Whooops there it is

Been a busy bunch of weeks.

Vacation down to OBX was great.  Rode bikes, played/relaxed on the beach, drank beer and wine, flew my kites, almost killed a few people with my BIG kite, ate some awesome food.  J t-boned a car on a bike path at about 5-6 miles an hour (from 16).  Bent the hell outa her bikes front wheel but a replacement and it was mostly good.

Food and Beer/Wine recommendations -
The Brine and Bottle - Wow try the Tuna Carpaccio if it's available and the other food is great also.  Good wines and beer.
Trio - Wow, 15 taps of good to amazing beers, 1 on cask, amazing small plates, sandwiches, etc.  Wish we had tried dinner here but probably would have needed a cab ride home.
The Full Moon Cafe and Brewery - Go to the brewery side.  Great small pub feel.  Solid beers, well done.  Tiny brewery.  Food's pretty good also, did lunch and really enjoyed it after a ride.

Plenty of good beer places if you look but not many offering DARK or Imperial IPA's.  A LOT of Ambers/etc are available for a nice change.  

There were 2 other places that were pretty good but I can't remember the names right now.  However I did want to SLAM a few places.

OBX Brew Station - Beers were lame, food was a bit weird but well done.  My wasabi mashed potatoes were HULK green.  You don't need to add that much food coloring!
Ice Cream Stands (General) - Hersheys and Blue Bunny are not a big deal folks.  How about some REAL store/home made icecream like I get at the northern beaches.

Biking - Pretty good and generally felt safe rode about 50 miles in 3 rides.  Would have been 60 but the car incident.  It was a badly/well hidden drive and the old lady just pulled right on out, J was going a bit fast and not considering the potential for pull outs.

Beaches - Love em, though the undertow/etc could be rough.

Jockey's Ridge State Park - Amazing place to watch sunset, fly smaller kites.  My big 6 foot delta-v stunt kite almost killed a few people who wouldn't get out of the way.  Way too much wind and too big of a kite to fly the night I tried.  I wanna try hang gliding.

Kite Surfing - Expensive ass sport to learn/do.  A one day class series runs 400-500 typically.  Some schools have 2 day schools that run $600 and is the way to go.  Next time maybe.  Watched a ton of this from   The school down near Rodanthe is pretty cool and has good beer.  The food at the cafe is pretty lame though.

Got back from Vakay and started prepping for the Big Summer Picnic only to find - SURPRISE!  It started raining Friday night and didn't really stop till Sunday AM.  Postponed.

Now rescheduled for Rosaryville on Aug 12.  Don't think we are going to get a huge turnout.

We've been averaging 25 rides over the summer since W@W started and that's up again from last year we were pulling maybe 20. Trying to get back into road also on the CX, my mileage really died in July due to the heat/etc.  Going running tonight though.

Did a big bunch of bike maintenance this last week and it payed off, the MTB is riding nice and not making tons of creaking/etc.

Olympics have been pretty good so far, looking forward to MTB and BMX.

Oy who loves their bike?

Well I got a chance to love mine yesterday. I blew off the Rosey ride as honestly 100 extra miles of driving round trip was going to lead to someone ending up on the 11 o'clock news. And not in a good way.

So I did a near work ride and got in 11 or so miles. Even did some 1 mile sprints. God I suck. I have no REAL power and my sustained ability sucks. 3:25 and 3:34 were my times. Admittedly a mtn bike ain't no road bike, but still thats slow to me. I never did timed miles back when i used to ride Baylands a lot but I did do shorter sprints and I know I used to crack speeds for short term of 25+. I see near 23 as best. Ugh. More "ROAD" work ahead.

It was a good ride, I felt about 75% calmer and less like doing unspeakable acts upon certain people.

In geek news I got to play the new Mass Effect 3 demo last night after the ride and was very impressed. Good buy cruel March rides, I shall see you again in April...or May.

Gotta finalize my Fla trip today for March. Hoping to Santos with my Bro and see what other trouble we can get into. Gator Nationals that Sunday then who knows?

Great bit from Bike 198.

A Wee Breeze

Got out and road with Chris after work up the WO&D for about 6 miles. Crazy mix of wind on the way out. Slogging along on the fat tires was a hard bit of work. Especially being off the bike for almost 3 weeks. UGH. The way back was fun though. We rolled back in a LOT less time. Saw a few joggers and a few commuters out. Maybe 6. Sure it wasn't single track, but you take what you can get. I wish this damn snow would finish melting.

Next time I plan to hit that BBQ place along the way for sure!

Lots of Beer, Not so much biking.

Lots of Good Beer had lately, while at the Big Hunt on Saturday Night I got to try the following brews:

allagash Black - Nice belgian/stout'ish mutant with large notes of coffee. I thought it was pretty good, it was on draft in a nice chalice type glass. Not much head. Sweet.

