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. 

2012 Davis Trip - Part 22/7'ths

The Journey Continues on Disc 9!

Sooo I was back at camp not to past 2PM on Satuday and it was time to enjoy a beer while prepping my EPICAwesome Super Secret Appetizer for the Potluck Battle Royale!  First I had to find something to skewer my food on. Found some small dowels at a general store and soaked em in water.  And the super secret ingredients are:

Bread
Pork
Cheese

Combined with fire and herbs to become Toasted Crusty Break in Olive oil with Rosemary Mozzarella chunks wrapped in Prosciutto, The Pork of the Gods.

Cut up the crusty bread, the best way is to tear it up by hand into un even chunks, but I was being VERY lazy.  Toss a bunch of olive oil and rosemary chopped up on it and let sit, shaking up occasionally.  Seperate Mozz into small pieces/balls.  Then you basically should join together in holy matri-moan-ee the cheese and bread wrapping in a piece of prosciutto then skewer for easy grilling.  Well my skewers failed and I went to simple way.  Piece of bread, piece of cheese ontop and cover with piece of prosciutto.  Grill.  To get melty reuqires too long on the grill directly so after having to reject the first few I went with a quick grill on the open fire then place on foil for finishing while covered also in foil.  Worked pretty well as long as I got the toast right.  Only ended up with 25 good pieces.  OH well. 

Finally potluck is starting a bit after 6, food is out!  Tons of food.  5 picnic tables full pretty much.  Some way amazing, some was average.  Everyone had fun while working on the 2 kegs of beer.  Voting kicked off around 6:50 and by 7:20 the vote was in.  I wasn't even nominated for the final running and here was the organizers thoughts on why several excellent things didn't get nominations.  Not enough of it.  Ran out before everyone got some and no 2nds.  so next time I have to plan for 1.2 to 1.3 times group production. 

During making my dish I opened a bottle of DuClaw's X-1 an Bourbon Barrel Aged - Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter.  Amazing.  One of the best porters I've ever had.  Well balanced, super smooth.  Damn good. 98 on Rate Beer.

After dinner I opened a bottle of Schlafly Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, that for a bourbon barrel stout was very mild interms of bourbon boy whoooo was it rocket fuel, I think 10% and change.  I chilled a bit with various groups sharing some out and eventually went back to my camp area and stoked the fire.  So I added logs, got the fire going good and relaxed.   And I was sleepy.  That nights 4 hours was catching up to me and so I decided to nap for a bit.  And I was asleep from 9:30 till about 11:30 when nature called.  And after a quick mental debate back to bed I went.  Heard the wind a bit and it was starting to chill down but I was toasty warm in the sleeping bag. 

Slept till about 7:15, that was awesome.  Wanted to sleep more but nature called and so it was up into a VERY cold pair of jeans.  Quick walk around the area to warm up a bit and when I was back the other tent's occupants were stirring or at least the wife was.  So I setup the camp stove for breakfast of oatmeal and cocoa and started emptying out the car for re-packing everything.  Car reports 41 degrees.  Joy.  By 9 I was fully packed and ready to roll out.  Quick walk around to chat with folks, help clean up the potluck area and such and I was out at 9:20'ish to park in the overflow lots as we were supposed to be out of camp by noon.  Car was reporting mid 50's at least. 

And then things got ugly.  Thats for tonight or tomorrow in Revenge of the Lost Map of Doom.
Photo stolen from Neil A.

Down with the.....

Pew.  Pew. Pew.  said Curiosity's laser. 

Hack.  Hack.  Hack said Rob's lungs.

Since Wednesday night I've been coming down with something thats going around the office.  Thursday was rough as I was tired from not sleeping well and several very long days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The ride was okay, felt not too bad but a bit easily winded.  Good group and good fun though.  Huge crowd of 35+ riders. 

Friday it all went to hell over night, way more drainage and by Saturday morning I was hacking up new life forms yet to be discovered by Curiosity on Mars.  uGH.  Still sleeping like crap.  Woke around work time on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep so I ended up running errands then doing 3 hours of solo trimming on my trial before the rains came in.  My shoulders are killing me as apparently I had the pack straps mis-adjusted and was rubbing myself the wrong way with it. 

