Ooooouuuuchieeeee!

Okay so one of my least favorite experiences got repeated on a bike yesterday.   

 

 

Chain Breaker should be my title at this point in life.  Though I don't think I've had a full chain break like this since maybe 2015 when I got the RXC2 and the chain snapped on it in Accotink while going fairly easy in the first 120 miles on the bike.  This time I was on Fred and this was a fairly new KMC XFlat Pre-Waxed for SRAM AXS 12/13 and again the mileage at failure:

 

140 Miles.   Yep it's also happened on MTB chains back in 10 speed days.    High performance chains versus low performance human who weights more than 150lbs.  Climbing the Ascent Trail at WF on the MTB.   And then when you talk about worn chains?  Oh yah.  I once blew out 3 links in one ride on the MTB during the NoVA Epic back in the day.  I still blame Camp and Wrench as I was following them thru Accotink.... And Camp is my curse, I've also flatted a tubeless front tire while following him too.  

208 Lbers this morning...maybe a bit more on the 209 side, but still I'll call it 208.

Otherwise, a good month for riding hoping to hit the tidal basin and a few other spots tonight to get a solid end into March.    Wednesday has PM storms but then clear the next few days....Good riding other than being overly warm for the start of April.

 

 

Mad Mad March

Not sure how we got to late March from early February when I last posted.  Life?  Job?  Cycling?  Weird Weather?  Volunteering?  

It's all on this list I suppose.   Eating out too much also.  Lets just skip the weight in for this one huh?  I plan to re-weight in on Friday AM and if it's better I'll update then either way... hahaha

 Teasers of Spring and Summer here.  80'ish on Sunday, this morning it was 35'ish riding into work with a high of 50'ish today.  Warming up though.

• Jan 2026 - 15 Hours in 21 Logged activities covering 170 miles
• Feb 2026 - 14 Hours in 18 Logged activities covering 154 miles
• Mar 2026 - 20 Hours in 26 Logged activities covering 206 miles

 Yes thats a bit of it for sure, 6 more hours this month than last and I've got a week to go.  I'm going to go on a limb and predict 32 total activities near 250 miles by end of Tuesday.   Last 2 weeks I've gotten above 60 miles a week which feels awesome.  Riding more has shown real results in my Power.  Power readings are new since I got Fred.   In December - Feb most of my power normalization was 150'ish.  So far in March, I'm hitting at 170.  And my power over time?  I'm consistently pushing forward.   And my Avg power went from 180 in January to about 232 in a 20 minute block.  

 I'm no Lance thats for sure. And I'm glad.

 Major TW projects coming at Wakefield over the next months.   I need to book a day and do a major improvement/cleanup of Phase 4 soon.  Also need a new blade for the Saw...bendy bendy.  sigh.   

 For the first time other than maybe when I last ordered team kits, I've ordered 2 bib shorts.   Oh wow joys of Gmail, last order was in Dec 2015 and before that in spring of 2013!  I think one of the bibs I'm still using dates to the 2013!  oy.