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

Sore and Tired

I felt all beat up yesterday, at first I thought from riding Fountainhead. But then I had an epiphany. Fountainhead isn't that rough anymore excluding 2 spots really. So why was I sore? I pondered this for many hours till my light bulb went on. Viola!

I spent about an hour and a half on Tuesday wrestling with our 2 big projects and trying to change the lamps in them. This involves human contortion-ism to climb under the screens, under the projects and then laying on the beams/supports at a VERY uncomfortable angle and then undoing the back plate, fans, and such. Due to issues with bulbs I got to do it 4 times. Argh. If I assume the standing version of the position I was in my body starts complaining loudly.

Fountainhead from where we parked was 11.03 miles. My gps only came up with 8.74. On the cyclecomputer I averaged just above 7.1 miles per hour. Not stunningly fast but not slow either.

Wake-o-Tink again today. Looking forward on trying to push maybe 20+ miles today but we'll see.

Gotta start getting ready for the Big PA trip in May.

Allergy Hell.

Woke up this morning with a most lovely scratchy throat and my eyes feeling like I took a few "fun" punches from Mike Tyson back in his glory days. Swollen and itchy to say the least.

So it was off to the Midget to get food and allergy drugs this morning on the way to work. Now I'm enjoying a light and admittedly tasteless Bob Evans breakfast thing. I can now also see my monitors at work, so that's a win!

Last nights WF/AT ride turned out better than I thought it would. I was feeling REALLY un-motivated on the way to the ride and when I first got there, so my pre-ride didn't even start till just before 6. My legs felt okay but I just didn't have the "Go forth and conquer" spirit. Apparently though once the group portion started I changed into my alter ego, Hell Ride Leader and nearly at one point caught up to the Intermediates. OOps. A bit fast.

We rode Accotink in a slightly new way for me and as we were running out of time/light I cut us out to the gravel a bit early and we ended up taking the long way back and was it dark by the time we got under the Braddock Rd bridge. Too bad I didn't have my lights! Oops back to the car for my headlamp. And off I went.

Finished up with Punga, JoJo and a new guy who I can't remember his name. Technically new guy is wrong, he lead casual a number of years ago after Pete B quit. He's just getting back in after a while out.

The Gemini Xera continues to impress me. It was fine for riding WF on medium by itself last night. Did notice it was a tad warm but hey temps are WAY up also. Not like it's 50 or 40 out at night now.

I've gotta start making myself shower at night, not just fall into bed and pass out.

This weekend is looking pretty light on the biking front due to incoming weather and commitments to doing stuff, was hoping for a ride down in DC on Sunday but who knows.

Good Week of riding

Even though it was a short week, last week was a good week of riding. Thursday I got in near 15 miles at Wakefield and yesterday I went north to The Shed and did close to 20. Though the GPS says 16.3, my other friend logged 17.3 with push less and moving a bit faster. I'm going to guess on top of that it dropped at least 10% if not 20%.

Had a ton of mechanicals include 2 flats or was it 3. Plus a destroyed derailleur hanger at the start of Rock Candy. Fortunately the gent had a spare.

Neat day to ride started off VERY foggy and wet. I was soaked pretty well thru the morning, but once we started to head back up the mountain towards vandal things were pretty clear and drying. Vandal was mostly dry. I feel like I even got some sun on my neck!

This week may be a bit rough for getting rides due to scattered storms. I've got paperwork stuff to do tonight on FSA catch up for 2011. But it is staying warm. Stuff is sooooo green already.

Thursday is BACK!

And we are back after 7 weeks of being shut out at WF for trail rides, we had almost 20 riders out for great conditions yesterday. Trails were near perfect, fast. a hint of tackiness in corners. Damn. The rollers on the power line were FAST!. Did phase 4 2x. Ended up with 10+ miles with the casual group at Wakefield on a semi late start.

Did a bunch of Accotink but my gps was paused apparently for a lot of it. ugh. ugh. ugh. Felt a bit stronger over there, climbed the damn Dam climb with no real problems for the first time and made the other climb that had stumped me on 1st try for most of last season.