I did get some new extendable clippers that are AWESOME!  with 2+ feet long handles my back is actually fine versus how bad it hurt after my last trimming effort.  Now I just have 3 more sections that need trimming.  Groan.  One of them is pretty short so I may try and get it tonight if it's not raining again.  I should complain about the rain but honestly it's a good thing right now open trails are extremely dry and dusty.

Tonight's real major project assuming I leave work ontime/nearly ontime is to STORE all the picnic left over supplies at the storage ctr.  Then maybe Tuesday after work I will try and return the mega cooler that pork came in leaving me almost done with picnic stuff. 

Gotta plan a fall trip but I'm waiting on seeing how some projects work out and then how J's new roommate works out with the cats.  If she doesn't then my vacation limits for Sept/Oct really change. 

Still bummed I didn't get a ride in Yesterday but there was no way I was doing something epic, being sick like this stinks.  My goal is to have it mostly kicked by the end of this week.

Ramping up for the big 2012 MORE Fall Camping trip to Davis, WV that is about a month away. 

Did sneak in some beers this week of note the Red Hoptober from New Belgium is very tasty.  Also did a 4 beer flight at WF on saturday including DFH Burton Baton, Firestone's Walkers Double DBA, Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter, and Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin.  The first 3 are all Bourbon Barrel aged and were tasty.  The porter was VERY sweet and was honestly my least favorite at the time.  The DDBA was almost too much.  The punkin beer wasn't bad, but with the cold I have I don't know how much I could trust my sense of taste and I had absolutely no nose.  Yesterday I picked up a bottle of Widmer Bro's Kill Devil Brown Ale special release and am really looking forward to it.

WoB - Arlington VA

Hit the new World of Beer in Arlington last night for the grand opening, pretty early a bit before 6.  Killed a bunch of beer and went home to have more.  Nice place as expected.  Food they offer is minimal but they have BGR, BW3 and other stuff near by. 

Rogue Shakespear Stout on Nitro - Super smooth stout, went down sooooo easy.  Well balanced, it's not trying to be one of the Founders mega stouts. 
Troubadour Magma - Belgian IPA - The IPA part is pretty minimal but a good belgian beer.
Terrapin Samurai Krunkles - Jeez I dunno what STYLE this is but it was surprisingly good for a beer with Ginger and Green Tea.  :Not too sweat, but pretty drinkable since I killed most of the tall boy myself. 
Rogue XS Imperial/double Ipa - Wow great IPA, very nice balance of Malt and Hops.  The hop flavor lingered for a LONG time but not in an unpleasant way to me. 

Price is Definitely higher than in orlando by a third or more.  Gotta watch all the prices as some stuff is not a bad deal but other things are BAD like a Flying Dog draft for 9.25!  And it wasn't even one of the special ones like El Dorado or such.

Went home and had a Lagunita's WTF while playing some Left for Dead 2 with a buddy Jeff.  Damn I'm terrible at that game. 

Today I'm off to Gaithersburg to pick up a cargo rack for my car to help haul stuff for the Picnic of Doom on Sunday. 

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.

Newness of Note, rain never ending.

Got to ride the new NEW stuff out at FH on Wednesday after working doing the first 2 loop sections (ending at pick nick tables). That's now almost 6 miles. Compared to just shy of 3.75 miles 2 years ago before the first project started and now that the RTP grant work is nearing completion. I think it will be near 6.5 by the time they finish.

The new stuff leading up to and after Jackrabbit Run is going to be sick as it compresses down and gets FAST. The berms are REALLY nicely done.

There does need to be some re-work done especially on PTD's stuff on the Shockabily lead up and a bit of the bypass.

Rained enough yesterday I wasn't down for another CCT ride and didn't want to try chasing Larry around on his vintage '83 Canondale. My legs were tired and I got a LOT of work done on finishing up the 2011 Ride Lists. Hoping to finish the 1st half one today and start normalizing tonight/tomorrow.