Victory Hop Wallop - Yah this was a nice hoppy Victory brew that was hoppy on the nose and on the tongue with a nice balance. A bit of maltiness and for how high the alcohol content was not very noticable. Drinkable as hell.

New Holland Cabin Fever Brown - Not bad mild brown, not much nuttiness but a nice level of malt and other stuff, only had a sip of the wife's.

note - STAY THE HELL AWAY from the home brands at the hunt, wife had a Hefe style and it was SKUNK'd. Either the lines were gross on that puppy or the keg was dead Jim.

Also noted that Kramer books has some real nice beers in the cafe, headed back there soon for sure!

Today would have been a nice nice day for a bike ride but I am at home TCB and such. I am hoping to hit the gym again starting this week. It's been A LONG time.

Anyone got good plans for New Year?

No Tubes, Better than I thought.

My new wheels I got last month (newsed) make use of stans no tubes system. The rear wheel has held pressure very well most of the time, but the front has been a real pain, often deflating entirely in 12 hours or less and loosing a good bit over 3 hours, even while riding.

So I picked up a container of Stans recently and Monday I finally took the time to reseal the tire. Actually Sunday while brewing I undid one side of the bead and took that side off the rim. I then removed as much of the dried goo from the edge area on the tire and the rim as possible. Monday I added 2 very full measuring things of Stans. I sealed it up and with a bit of work re-inflated it to 35lbs. I then spent 10 mins doing a VERY thorough job of their shake and turn procedure to seal the tire/rim and any holes. I then did 2 long cycles of the laying it on the side, then I repeated the shaking and side laying. I inflated it to 40 lbs and remounted it on the bike. And when I rechecked this morning, Viola! Tire was super solid still. I'm gonna drop the pressure and ride tonight and see how it does.

Then I just need to get that front break adjusted in right!

Biking Week!

Busy week for biking, I didn't end up hitting my thursday ride due to being tired from taking the wife to the airport early and storms coming in that evening. I did ride friday doing the monthly Little Bennett night ride. We rode almost 15 miles though my gps log only shows 12 due to me forgetting to turn it back on once we went out for a last lap up the first big climb and back down loggers. I did crash and burn on a small stump. Around then I somehow lost my damn glasses! Argh. I didn't need em I shoulda left em in the car. So the next morning I rolled outa the house in the same gear at 5:30 and started riding again near 6. I covered almost all the same ground and looked around the 3 spots I figured I could have lost them in as well as possible. No sign. Oh well ended upp with another hour and fifteen minutes of ride time for 9 miles.

So not bad that made it a nice 36 miles. Today I tacked on a pair more and made it a nice 38 miles. Those 2 miles were trial miles. Trying out a new change to the bike.... I finally switched to blood clipless. Yep. I got a set of TIME Atac XE's on Saturday and tried on a number of shoes. They were all to wide and slipped off. So today I went back out on the shoe hunt. Tried on a lot of stuff and still didn't find the right fit. So I treked out to columbia to hit race pace, the nearest Sidi MTB center. I'd tried the regular dominator 5 and it was a bit to wide. The guy in here right away hits me with a 6 series Eagle. Has the new heel securing system. Tighten it right edown and wam feels good. Plus they have half sizes and the 46.5 fits the best in the front/side that I've tried. 47 felt too huge. 46 a bit tight.

So i got home, installed the new pedals. Installed the cleats. Tried on one shoe and tried cruising around the basement. Hmm not bad. Tried the other. Not bad. Off to the lawn. Tool around a bit in the lawn....not bad foot commes out okay. A few adjustments. Better. A pair of laps around the neighborhood. Good start.

Tommorow I'm gonna try and hit damn cabin john. After picking J up at the airport and a physical...hmmm well see..

First Ride at Wakefield

Yesterday I went out and rode wakefield for the first time. It was hotter than a frickin blast oven but it wasn't unbearable as a LOT of it was shaded. Boy it was a fun ride. Nice pump track section, managable climbs, and a lot of nice trail. My one bitch point was how bad the armor'd/rock'd section before you re enter the woods after the big descent from the powerline etc is. God I was wishing for magic f/s by my third lap.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3056791

Creek trail is pretty nice and shaded and is pretty well managed. From all the confusion on our boards (www.more-mtb.org) another good future project could be a trail/map system like we have on Schaeffer. Though the blazes are quite good especially with the added race markers.

Felt pretty good until my final lap, ran outa gas a bit but more I think as a function of lack of energy. Need to make sure i get a good meal in a bit before I ride. Also a clean/dry/cool post-ride shirt would be smart.

Happy Trails!

