Trimmed

Also did a bit of trimming at WF and accotink. At WF it was only near the big HILL on the creek trail where the briars were out of control.

At accotink I did a bunch on the 2nd part of boyscout and then also cleared the lower exit/entrance near the paved path in accotink it was WAY overgrown and I was tired of fighting the overgrowth.

Back In.

well The gear I tried to order 2 weeks ago turns out that I was too late and they didn't have as much in stock as they thought. I optioned to cancel the order for now. No biggie, as I still have no bike to put it on.

So after an insanely wet Thursday CCT ride 2 weeks ago I rebuilt the Giant the next weekend. While trying to install the new RearD, I realized that something was very wrong. The 2010 X9 is a POS! The cage is WAY to flexy/bendy I was suffering from chain jump in any outbound/inbound gearings (chain was coming off the bottom pulley) And I could never get the damn thing adjusted near a 6mm gap using the b-nuckle. I've installed 4 or 5 rearD over the last year or two for myself and friends and NEVER had problems like this. Hell my old x9's I"d just hold together and adjust to similar look and 10 minutes of fine tuning on the bike be done.

However I do think I have my best adjustment on shifting in a LONG time on the bike currently. Shifted great last night under load or normally.

Did 20 miles last night 9 by myself before of WF and Accotink then rode with Jackson's casual group for another 10. then did a final mile in the dark myself to break 20.

Wanted to ride into work today but I was way tired and didn't get up in time...Weak. Maybe friday. Tomorrow I have AC guy in the morning. ugh. but fixed AC is good.

Sales of Love

I just got a sale flyer from Jensen and ordered some PIMPED out SLX 2011 crank and cogset. Now I just need a chain. May just use the existing one that will come on the bike. Though I Prefer to be prepared and use SRAM chains so that the power links will always work. Vs maybe/maybe not that Shi!mano chains seem to yield.

Now I just need the bike to go along with parts. Maybe in the next 2 weeks I suppose.

Lots of TW not so much riding

This is the time for insane trail work apparently. We did a WF one today and made major fixes to the destroyed power station descent. We fixed major rutting and put in 3 minor grade reversals/rolling dips to help get more water off the trail. We need to build one more somewhere in the first area though to get the worst off. Also teams weed whacked the powerlines and trimmed the bowl entirely. That will be very nice!

Last week I did an epic 6 hour trail ride/work binge at CJ and boy was i wiped out after wards. Only got in 1 other ride last week at WF and that was a bit of bummer as we hung around WF and I wanted to to Accotink. So I think I had 26 miles last week and this week will like be the same as I only got 13 miles after wards today. Unless I do W@W or hit FH on Tuesday or something but we have a lot of t-storms in the forecast for this week so who knows?

Still not sure if I'm gonna try and do the curse of dark hollow next weekend. Wait and see I guess.

Full Sail's Session black is excellent and very drinkable, I enjoyed it while doing laundry last night and watching The Girl with a dragon tattoo, very cool.

Long Day Done

Went out a bit later than I wanted today for some Ad-Hoc Trailwork on Cabin John. When I'd visited a few weeks ago it was starting to get bad. Well the goya drive section was real bad. 1 mile of trail took me almost 3 hours alone to trim. Though I also did saw out the better part of one tree with a folding hand saw.

I got to about 1/4 of the way into the section to river rd at around 6:30 and decided to be done, rode out to River Rd and headed back. To towel down and pick the wyf up from here trip to NYC this weekend. Ran out of water crossing the powerlines near the baseball fields.

Quick rinse off in the bathroom at CJ of my head arms and torso and I was done. 13.5 miles of riding and probably walked 6 or 7 I figure in pruning/trimming. Still need to do the last .9 miles from river rd up to near uhm watchama-call it. Though the first .3 miles from river rd in doesn't need much, just one spot where there is a log down, and the ride around is in the bushes.

Maybe one day after work this week. We'll see.

I love the Sugoi RS bibs. Best money ever spent. Also traded in a recent gift and a gift card from the hols at City Sports on a posh new set of Oakley Jawbones. Sweet! Need to order some clear lenses for night riding stat.

TNR - Hot as H3ll Ed

Another warm nite tonight, not as warm supposedly as yesterday but pre-ride it felt WAY worse in the WF lot. Once out and riding it was better though. Even felt a few cool'ish breezes.

I had a rough incident pre-ride with a cliff bar gone wrong. Nearly hurled a few times. Not fun. Got a coke at WF and it helped a bunch. After a 2.5 mile spin I felt human and was able to lead a pretty snappy casual group of what was 7 riders but due to an early flat ended up at 5 including me-self.

We did a pretty epic loop at Accotink and only rode a tiny bit of the creek trail at the end. It's already getting dark earlier and I'm fucking bummed out. I've been really enjoy using no light the last few weeks. In the next month I intend to keep it up but will have to think about charging it soon. ugh.

Everyone had pretty good rides it seemed. Another good TNR.

Lake Fairfax Fun!