Did get to try another CoCoNut Porter, still digging it. Also tried the DFH Pearl Jam beer, a nice mild Belgian ale, the currants were really not noticeable to my palate. Well done beer. Very approachable for Belgian style.

Snow inbound on Sunday the question is to stay local, semi-local or go farther afield and try some skiing. Not sure yet.

Beers, Bikes and Broncos

Congrats to that Nutter up in Denver and his buddies for sending the Steelers home for the rest of the season. But don't get your hopes up Bronco's fan. It was close and a better running team will beat them. Will it be New England? Maybe.

Had some excellent beer this weekend of note, but no pictures.
Widmer's Galaxy Hopped Barleywine - On Draft - Wow it was good and smooth, excellent balance for a 10%. Good malt flavor not overly alcohol forward.
Legend Barleywine - on Draft - Only had a taste but it was super impressive, but at 15% ABV it's an asskicker. That puts it in wine range, meaning a pint is like drinking about 3 glasses of wine aka - legally sloshed. Even a snifter is pushing it.
Founder's Porter - On Draft - The coffee notes seem bigger on draft, more roasty, but still my favorite porter.
Founder Imperial Stout - Bottled - This was just crazy awesome, I'm glad I picked up 2 4 packs so as to stretch out my supply into summer along with Breakfast Stout, however I think that the Imperial is better. Breakfast is almost too complex to drink at all but breakfast honestly.

On the homebrew front tonight I'll try and roast the peanuts for my PB Choco Stout. I've got plenty of supplies so I should be able to make a mistake or two. Green peanuts are NASTY! Honestly waiting for Snow for doing the next beer. 2nd gen Snow Day IPA. Gonna half and half it I think half normal, half raspberry.

Biking wise I didn't do as well as I wanted this week but I did get in 2 rides, a bit longer one at Wakefield running near 2 hours total with pre-ride on Thursday. The trails were pretty good. Then Sunday it was a Laurel Hill day, got in a full loop with return via Giles Meadow in just over an hour for near 12 miles.

Riding this week is looking Paved. Possible rain today, possible rain on Wednesday. Ugh. Double UGH even. Busy week at work and around the area this week. Though I am successfully managing my current nerd addiction pretty well (SW The Old Republic).

Rock and Roll is Goot for the Soul

Busy week with a complete lack of biking so far. Still a bit bummed I missed out on the big Elizabeth's Furnace ride Sunday but stuff had to get done. Sigh.

Monday had a board meeting that I forgot about due to being stuck at work till 7. Oops.

Tuesday was beer racking and prep for today's feast at work.

And last night was Kid Rock. Hell yah! Damn good show at The Filmore in Silver Spring. No strippers though. He did have 2 nice looking backup singers. Maybe not on this sort of tour. New about half the songs. Kinda surprising in that I own 0 Kid Rock albums and I think I have 2 mp3's. Crowd was good and into it. No mosh pits was somewhat surprising.

Feeling it a bit this morning also, had 5 beers and a shot last night between 6 and 11. Peg Leg Stout, Old Jock Wee Heavy, Troegs Javahead Stout, Smuttynose Brown Ale, then a Sam Adams actually at the filmore and the shot of Tequila.

Off to finish prepping for the feast at work.

Weekend Fail

This weekend ended up as a cycling epic fail. Saturday wasn't bad but I had to go to a performance of my wife's up in College park. And she was feeling sick so I spent the rest of the weekend helping her a bit around the house. We threw out a ton of expired food (2+ or more years in some cases). We cleaned out a bunch of stuff and got the house caught up so she can have the maid service in this week for a full cleaning before she is out of town for the launch next week of the Mars Science Lab.

We did watch a really cool special on Spirit and Opportunity rovers from NOVA, Mars, Dead or Alive. VEry cool.

Missed out on EF. Kinda bummed but the extra rest was nice.

Had another awesome brunch also at 8407 Kitchen in Silver Spring. Tasty. Even had a Flying Dog Imperial Pumpkin. Pretty tasty. Not overly pumpkin flavored, but lots of spice.

It was a good ride.