Probably 45 miles so far this week and I may get to do FH with the WF Krewe on Saturday since I'm off.

I'm looking forward to kicking back with a good dinner and a brew tonight.

Cold Crisp - Yep OCT Wakefield TNR

Got out nice and early to Wake, and was nearly ready to roll with a few quick tasks.

The new gear bag is super nice, keeps the clean clothes for post ride away from the dirty bike gear. Dynastar Cargo Bag - Post ride I can put the wet/nasty/dirty post ride clothes in a couple different area's to keep them from contaminating extra clothes or picking up more nasty mud crap. Another great steepandcheap find, getting it shipped for $100 bucks.

I blasted over to Accotink with Doug Vinson, we had a blast riding Gas Plant to the new trail section and down the way and came back Boyscout. I pushed a bit more than casual pace for sure. Sorry Doug!


Then it was time for the night ride, at this point only the fast guys had a chance to ride Accotink very briefly and they took off at 6:40. We may have a 6:30 group next week if people want to ride the big A. Otherwise it's pre-ride only now.

Wakefield was drying up nicely, only some wet spots that tend to hold water in corners/low area's. But the damage done by the rains is shocking. Started of with 9 followers in casual but by 7:45 we had dropped 5 due to lights/cold/etc. By 8 it was just me and another guy, we got in another good loop doing a bunch of stuff in reverse order. Rides started out around 70 degrees, by the end of the ride it was near 50! Had good layers/setup, have to remember it.

Good times in the lot post ride, then nachos and good food at Kilroy's.

Wet and Wild

Got out to Wakefield with moderately high hopes of riding single track. The first section I did of Rusted Truck was okay, and then I hit lower phase 1, not good, then creek trails, not good, phase 4 lower half, under water. The bowl, upper area's were dry, but by halfway down things went from moist to very wet. Terrible, walked back out. CCT around WF was a mess honestly also.

No one out for a ride, everyone apparently saw Neil's late post but me :( Fail me. Ended up doing CCT North and getting very wet and dirty. Ugh. Saw a few random riders around, tried to talk 2 late arrivals out of riding but they weren't listening. I hope they enjoyed sliding down hills in the mud.

Probably late today or Saturday before WF is actually good to ride.

This weekend I've got a lot of options for stuff to do on Sunday. Lake Fairfax trail work, Pump Track Grand Opening at Rockburn, a couple ride options. So much to do, so little time!

And I get to wash my bike again, in just recon WF last night it got muddier than in 20 miles of riding the week before.

I Shall Prevail!

I shall prevail and eventually finish my posts of my trip and finish posting my pictures. Today I will upgrade to Flickr(HO) status with a paid account. And I will find time at somepoint this weekend to finish posting up.

Had a damn good night up till the last 20 minutes or so at Wake-O-Tink. Jason M and I did a solid 8 mile'ish preride then I led a fairly large casual group to accotink, we did the gas plant, went along the railroad tracks for a ways, dropped back out on the cinder trail went up to the last entrance before the road and worked our way back. Ricky and Jo split off then, but we met up with Delmar and Sarah who arrived late. Just as we start the new section we put in last fall I hear the dreaded call - FLAT!

Turns out our singlespeed rider had punctured his tire during the emergency stop on the previous climb where I blew the climb and nearly crashed. Poor Neil did crash. After several attempts to fix I sent the others on, we ended up trying 2 tubes, tehe 2nd a road tube that got us another half mile back out before it snake bit and flatted also. So I pushed on with him. Near the Accotink exist I phoned Neil for a pickup for the guy, Neil called back 5 minutes later and the pickup was set. I hauled ass back to the car. They pulled into the lot as I finished changing.

I then got to share the Awesome Awesome Green Man porter from Asheville, NC. Damn good, smooth, and simple. No complex flavors. Damn tasty, I managed 2 cups myself. Also have and Anderson Valley Brewing Summer beer, weird and malty and good. Kinda different.

