Yuck
That is the only word to fit the commute this morning. 34 and cold rain. Yuck.
No Snow. No Ice. Studded tires. Bad Shifting (errr cassette not properly torqued I suspect) and brakes? What Brakes! the rotors on the 2 wheel sets are...radically different. Like hugely. I could barely get the discs in between the pads. The rotors on the main set must be near EOL on thin-ness. Holy crap.
Day 13 - Patience is a virtue.
Off to re-tune my pad spacing, at least it's easy with TRP cable discs.
Down in the FLA for the big bird day this week. Not too bad honestly. Though ask me after round 2 of christmas light work today and I may have a different answer.
What is the saying about the watched pot never boiling, same goes for bikes:
Hopefully the hit the green light on this and get up to speed post holidays. Should be here before the fatman rolls in next month so I understand. Hoping to get it by mid-month to get some solid epic rides in over the holidaze.
Was hoping to get a longer ride in today, probably limited to some neighborhood hot laps. Hopefully I start the GPS this time. Missed almost first 4 miles on the ride on Monday. Stupid watch GPS. :)
Just had a moment to spend pondering my commutes this year so far. Today was my 69th day of commuting in by bike. I generally work 2 days a week where I can commute, 1 at VA Office where I can't and 2 at home.
I figure out of 52 weeks in a year, 2 are out due to holidays, 2 to vacations, 2 to travel/events, and 2 to truly nasty weather. 46 Weeks would be 92 Rides. So mod to 90 rides. This year I should be at 75 to almost 80 depending on how I stretch things. With more travel and a few other things on the horizon (Meeting offsite tomorrow on a normal commute day for one).
Put a new waxed chain on Betty earlier this week, on the CX bike it's been amazing so far. It's soo much cleaner.
But MTB will be the test, the old GX 12 Speed chain was a bit over due at 540 miles in a bit over a year. I can see I may try and get more MTB riding in especially this winter in MoCo. We shall see.
It's also time to re-lube the waxed chain on CX bike, its at over 400+ miles since july and it's due! Got a bottle of Silca Super Secret Stuff and will dope it this week. No commute tomorrow and off to see an awesome show tonight. Woot.
204 on Friday. Not shabby.
Fall is flying past already and I'm not sure where the 2nd half of summer went honestly from July thru September.
Some of it was travel, great trip to Bos to hit up a work conference. Great to see ole beanie town and get in a few runs. Got to see Weezer at the MGM Music Hall as part of the conference. Wow!
Decent year riding so far, 200+ activities logged. 61 commutes by bike as of today. Hopefully to hit 75 days of commuting. It would be like what a 1.5 to 1.75 avg when you drop out a few commutes due to holidays/travel weeks/etc. Next year 80? We'll see how winter goes as that's what really slows the numbers down Jan thru early Mar. 1722 miles logged YTD in Strava, so not sure I will hit my 2k goal, but
Garnin logged as follows so far, though the "walking",
| Type | Distance |
| Cycling | 1711.2 |
| Hiking | 18.96 |
| Other | 15.96 |
| Running | 7.89 |
| Walking | 9.44 |
| Grand Total | 1763.45 |
Weight - Floating a solid two ohhhh eat. Not terrible. I'm going to try and focus up a tad more and solidly get down to 205 or less before the holidaze.
The world is truly a strange and in someways unrecognizable place these days. Embrace kindness. Question everything. Persuasion/Compliance is everywhere! :P It's an in joke.
Also if your in the DC area highly recommend the newly re-opened Milken Center for Advancement of the American Dream. It's right near the whitehouse. Some really cool info and amazing art, and other stuff. And the building is really amazing.
New Bike FY2026 - The New Commuter - TBD. Mainly something capable of Racks, Fenders, Bigger Tires and a bit larger than the ole RXC. The RXC is probably still a great CX bike but I haven't raced CX since 2017 or 2018 maybe. New bike adventures await and next summer not having to have a sweaty backpack back will be a REAL nice thing.
Doing plugs on side mount V6? SUUUUUCK. Especially the back side. Even more when you drop the last plug and socket into the pan underneath. Many bad words.
Blerhg is useful for some things like looking back at Rain.