So finally on Sunday I was able to pull the bike out and try and figure out what the hell was going on with my "ghost shifting" issue. Had to wash a good bit of mud off the bike. Wiped it down and inspecting the rear d I found the issue, the shift cable was about 3/4 frayed/snapped. Oy!

Over to TBL Springfield I went and the guys got me fixed up real quick. Though the shop guy did note my chain is getting close to warn out and that my rear gear set is pretty chewed up. Not unexpected. Fortunately I have a new rear gear set that I won at the MORE Winter party for 20-20-25 trail work. And it's a WAY nicer one that came with the bike. Tempted to also go ahead and replace the triple at that time, but I really would like to go to a 2x instead of the 3x but that requires a new front derailleur and shifter also in addition to the crankset and it's just not in the budget I guess.

So after getting the bike back to rideable I headed out for a quick tour of good ole Laurel Hill. Nice fun to zip around the place. Didn't feel great at first, couldn't generate power and was tired at the end. Argh, gotta ride more. The washouts were HUGE. The one at the big bridge on Giles was shocking as was the one in the field. The crossing at the bridge one sucked. The weather/temps were amazing. It was SOOOO nice. Though with some of the brambles I would have like to have had my enduro's on.

Hoping to hit Schaeffer tomorrow night but the weather is not looking super happy. With rain possibly tonight and then Thursday is looking like another non riding night. ugh. STOP IT MA NATURE!

GRilled up some steak and sausage when I got home and enjoyed a SixPoint Sweet Action, a tasty brew in can. Check em out.

I Shall Prevail!

I shall prevail and eventually finish my posts of my trip and finish posting my pictures. Today I will upgrade to Flickr(HO) status with a paid account. And I will find time at somepoint this weekend to finish posting up.

Had a damn good night up till the last 20 minutes or so at Wake-O-Tink. Jason M and I did a solid 8 mile'ish preride then I led a fairly large casual group to accotink, we did the gas plant, went along the railroad tracks for a ways, dropped back out on the cinder trail went up to the last entrance before the road and worked our way back. Ricky and Jo split off then, but we met up with Delmar and Sarah who arrived late. Just as we start the new section we put in last fall I hear the dreaded call - FLAT!

Turns out our singlespeed rider had punctured his tire during the emergency stop on the previous climb where I blew the climb and nearly crashed. Poor Neil did crash. After several attempts to fix I sent the others on, we ended up trying 2 tubes, tehe 2nd a road tube that got us another half mile back out before it snake bit and flatted also. So I pushed on with him. Near the Accotink exist I phoned Neil for a pickup for the guy, Neil called back 5 minutes later and the pickup was set. I hauled ass back to the car. They pulled into the lot as I finished changing.

I then got to share the Awesome Awesome Green Man porter from Asheville, NC. Damn good, smooth, and simple. No complex flavors. Damn tasty, I managed 2 cups myself. Also have and Anderson Valley Brewing Summer beer, weird and malty and good. Kinda different.

2 Amy's Review

Went to 2 Amy's last night and had some AWESOME pizza, appetizers, and ice cream and beer!

The wait was 45 minutes when we got there around 8. We went to the bar in the back which was moderately full, but not packed. We surveyed the tasty brews on tap. I opened with Rogue Oatmeal Stout, J had Verdi Imperial Stout. The rogue was good with a nice level of bitter. The verdi was very smooth and complex. I only caught hints of the chili in it.

Verdi Imperial Stout from Birrificio Del Ducato

In about 25 minutes we got sat down up stairs and went on the food offensive. I was starving. We opened with the braised duck and polenta. The duck was a little underwhelming flavor wise. Then a goat cheese and fig jam side plate. Tasty.

We also order a bottle of Demon Hunter. Damn interesting. Smooth, very complex. Not as dark as they made it sound. But it went really well with the App's and the pizza.

Demon Hunter from Birrificio Montegioco

For Pie's we had a traditional Margherita Extra Tomato with mozzarella di bufala, cherry tomatoes and arugula on top, and a Norcia Tomato with salami, grilled peppers, fresh mozzarella, grana. Ahhhh heaven. I wish the crusts were a little firmer/but the edge was excellent.