Monday Ride

So after fighting on parts and stuff I re-greased my jockey/chainwheels and finally hit the road around 2 yesterday. I ended up only going up to Schaeffer Farm but still had a good and enjoyable ride. I did 9 miles out there in a bit over an hour. Not a great pace but not horrid. I spent a lot of time figuring out lines and what features I could handle and what I couldn't. Normally I'd be pushing to get outagain to even just Cabin John but we've got a pile or three of things going on this week, and I need to set my schedule, so we'll see.

Schaeffer is a rolling slightly winding stretch of singletrack in Germantown MD and its a good series of trails. Their are 2 or 3 loops, though the main trail (yellow) has a loop at the end of an out and back that can be varied by taking side trails (ORange and Blue). Kudos to MORE for providing an excellent riding spot. I hope to be able to contribute some trail work sometime this spring.

Bike Maintanence

Oh the other hand my free year of support from my bike shop is now over and I've got to do it or pay the $$. So on my ride home yesterday I heard a LOT of chain/gear noise and new that it was high time for a good cleaning.

My chain and Jockey Wheels were disgusting. The cassette and front sprockets were varying stages of gross. So off came the chain. Got it good and clean but used up the last of my finishline de-greaser and my jockey wheels were gross and all. So out they came and they were bad. I'm gonna either have to re-grease them or replace em. A lot of grit and stuff inside the metal covers on em. So I'm gonna go by City Bikes on the way home for some advice.

Monday I'm off to either Greenbriar (Checked out the race course) or to Shaeffer - Just ride like hell. :)

See ya'll on the trails!

Woot for Nice Weather!

Thank the weather god for nice weather returning to DC. I was going stircrazy in general, and especially in wanting to hit some trails on my Sunday/Monday days off. Well the weather was nice, traffic wasn't too bad and so I've officially opened my cycling season (EastCoastStyle) as of Friday April 20.

I got home re-kitted out the bike, my car and myself and drove to my launch point a mile or so away from teh WOD Trail. I bombed the steps down from McAuthur Blvd near the bridge down to the trail only having to walk the 3 worst steps (GRRR!). A few adjustments later I was off down the trail. My pace at first was a nice and solid 17 or so till almost little falls. I let up a bit then and averaged down to 15 slowly by the time I hit George Town. A quick stretch break and I was headed back. I dropped down to the capital cresent and hauled ass back up the trail following some roadies, holding 17-18 for a while. A detour to Little Falls went for about 10-15 minutes of wheelie practice. Some of my better wheelies. Still can't go as far/fast as I want. But it was better. I need to work on my 1/4 crank and balance drills a bit. A quick rest stop and it was back up the rest of the way. 16.5 miles round trip in about an hour 10. Nice ride and felt pretty good.

Soon I will start loading my rides from the GPS data to Motion Based but the basic tool from Garmin isn't bad I just wish it's mapping was better (Overlay onto perhaps googlemaps instead of its own). My heart rate was solidly in zone 4 for most of the ride so I'm pleased again. (Vs when I went spinning for the first time Wednesday and was in oh zone 5 the whole frickin time).
Being able to watch my cadence/hr when riding especially on flats is very good for my training goals currently.

Getting back in the Fit

This winter wasn't a total loss as far as my general conditioning and such but it wasn't as strong as I would have liked it. With being sick from the end of November thru much of december it really took all the headway I had going in out.

Finally about 2-3 weeks ago I made the spring bend. It started with a couple of bike rides on warmer days then 2 weeks ago Jen and I did an epic (for us post hibernation season) 12 mile hike up in Northbay out to a cool waterfall. A bit of offroading of the bike led me into a series of fixes that finally have my bike just now straight from (Tire Replacement, Cable Replacement, and a few other things). So this week I decided to really make the bend.

Sunday I hiked up Mission Peak in Fremont CA. The 3.3 up hike took me about an hour and 20 mins with some heavy pauses to stretch my back and legs. But the views and breeze at the tops of the rises were amazing. Hot as hell that afternoon. The down time took longer due to a few calls from an upset Jen. But I will say cell service was very good there! I polished off almost 2 liters of water on that one.

Monday I hiked around a bunch of east bay after shipping jen's car to DC. A 3 mile hike to the bart station at bayfaire and then a mile home after getting back to the MV station a few hour later.

Today (Tues) I finally road my bike into work again. Yep the crazy biker is back out at 4AM in good ole MV. At least for a few more weeks. The ride there and back isn't much a bit over 2 on the way in and 1.8 or so back on the trail. Boy were my legs tired and I felt wimpy as hell. Then this afternoon I hit the exerbike for another 20 mins and then walked/jogged for 30 more. Gonna feel it tommorow, I just have to burn through and at least walk again if not go for a bike ride.

I feel good but tired!