drive but we did well and never had any REALLY bad traffic.  We left DC around 1130'ish after a food stop but due to food and other detours/scenic routes got in at around 11PM after a LATE dinner of beer and chips and salsa.

We got a garage apartment outside of Waitsfield VT.

Next morning we woke up early and we hit The Sweet Spot in Waitsfield for awesome coffee, pastries and food.  Damn good!

Then we got ready and headed off for Perry Hill Trails.  We rode up the huge frickin hill to the top of Joe's trail, then descended it, crazy stuff.  Some beyond me for sure.  Then back up to Burning Spear and down to Rastaman then down Rastaman and back to the car for 10 hard miles.

Will link to the ride HERE later.

Back to town starving. We hit the brewer by Prohibition Pig and had awesome taco's then rolled out.  We ended up finding out about a demo of Yeti at Saxon Hill trail.  We rolled onto that after a quick stop at the house.  Hit that at a bit before 5.  Tons of people.  Took out a SUPER SWEET Yeti 5.5c  X01 setup.  BAD ASS bike, but damn $7k!!!!

Saxon Hills was generally more buff singletrack though there were some big ride features up at the far end.  Rode tons of crazy stuff on the bike with no issue where my HT wouldn't.  It was super plush and pedaled almost like a hardtail once my legs warmed back up.  The way back was super flowy and twisty and a riot.  Tons of boardwalks.  Even some crazy skinny and turning ones.  Just blasted it out.

And we were DONE.  Time for dinner.  We drove back over to Mad River area and up a CRAZY mountain to hit Mad River Barn.  Good food and awesome beer.  Still think we were both food defecited from no dinner the previous night.

Rolled back to the pad and waited for Teresa to show up.  She got in around 10:30 and we chatted till 1230 and planned to shuttle the next day at Tucker Hill just outside Waitsfield.

T rented a Yeti 4.5c from the local shop and up we went we drove my car to the top as it had the rack.  Then the adventure began with another 500 feet of climbing.  Then more on and off climbing.  We ended up back in a HUGE syrup collection field and apparently rode some abandoned/closed trail.   Ooops.  Finally got onto the fire road and finished down cyclone.  1800 feet of descending and 1100 climbing on a shuttled ride is still pretty epic.  I think like 10 miles again.

Ride Linked Here.

Off to Prohobition Pig for an amazing dinner and more beer buying.

More Later.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Sunny Day's and Muddy Buddies

Saturday we had an awesomely warm day, though overcast till 3pm.  I did the airport loop that I hadn't done in a while and it took me probably an additional 30-40 minutes due to how often I had to slowdown/stop/yield/etc for people.

Hordes of people.  Like walking dead hordes.  Just not dead.  Well not all of them.  Even with all the slowassedness I still cut a few achievements including 3rd best time up the Custis.

Sunday was funday.  We rode from the shop down to the C-anal and rode out to Great Fallzor.  It was an epic battle of mud and people.  We nearly got taken out by a group of crazy Chinese tourists that we wandering all over taking photos.  So dirty.  I was definitely feeling the tired.  Then we did 41st street.  And I made it!  20% grade at point, but more typically 8%.  By the time you hit the top of the neighborhood your at near 300ft of climbing in 1.5 miles.

February has been a bit slack for me.  My big week off was a mix of sitting, sleeping and eating.  But very relaxing.  I was definitely over trained in January.  Hoping to get up to 20 hours this month.  Today will get me to 16 or so but unless I rain ride....   Sigh.  Though tomorrow is an off day riding in was so fucking tiring.  Slooooow.

March....Cloudy with a chance of rain.  It's looking like a very wet spring.  Which is better I guess than a very snowy winter.  MTB is going to be rare I think till April at this rate.  In the next 15 days I think it's calling for rain on 7.  Ugh.

But near 600 miles for the year?  Can't complain as at the end of March 2015 I was at 500 miles and 46 hours.

Tonight's project?  Tear down and clean MTB.  Might even do cables if I go nuts.


Monday, February 01, 2016

Goodbye January!

Hello February.

The end of the month with the massive snowstorm made January a bit less epic than I hoped, but a solid early part of the month and some dumb stuff kept me solid.

32 Total Activities, 450 Miles of Cycling, 48 Hours of Activity.  Hiking, Trailwork, Running, Sledding and Shoveling of course rounded out the activities.  Though I did almost CRUSH my entire Jan-Feb-Mar 2015 totals in just January.  That's got me stoked for sure.

Not a lot of LONG rides but lots of riding was good.  Was honestly probably in over trained status by the middle of the month leading up to the storm.  Then the storm and tweaking my back on day 2 of shovel hell left last week pretty light Monday thru Thursday - minus sledding Thursday night.

My back on and off hurts anywhere from barely to moderately.  This getting old crap sucks.  My arm/shoulder still hurts at time from the crash at CCCX in December.  Definitely fractured crap I suspect.  Should have stayed off the bike a bit more but the travel also didn't help.  Strength work at the gym is slowly starting to help a bit also.

Studded tires finally on the CX rig but no where to ride till really today as the WOD wasn't well plowed/melted up this way.  It may finally be passable tomorrow, but I may work from home tomorrow due to never ending meetings/etc starting at 8am.  Can't be late and that would mean leaving house at like 630.  Ain't gonna happen since I'm off to see Muse for at the 5th time I think.  Always an awesome show.

Gotta figure out my team level this year, they raised each level by 5 events.   With MORE stuff and work stuff I may drop back down to Lazy Level or just lead some Monday CX rides at Wakefield-Accotink this spring.  We shall see.

Vacation next week is looking pretty damn good.  No really nasty weather in the next 15 days.

Also got some Black Ops 3 in this weekend and spent some time grinding up from level suck to level less suck (21).  So I could unlock my next SMG of choice.  Pretty fun game once I get my head into it a bit.  I'm still to old/slow to be awesome.