Blast Away!

Damn good night out on the trails yesterday after work. Got to WF just before 5, geared up and rolled out. I did a quick tour of WF then trucked over to hit Accotink quick before the main ride, and surprisingly made it back in good time! Felt pretty good that first lap. Did it somewhat in reverse for the main ride where we went to Accotink first, did only the front half, then we back-tracked to WF, and rode more trails. General most things were in pretty good shape excluding 495 after the berms and 495 before the berms due to construction. The lower entrance to Phase 4 was a mess, till you got the the 1st rock garden.

Great weather, warm and dry with a nice breeze at first, but a bit chilly when I left the lot just after 9:45. No 'roys for me I was a tired buck-a-roo. GPS logged 19.3 so I figure close to 22 actual miles.

Big ole group after wards as it was Steve-O's birthday for Cinco-de-Steve-O. We enjoyed cupcakes and a wide variety of PLB's. My wimpy dinner of Muscle MIlk and the cupcakes went very well, but having 2 cupcakes was a bit counter productive. GRRRR.

Right now the plan is to brew again tomorrow, then hopefully get in a solid ride at Patapsco on Sunday. However if it's looking rainy I may sneak of to Gambril's/The Shed and see if I can find anyone up there. If I don't brew Saturday then definetely Monday.

Ready, Set, Rain then Go

25 Hours from the big race start and the nerves are starting to flare just a bit but I'm practicing mindfullness of The Force(TM)(R)(C), and keeping all thoughts positive.

Had a good but pretty short ride at WF of a logged 7.5 miles so I'll round up to 8. Kept the HR out of Zone 10 and my legs only feel lightly spun right now and thats good. We made a good pace and it felt pretty frickin easy. TONS of riders out I think we had 28 or 29 sign in and with a few late folk who didn't. And a ton of non-group riders. It was a blast! Conditions over all were good on the trails.

Good weather thoughts....Only minimal sprinkly rain today. Good weather thoughts!!!

Gear is mostly assembled for the morning. Have to pick up some snack supplies and some post ride chow to grill/donate. Water is purchased and in the car already. Gotta pull together the newt-trition gear though I realize (Gu's, Supplements, Hammer products, etc). As usual potassium loss will be my big enemy, and since I can't eat @#$@#$@ banana's its all on the supplements/additives. SUCK!

Tired tired tire....

Damn good ride last night. We had amazing weather, trails were in moderate to good condition (Accotink was good, WF was moderate). With near 70degree starting temps and finishing in the mid-low 60's with a nearly full moon we had amazing riding. And being back in Accotink on the regular ride was excellent.

I arrived early and pre-rode Wakefield. The lower area of the bowl is a mess. The new drainage covert under 495 pushes a LOT of water in big rains apparently. The stream crossing near 495 is nearly not ridable in one direction. TONS of errosion even on the access trail. Creek trails weren't bad in any unexpected way. Powerlines were surprisingly good.

For the main ride we went over to Accotink. I separated the casual into Casual and a plus group. The plus group had some issues with flats while leaving Accotink and I think we out rode them :) Accotink's first section was great though I did slip and fall on the new trail at the tight turn on the hill. Oh well too much breaking, it was an easy fall. A ways in we picked up Howard also who was riding very easy on his recovering broken hand. He rode the rest of the night with me and JoJo. We only did the first third of accotink as we started a bit late and darkness set in pretty quick and we kept the pace pretty casual. We rolled back to WF and rode the creek trail to phase 1 to the race course to powerlines the upper half of phase 1 back out salemander and were done. We rolled 9 miles I think on GPS so probably close to 10 total. My preride was 7 measured so probably near 18 miles total yesterday.

Post ride was a good time to. Enjoyed some Black Magic's, and other fine PLB's before we went to Kilroys. Good times.

Toast....Milktoast.... Expanded

3 Days in a row success. 25 miles tonight. that puts me at 45 this week. Might try a commute in tomorrow or saturday. Felt good up till the last 20 mins tonight when my ass started complaining. But with 2.5 hours of saddle time I'm not surprised.

