Busy Busy Bee

Another busy week in the books.

The ride on Thursday was good and bad, the ride leader took a MASSIVE spill in a last little rut after avoiding all the huge ones involving at least 2 bounces. He ended up bailing out somewhat early. The rest of the group spun out for the whoop-de-doos on white. After making the hella nasty climb up the fire road we ran into a woman and 2 dogs. We greeted and moved on. At the next intersection we realized she was with us without the dogs. We questioned and she said she thought they were with us, and we thought they were with her. UGh. 2 riders took off to try and track the dogs down to bring them back. I was sweeper on the ride and frustrated, then the rest of the group wanted to get going as it was darkening. So I said I'd wait a few more minutes i waited 5 and no sign of em so I marked the trail direction I took as best I could and took off. I caught up to the group a bit later and so did the husband of the dog hunting pair who thought his wife would be a long....no sign. We rode out at near dark and found no sign of her at the lot. so I told the ride boss who said she'd just been here. So i strapped on the new light (its awesome) and headed out to the main intersection with the husband in tow. Eventually I asked if she had a cell phone with her and had husband call her and tell her to come back. She did make it back7 or 8 minutes after the call. We headed out to dogfish head for brew and sandwhich. Damn good.

Monday I rode up at Little bennet. The first climb up loggers trail is hell. A couple other climbs also sucked a bit but still a damn neat place to ride, got to rail some nice downhills and flet that my line choice was pretty good. Excluding a couple hidden piles of horse crap.

Today I'm gonna try and hit the gym but we'll see...Also moving a mirror home today. UGH!

Thursday I may skip Schaeffer as i"m doing Little bennett on friday with lights. Unless rain is more threatening as of thursday 5pm ish.

Saturday we head up in the afternoon to Stokesville for the VIMBA epic weekend. Just got a new tent and stuff so I'm stoked!

Too Bike or Not to Bike

No biking Monday due to having to go to work for meetings and having one of the cats put to sleep. Yuck.

Tuesday - No biking but J and I got to the gym and had good runs. But alas no biking again.

Wednesday - I finally did some good maintenance to the ride yesterday including adjusting both the front and rear brake's, fixing the front tire (it was on backwards!), cleaning it, re greasing one of the outside bits of the bracket, replaced my grips, and added the new bracket for the light system. Oh and gave the chain a good cleaning and lubing. Cleaned and lubed the entire drive train really. I spray a bit of silicon lube on the rings after cleaning. Seems to help it run even smoother. But boy was it a ton of work! Damn grips! :) Windex is you friend during installs. After trying these new WTB Dual compounds for a while I want to try some of the new ergon grips coming out in june. Sweet.

Thursday at Schaeffer tonight if the weather cooperates again. Right now I'm feeling good that it will. Then a run to dogfish hopefully afterwards.....hmmm gotta print directions.

Cake etc

Wow, we saw Cake last night at Pier 6 in Baltimore. Good show. Too bad it wasn't a double set or longer. My wife and I came up with at least 8 or 9 songs between us that we both would have liked to have heard. Oh well. Interesting bit of news from the show is they are out of their old record deal, back on their own label and have a new album out/on the way. And that now that they are on their own label they won't ever be doing anymore Radio or TV stuff. Only place we'll hear about em is on their site or email list. Pretty cool.

Thursday night I went out to Schaeffer again and boy did I suck. It was really a triple threat of sucky things that kept me down:
1 No fuel in the Afternoon = No Fuel for Riding in the evening. I have to eat something around 4pm or so in order to have good energy for the ride.
2 Front Tires mounted in Wrong Way - I suspected it last week and confirmed it this week, my front tire is mounted in the reverse/wrong direction. I'll fix that today.
3 Saddle Blues - I started playing with my seat the week before. Didn't notice it really on the ride Monday but by the end of Thursday night my seat felt way outa whack. I may have crackd it or something. But I did see how I need to adjust it a bit to be further forward a bit and tilted just a bit down.
4 - Hey! - My brakes are in need of adjustment. HA! Got the new pads in from AEBike yesterday and now I'll replace the old and see if that helps a bit. Right now they are really all or nothing and that was after I adjusted em as before to get em to work at all I had to pull em back almost to the damn bar!

Large group at schaeffer, we started out with no casual ride and a 10-12 person 'tweener led by Dave. We started on white and looped clockwise, then took the loopdy loop cut off and then went into yellow. 2/3'rd of the way thru 4 of us in the back broke off and road out at casual pace. Damn good ride, another month and I"ll be riding the tweener regularly.

Time's Flying

Wow, time's been flying this month.

Lots of reasons, really pretty busy in general. I got 3 rides in last week including Cabin John tuesday and then Thursday I hooked up for the MORE Thursday ride at Schaeffer Farms and rode with the casual group. It was a good ride. Give me a month or more and I hope to be riding sometimes with the intermediate. Got back up there this monday and rode the white then yellow trails in an hour and twenty five minutes. I was pretty stoked, as it was with very little resting while riding.

Last week was a bit frustrating as I had both tires get leaks after my Tuesday at CJ. Boy was I suprised on Wednesday evening when I went down to prep for Thursday and saw the flats. The rear was slow enough I just waited to fix it till Friday. The front tire wasn't so good. So a quick stop by German Town cycles and Adam hooked me up by boring out the stem hole to fit schraeder valves which is all he had the big tubes I needed in. I also finally picked up a sweet floor pump and a new pair of gloves. All good purchases.

And I love my new HOSS shorts for style and general comfort. Still need to get the strapping/closure system a bit better adjusted but they are very cool and fit great.

Hoss Shorts Review

Last week I got a pair of Hoss Technical Gear - Ponderosa Camo print. My wife commented while modeling them for her that they looked "Sexy" on me. Well anytime bike shorts get that and not, "Your wearing a diaper under there!" I'm pleased. I took them out Sunday for a brief ride into downtown bethesda for brunch. Very comfortable is my initial thought. The closure system is pretty cool and the pocket setup is VERY nice. I like the zippered ones a LOT! The chamois needs a bit of conditioning so I treated it and hopefully this afternoon I'll be able to put another ride on it, then really beat it up Thursday out at Schaeffer.

Overall I'm very happy with them and I think there an excellent value.

More on these in the next couple weeks.

Ultra-crazo-ness.

Perhaps one of the best Ultrarun/marathon stories I've read:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/why-we-compete/2007/04/curiosity_1.html

Truly it makes considering that next loop a little extra painless....

Didn't get around to riding this weekend due to the never ending allergy hell and various things needed to be done, so as soon as I get home from work I'm going to Cabin John.