Finally got out to Lake Fairfax and followed the intermediate pace group around the trail last night, the new stuff out there is really pretty burly! Some good size ups and downs with logs makes it kinda tough. We then blazed out to Difficult run I think and back. Or maybe it was thru Wolf Trap stream park. I'll ask next time. It was the 7.5 mile out and back we dropped 1 section of single track on the way back and ended with 14.7 miles. I drank almost 60 oz of water I think. IT wasn't bad except in the lot and crossing major streets. Felt good to push my pace, I might be able to lead an intermediate minus in the future at wakefield without it being casual ++. 10.2 avg though that was due to the fact we flew on some sections of the CCT.

2 Moderate wrecks on the ride, 1st on the return was crossing that is apparently very bad normally and has some bad log/limb armoring, the guy tried to go thru some dips/gullys and basically endo/side crashed narrowly avoiding the log. The second guy went down in some gravel on a turn.

Lots of semi-gnarly gravel along the trails. I almost lost it once as I was riding to forward.

Looking forward to much torture and misery at WF tonight.

Another Slowwwwwwwwwww week

Last week was a slow riding week, 1 day of cycling to work, 1 night of riding, 14 miles. So last week was a 21 mile week.

This week I snuck out to Trail Work at Rosaryville yesterday and pickup up 5.5 miles while riding and clipping. Then I went ahead and blasted out a lap in what I think is a new record for me in 53 minutes, avg just over 10 mph. It was a hoot. I figure with the clipping and walking I did another 2 miles at least clearing trails. not bad. it was pretty miserable by the end when I finished around 2.

Rehydrated on the way home and enjoyed a nice Founder Scotch Ale afterwards.

Thinging about Lake FFX on Wednesday. We'll see.

Riding in Hell

DAMN it's stupid hot here in the capital.

Thursday I eecked out another 14 miles and Sunday I went nuts and pulled my first sucessful double of FH without cramping/dieing for a final 16 miles, putting me at around 45 for last week. Not shabby. Still not commuting to work much but reports are out that the heat is going to start relaxing in the next day or two!

SO hot on sunday the first lap the heat was miserable. The 2nd it was less noticable it felt probably because I was soaking at that point. Even a fall didn't bother me. Made it up a couple good hills and in both laps I never got passed and passed a few people. Moving times on the first lap was 1:05 and 2nd was 1:10. Not super fast but getting faster. week after this my goal is to move to 3 laps at FH.

Normalcy is not an Option

Things are in a semi-state of Normalcy right now, work has calmed a bit versus the last 3 weeks of 60-70 hour work weeks, I might only hit 55 hours this week on 6 days.

I got out for my first extra ride of the week last night at Wakefield and we got soaked by a very brief thunder storm. My bike was super muddy by the end. Spent 30 minutes cleaning it off last night after the drive home. It had dried up enough to be able to wipe most of the crud off. Still need to clean the chain fully though, gotta find where I stashed the degreazer.

New bike on order also finally. Moving up to Big Wheels (tm).



Just kidding but it is a big wheel bike (29'r) the new 2011 Trek Paragon by Gary Fisher. Not sure that I really care about the ending of the official brand of Gary Fisher and it now being a line of bikes for trek. Thats really how I've seen it for the last 2 years as tech from one has been very obvious in the other, especially 2010.

2011 Trek/GF Paragon

Upgrading the Cassette, Cranks and Chain will be the first things. Along with probably the stem and maybe the bars. Also it will start off being tubeless. Not sure on the 29-2 tires, I really think I may go with the XDX up front to start with, as I've had excellent luck/life out of the one on my Giant. The 10spd rear mech is also a bit of a question. When I do upgrade I will probably go 24-34 upfront and drop the 44T ring for a bashguard. Though I'll keep a spare 44 for those days when you want to mount a BIG GEAR!

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!

To New Bike or to Craigslist

Well due to a glut of OT, and a few odd factors I appear to be on the verge of getting my new ride. Shocking I know.

Now the tough question. I have in my budget of general X enough to cover a Gary Fisher Paragon, from this year that is a pretty nice bike with damn good components (fox f29 rlc, x9 gear, elixir 5). I could easily move all this stuff over to a MCR later if I don't end up loving the thing. Excellent local support via The Bike Lane.

Or I found a good deal on an MCR on craigslist.
Fox Fork (info requested), tubeless on stans rims, hyrdos(i.r.) thompson stem/seatpost for a bit less $$ than the paragon.
CONS - Used, unknown source, cash deal (versus a it of CC to offset quick pocket hit), no idea who built it. Having that local support is nice for warranty/etc.
It's been on craigslist for a while so I might be able to levrage the price down a bit more. I think it's been up on there since late May.

Final CON on MCR - Root Beer might become the official color of Thursday Night at Wakefield.

Steel is Real.

Fridays I'm insane

Great ride last night trails were in fab shape due to Toonces hard work and the very dry heat of yesterday. I blasted a quick race look with Mike and Adam preriding then lead 4-5 other adventurers out onto a 8 mileish casual adventure. We warmed up on the creektrail, hit most of the bowl, then did the race course mostly including phase 4 which is in much better shape now. Did some skills sections in the phase 4. then creek trailed out. Nice nite for a ride.

