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

No...... No ..... No.....

No .... today. No .... today.

Big riding week so far, after today I will have 4 rides in 5 days. By Sunday I will have racked almost 10 hours on the bike this week.

Unfortunately the standard maxim is holding true. We are in for 3 days of XXXX next week on Monday thru Wednesday at least. UGH.

Got a quick spin in Centerville after work so as to enjoy the last of the light and great temps again yesterday. Found the remains of the Manassas Gap Railroad that I've heard of before here are some photo's of the marker and a pair of what I assume are bridge foundations.





Wasn't really planning on riding nearly 10 miles yesterday but it was too nice to stop after only 3 or 4 to turn around so I just kept spinning. Started cooling down noticeably again at the end. Yep it went from 71 to 53 by the end of the ride last night.

Tuesday's ride was logged as dropping from 55 to 41. Yeoch! No wonder I felt frickin freezing when I was done, as soggy/sweaty as I was.

Got a real nice semi-sunset shot. Gotta see if the high res is useful as a new header here.

Now if only I can get in a good ride tonight at WF. Not looking for huge length but a good spin, as I've got a BIG ride on Sunday out at Elizabeth Furnace.

Fro-zone and Where's the Snow?

I was lead to believe we would have some snow on the ground today.

Alas there was no fluffy white stuff on the ground out in Chantilly-ville. It was still a fun change to ride in and surprisingly I had my layers almost perfect. Nice 3.5 miles. So with 14 yesterday at Wake and 9 at Greenbriar Sunday I'll be at 30 at least for the new year. Maybe I'll even go nuts and ride in again tomorrow to push towards 40 for the week.

Wakefield is a damn rutted mess. When I started riding at 5:45 yesterday there were still a number of softspots. By 7:30 I think everything was frozen. At ride start it was around 30. By the time we were done I think it was 28. Some serious ruts out in the powerlines/phase 2 and on the creek trail. Also the powerstation descent is a horrible mess. TONS of riders out I think we had 20 signatures but I know a few late arrivals never signed in.

PLB's were quality time as TBL had brought out the heaters again. Todd and Anne rock! We had a few and then a Jefferson chaser. After wards 'roys was empty really.

Frozen for Life

Finally got to ride trails at WF last night. Forest trails were mostly fine excluding Salamander. A big mud hole has been put in Phase 4 near the S-Curve. Phase2/3 powerlines were a mess up until they froze later in the ride. By 7:45 they were mostly solid. People have been riding in general when its WAY too soft out there. Lots of ruts.

We were doing Scud's retirement ride so we started out as one HUGE group of 16-17'ish riders I think but after 40 mins I couldn't hold pace and didn't want to keep holding the group back so I dropped and had DC Tony take over as sweep.

Route as I went.
Back Edge of Bowl (495) to Creek side to Front of Bowl (WF Road), Under Road to CCT to Creek TRail to Phase 1 to Race Course Creek trail to far end, up access path to back edge of powerlines, to phase 4 to CCT. (DROP)
I then rode by myself
Ascent Hill, Berms, Reverse on Phase 1 Outside (Berm Side), Berms, Phase 1, Phase 4, Phase 1 Outside,Salemander Bypass, Ascent, Berms, CCT to Race Climb to Reversed Rusted Truck.

Near 12 miles. Not bad for an hour and twenty minutes. Probably a bit less counting warming up also.

Wakey Wakey.

I was stoked to be out and riding again last night. I was kitted out, early and ready to ride. Or mostly ready. I prepped the bike and a few others were ready and the ride boss took us out on a bit late pre-ride at 6:20'ish. We road a LOT of the trails in about 25 mins and it was sweet. It was all frozen we could ride the whole thing. Nice! It had been a while since we could ride much/any of phase 2.

I went back out with the casual group, Punga was leading but he was blowing us all away, after intermediate passed us we told him to hit the bricks :P and the slow ride slowed down. Over on phase 2 I bit it on 2 switchbacks in a row. I've never had problems with either of these and blam. After riding more of 2 we transitioned back into the woods and after a small climb. POW. My damn chain broke. Fortunetly it wasn't under load but it still sucked. I had to walk/coast out. Took me 10 mins to catch my group as at first I thought it was just a dropped chain. I couldn't get the new quick link in and said it was time to roll home. Everyone else rolled back in then. The 20 degree temps were assuring a short night. Probably an hour 20 to an hour 30 for most rides that night. The trails were blazingly fast though and that was cool.

My left knee/lower leg is a bit messed up from my first crash which happened on the preride in a really st00pid way.

May try and ride at little bennett tonight, depends on if the wife is otu with friends and when I can get off work. Also gotta see if my guy here can do a quick adjustment on my rear derail, as it appears the cable stretch is mostly done now.
Adn damn, stupid sram pc-991 is pissing me off for breaking. It isn't even hollowpin. The damn plates just pulled away from the pin. Gonna try and get a swap out maybe sunday or monday.