We finished up with an excellent bowl of Honey ice cream. Super smooth and rich.

Excellent food, interesting beer, tasty small plates. I rate 2 Amy's very highly.

I'll be back!

Why so tired.

Went to Conway Robinson with Tuba yesterday and I started out actually feeling pretty good but a bit in my legs gave up and never recovered. I was grinding hard and WAY more in granny than I should have been. It blew. Ended up with 10 miles and a decent amount of climbing from doing the orange section twice.

Tuba posed his bike in the massive boulder field on a limb and took pictures ending up with him scrambling to the top of a boulder.



So in 9 days of riding this year I've hit 3 parks, and racked up about 40 miles. Not bad but I'm going to push more. This week I'll get Accotink on Thursday, and maybe I'll supplement with Cub Run (non official) on the way home tomorrow. On the nearby radar I've got gambrill's and Bakers Dozen coming up very soon.

Terrapin Side Project #13 - Big Vladyz Russian Imperial Stout - Excellent very smooth/rich on the mouth. Nice big RIS. Forgot to check the ABV. I'm gonna try and find 2 more bottles. 1 to save for a year or more and 1 for whenever.

Beer - OH YAH!

Went down to the liquor store near my parents to pick up a 6 pack of something.

I ended up with 2 six's. One of Terrapin Hopsecutioner and Rogue Mocha Porter. While talking to the beer guy he told me about a new place that was on the other side of the shopping center.

World of Beers. 40 on Tap. 400 bottles. CHEAP! compared to DC. I ended up with a Barnardius Christmas Ale. $7 bucks! HOLY Moly! about a 1/3rd or less cheaper than DC. I'm gonna hit it a few times for sure this week.

W-o-B

Dr.Phillips Current Draft List

Fall in Effect

Amazing ride today with Pete, Sean, Mike, Chris and Martin. Mike and I met with Sean and Pete at WF at 8:15 and we rolled onto LH. I'd never done the final section over to LH from Prospect Rd area. It was nice. We met up with Martin and Chris and rolled all of LH. It was good and I'm modifying my loop to the one Pete led. Much more fun for sure, doing apple orchard the way he did made it feel much longer and funner to ride. Wish I could have done a 2nd lap but in retro-view I think I was cooked. I'm just not up on distance riding. Need to ride more. The return was pretty mellow as we were all feelin it a bit I think. At somepoint my phone ejected from my pack alas.

The Ride-
WF to Laurel Hill and Back by atlantis.rob at Garmin Connect - Details

I rode back about 2 miles towards Accotink looking for it with no luck. I have a few ideas where it might have fallen out. Oh well.

The weather this weekend was amazing. My clothing/layers were perfect for today with the bibs, jersey, fleece on top and leg warmers. The leaves were amazing. Just a great day.

Just enjoyed a biboy of Hopzilla from Terrapin Brewing. Truly smooth and amazing. great blending of hops on the nose and not overwhelming the palate like Two Hearted.

Back to the grill.

Out and In...

The last week of September blew for riding for me with the mix of rain and work stuff. I didn't get out on the bike till Yesterday. And boy did my legs let me know that I sucked. LH half kicked my ass. The other half got clobbered by my seat when I didn't commit to a log over and the seat ass stabbed my right side. A good 16 miles though.

Though on the plus side I have already mastered re-edit TCX files for Garmin from where I stopped to help move/setup the charity ride post ride stuff for 30 minutes. I edited out the non moving time in about 10 minutes. I need to find an xml supporting editor to do it quicker. With collapsible branches editing each lap would be much simpler.

Hopefully I will be able to get back out on Tuesday maybe. If not I'm hoping to get a quick ride in at Cabin John after a trail work meeting on Wednesday. Have to see how the rain goes this week.

Weird weather this year, we basically got thru a hot weekend the last weekend of Sept and then a switch was thrown and we are now really in fall weather.