Woke up late and tired and didn't ride in today. Still ATC I'm at around 33 miles for the week. I'll ride tomorrow for sure. That will push me to 40.

Work is killing me. And not softly. More like BOHICA.

New set of bib shorts on order from REI to lower usage on my poor felt set.

New Week good riding

Off to a better start this week by riding tonight at CJ and racking up a respectable 13 miles. Not bad for a back to back with Sundays FH visit. I'll do the short versionn into work, giving myself 8 miles of riding then. Wednesday due to storms looks to be a wash unfortunately, but who knows. I have high hopes for being back at Wake-o-tink on Thursday.

Got to figure an ad hoc trail day for CJ to do some trimming in a few area's and I have a tree down that must be removed. busy busy.

Slow Week

Due to work stuff, rain/storm threats and such last week was a SLOW start to June with a whopping 16 miles, in 2 rides. An extra-sized work loop on Tuesday and Sunday I got out and road FountainHell. It was miserable for the first half as I kept feeling breakfast about to return, the bad way. I need to finish eating at least an hour before riding somewhere like that. And I only took 1 water bottle with me. It wasn't really enough, by the I really had to regulate and when I got to the car I drank about 12 ounces straight off.

Today I'm going to hit Cabin John after an appointment at 3:30. Hopefully the rain yesterday will have dried up mostly. Would be nice to roll out 12-16 miles tonight to start the new week. Hopefully we'll have better weather also, as things look now.

Big Finish

Well I'm pushing thru in the last day of March to increase my riding/mileage. This week I will be near 50 miles in the last 7 days. Tue and Wed I road in for 14.6 miles, picked up 16.4 at Wakefield on Thursday. Yesterday I rolled another 12 at Laurel Hill. Today I racked 7+4 on my commute to total out at 53 for the week.

That would put me at 114 miles for the month. Not too shabby considering I was bikeless for a week and change.

Also danced like a fiend at a good friends wedding on Saturday, things we're really just getting going when it had to end at 10! Great tunes from the dj. Bowie, Cure, lots of good old alt/progessive.

Tick Tick Boom

Well got my first tick today.

Riding up to my car drop point. Riding near some tall grass near Westfields High. Wasn't even in the grass and all of a sudden I feel something scuttling on my leg and look down! TICK! Pick him off and flicked him off into the road. Take that you damn vermin!

Nice day for a ride otherwise. Even passed a ton of people and my new trick saves me I think about 15 minutes versus how I used to get to 66 via 28.

BTW Day

Well I got the bike fully back together Wednesday evening after the parts came in on Tuesday. The front D change/adjustment took a while so that's my wimpy excuse for not getting it done Tuesday. Wednesday I took a casual spin around the hood to test it out and made a few small follow up adjustments. Just a mile or a bit more.

So last night I hit WF but just wasn't feeling it really. Did a 6 mile preride but felt off my game. Racked up another 8 with the casual group but it was a somewhat light weight considering a 3+ miles of that was the over and back to Accotink. We even wrapped a bit early for the first time in a few weeks finishing up at 8:20.

Got to enjoy some tasty brews thanks to Bandit and SteveO. The terrapin brown ipa was very tasty as was Steve0's Lagunita's WTF.

I'll pick up another 7 today. Still having a pretty good month for being off the bike for basically a week and change.

68 miles for me this month.

Blame it on the Rain

AARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can only blame my wife for this, I was working on cleaning up a Karaoke song for her, Put the Blame on Mame sung by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1945), when while checking the weather for the week my twisted mind morphed it into Milli Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain! ARGH! Can I get my head lopped off now. ARGH. One of my best friends sisters loved them during their heyday. I heard that album all the bloody time while watching PPV WWF in the early 90's! SUCK! And nothings clearing it out right now!

New brakes should be in tomorrow night, plenty of time to set them up for Thursday with all this rain, no riding Tuesday I'm sure and wednesday's looking non-good either.

Fuel Ex 8

Borrowed a sweet Trek Fuel Ex 8 from Todd and Anne at The Bike Lane for last nights Thursday night ride. Casual group was not super casual. We rocked down a solid 12 miles ish even with fairly regular regroup stops. We did all of Accotink in both directions then did the all of the Bowl, creek trail to phase 1 to powerlines, down the berms and then back up the final section of powerlines to finish around 8:40. Ended up hanging around in the 'lot till around 9:30. Good times.

The Fuel was a very different ride as it was my first Full Suspension in probably 3+ years on trail (Vs some light monkeying around in parking lots). It was sized large and I needed to raise the seat I think another inch or maybe 2 over where I had it for most of the ride. Also a setback seatpost would give me a hair more rear balance. In general the balance of the bike felt weird with all the extra weight of the rear suspension/plus sag was odd for sure. But when riding flat/twisty non drop/up terrain the damn thing flew! It tracked super nice. I had some speed sprint sections where it felt like a sled just keep going faster. Doing boyscout on the way out was a blast as were powerlines, creek trail, etc.

I REALLY want to try out a HT/Steel Niner or such. Maybe I'll pester scud to borrow his SIR9 I think it is.