2015 was the last blockbuster year that included the W@W nearly catastrophe race with major flooding washing people down the run towards Accotink creek.
Near Wakefield we see
May 2025: 7.82 Inches
June 2025: 5.48 Inches
July 2025: 4.58 Inches (14 days!).
So in the last 75 days? 17.88 Inches - Average per day .238 of an inch, or .75 inches every 3rd day!
Not quite at 2015 levels but if july continues like this we could be way above 20 inches, I think at the end of august we were in the 25 inch range.
Accotink Creek flooded 2x to the 8ft mark in the previous 2 days:
Plan B again on Thursday the 17th, with highs in the 90's? UGH tastic.
1 Tree down on the DC/MD CCT on the way into work, will it be fixed by the ride home?
It's summer time here in the Nation's Capitol, unfortunately. We had one of the most mild (and kinda rainy) springs in years. Nice weather mostly till mid-June. I think our latest 90F day at Dulles in 15 years or more. Lots of awesome days commuting in for work on the 2 wheel freedom machine. And some days of getting rained on. Oh well.
Now in mid-July'ish we got thru one of the nicest 4th of july days that I can ever remember with low humidity in high's in low 80's! So frickin nice. Now were' back in the heat and storms. Honestly next days look more like how I remember Florida in the 90's with heat driven afternoon storms.
What Weight? 209 as of last Friday. Le sigh. Damn you brownies!
Other Things?
Dirty Soda Mix from Coffee Mate finally tried. Sadly I might say Crush and the Orange/Cream one may be better than Dr.P and Coconut Lime. Maybe a higher concentration on the Dr.P. I'll try it this weekend again. 1 Small Can plus 1 ounce on both at first. Will try at maybe 1.5 oz to the small can. On Ice for sure in addition to chilled can.
Brownies Madness 2025
Brownie madness competition in June was a surprise. Kenji Alt Lopez most recent simplified form of his brownie mix was the CLEAR winner. Brian Lagerstrom's were good, but had an off flavor at first, maybe from cooking spray or the wrong olive oil used. Will re-cook. Death Brownies from Chef Steps, still damn amazing, but for the level of effort? Not really worth it honestly. With Kenji's being easy to do in 25 minutes+baking+cooling - Yep. Brian's is also quick if you can setup your Mis-en-plas and rock it. Though probably an hour with some waiting time.
Sunset Photo from my commute home on 8-July-2025 - Post Storms:
Stay Safe, Stay Smart - Shop S-Mart.
Greeting Netizens -
Ultimately this blog is more for myself at this point, really to track the ups and downs of my cycling and food consumption lifestyle of a rockstar in training.
My weight-in tomorrow will hopefully be positive, though I admit I totally broke last night and went with the SLF and Kid-1 to grab some tasty IceCream. The salted peanut butter with chocolate flakes was amazing. 210 for a 2nd week last week was a bummer, but still better than 216,000,000 a few weeks before.
Cold AF on my 2 bike commutes, almost needed to pull out the bigger Woolie's for Wednesday morning, it was somewhere between 27-29 as I bottomed out in the leadup to Georgetown water front. Brrr. I was layered up in a mid-weight smartwool technical with a club ride short sleeve then my pearl wind/water shell. On the way home the sun was out and it felt WAY warmer than the 52!
Thru Mar I was a bit ahead of where I was in 2024 in total logged activities and in mileage. It's kinda interesting as until the start of April when I started with GDub, I was not working other than applying for jobs and while working I'm ahead of that period? Guess the general 2x weekly commutes for 4 rides is pumping things up. And January wasn't the strongest month of riding either.
Spring is here and now I'm looking at Trailwork, I've got some angry beaver work to do at WF for sure in the next week or so, was originally planning today but with potential rain, my beaver doesn't love being all wet (Silly Beaver!) so it stayed home. I did sharpen it's buck teeth on Tuesday. And a new airfilter. I might even put a new sparker in it tomorrow. Also finally got some new wedges after the crazy tree ate 2 of my 3 wedges last fall/winter on upper Phase 1.
Oh well, time to make the donuts, as they say.
Happy Trails and Great Rides, to all!