Tried Founders Nemesis 2010 on Friday on draft and was under impressed other than the fact that the alcohol was not really noticable for a 12% ABV beer. Instead I went with Widmer's Deadlift IPA. Nice but a bit sweet on the finish.

Better Week than expected

Had a good group for TNR and the Casual-ties ran a pretty fast group knocking off 10.5 miles. Toonces/Neil lead a bunch in accotink and showed me a few trails I'd been looking for a while.

He also took a ton of great photo's! Big thanks.

Today I went out and cranked 35 mixed miles of trail/cct/road while tring to find my way to Laurel Hill. Stoopid bad blazing. Missed the turn right after popping out of the town house neighborhood on 7100. Again. Got a ways down Pohick rd but new I was nearing my limit at 25 miles already and turned around. Managed a quick run thru of Accotink on the way back and finished up in the lot. I had wanted to do the bowl but I was toast.

Had some fun cramps at home when I got out of the car. Should have stretched after finishing.

Big thumbs up for Moor Porter from Cisco Brewery in Nantucket. Very smooth with notes of caramel up front and a nice roast finish. Tasted almost like a homebrew!

Riding We Go....Bad Rob

I was a bad ride leader yesterday and blew off part of the Casual Ride group at WF. It was chris, a new girl who was taking it slowly/carefully, and Jason V. I felt bad, but led the other new area rider around showing him all the trails/etc. WF was in pretty good shape and a blast to ride as everything was nice and tacky. I did a 7.5 mile pre ride and ended up with just shy of 17.

The week before i racked up another 8 miles, so for the month as of today I'm at 95 miles, with potentially 3 more ride days available on Sunday, Monday and Thursday again. I'm hoping to crack say maybe 120 to 150. I intend to push like a MOfo pace wise. Hmmm weather indicates Monday may be the day to ride, so I'd still like to break the 120 mark.

Come may I'm going to up the mileage a good bit, hopefully with some other rides.

Had a great beer I hadn't before from Long Trail in Vermont that Sarah brought down called Double Bag, a strong Amber. Very good I wiped it out REALLY fast. Had a Dale's second it was good, especially with Skittles. Chips ahoy however didn't go quite as well. Also had some of Tony's old stout joel found a growler of that was excellent! I think maybe the same one from the Bootleggers Bliss 3.

Current Weight 195 post ride just for my own tracking.

Beers Ahoy!

Had a few other good beers recently that I forgot to mention.

DCTony had his new imperial stout along for tasting, it was super tasty and smooth with real nice balance of hops and malts make it very drinkable with a very smooth mouthfeel/drinking experience. Well done my friend!

Had a FlyingDog Raging bitch tonight on the way home waiting for traffic to die down at Wholefoods. Very nice, and with a hint of candy-sweetnesso of belgian beers against the bitter hops worked suprisingly well.

The new high end counter at the cheese stand is amazing in what they have, stuff like Golden Carlous, Founders Red Rye and a few other monsters I can't remember. Very cool.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I have had some REALLY good beers lately, 2 major standouts

Avery Maharaja 2009, Batch 9. A hop monster with nice malt. Amazing hop balance for how hopped it was. Smelled like gold. Tastee,drank the whole bomber myself on Friday. Felt like crap though the next morning. 10.5%. Hope they make it again this year. Imperial IPA.

Terrapin Brewer (GA, not md suprisingly) Dark Side Belgian Stout - Project beer for them. We had this on Saturday before thisone at Jen's birthday thing and it was amazing! The mouth feel alone was superb, excellent balance. No one thing really jumped out at you like say toast, coffee or chocolate. It was all just damn fine and really strong. Very nice to sip and drink and savor. I got the last bottle WF Fairfax had on Friday. Yeh haw!

Other good beer. Tuppers Hop Pocket, Duck Rabbit Milk Stout (v.nice) and Bells Consecrator Double Bock.

bad beer - Yeungling Double Bock, Butt Wipe wheat, it was on a dare.

Did about 3 hours of cleaning up the north section of cabin john today, some clean up and some prep for the season pruning back annoying plants in bad sections.

Tomorrow I may ride it or work on another section. not sure.