Wakefield was not in good shape for riding in most area's. Maybe Saturday. Probably Sunday.

It was a beautiful night for riding, I think the entire ride it averaged around 57 degrees. We had several sections where we had to run dark and it was a blast. Can't beat weather like this, a nice taste of spring. This next week we have a bit of a roll back towards normal of 30-50 range stuff. But still better than the crap in January/Dec of 15 to 30.

Updated - I was falling down tired when I first posted this last night. Or perhaps a better analogy was the lawn mower, my ass and grass. Regardless I was a zombie almost.

Today the legs are a bit tired, I didn't ride in as I woke up late and had to drop a friends extra key set off at his work. But with the weather on tap tonight I am going to get out and do a few miles just to loosen the legs up. And I'm hoping to commute in tomorrow morning.

Also in my Blame Rich Dillen segment I'm blaming RD for ruining America by providing me with the link to:

The Fucking Weather

Thanks Rich!

Snow Ride Fail - Sled Ride Win

The snow at WF last night was just still to deep with a semi-hard crust to make riding possible (even with an endomorph up front). So after some mild grumbling by the assembled misfit cyclists we proceeded from the regular parking lot to the high side of the ball field lots. After getting the rear of the big red truck set as our Weigh Station for Warming Beverages, we started sledding down the short but steep hill. I think the last time I went actually sledding may have been either 1990 or 1991. unless you count sliding down a hill with a snowboard on your feet on your butt.

After some warm up runs we started going for distance. This required navigating a moderately difficult path between the big red truck, a water fountain and a parking lot divider to maximize your distance. I put on the first record run not trying very hard. Dumb luck. Liz soon beat me, then Larry surpassed that. Eventually Scud stepped up and put in a MUCH longer distance and things got more serious. People started trying. Unfortunately the track was starting to wear and it took solid control to not end up on the divider or hitting the truck. Eventually after a couple back and forth lead changes El Jefe put in the biggest run getting almost to the street. Next year we bring a tape measure! And more shovels to build a ramp.

Hopefully we are done with the semi-annual MORE Sled Ride at Wakefield for the year. I keep hearing SNOW in the forecasts though.

Ordered a SWEET Ahearne flask and holder today.

And some evil genius at Plum Grove/Rockland MTB has added 1.2 miles to tomorrow's snot cycle course to re-route around a downed tree. Fun for racing in Saturday's hell.

Time to go medicate my aching body.

Mudfest

Wakefield was soaked and like peanut butter in a lot of area's so we did the CCT which was pretty wet and muddy too.

I'll link up some pictures later.

It was a good ride of chatting with folks like Jason, Sarah, Todd and the others. We had 14 riders out.

We finsihed pretty early and were done a roy's by a bit after 10.

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.

Cool Runnings

Great night of riding out at WF last night. Got out a bit late and didn't get to pre-ride accotink instead looped around WF with Jason and Larry for 30 mins. It was damn nice. It was pretty warm at the start I'd say mid 60's while the Sun was still out. By the time we went back out with the group at 6:54 it had cooled a few degrees below 60. By the end of the ride it was 50. Quite brisk when you would pop into those cool spots. My legs were a little cold, but the woolly up top was perfect.

GPS said 5 miles for the preride so I'll figure closer to 6 and the main ride was 8 so total I'll figure it was close to 15. Not the 20+ I wanted but not bad at all. Felt really good actually riding the whole time. Could have really pushed hard but did much better keeping the group together. One of my better rides lately.

Conway Wakefield Whereever

Rode Conway Robinson today as it was real close to work, and I needed to get a ride in before hitting work. Pretty short, Flat, but kinda fun with tons of log overs/piles. I think there were 4 mandatory on blue at least with 5 or 6 extra. I did a ton of them. The orange section has a couple fun rock gardens and a bit rockpile to cross. It was very good. Just put on the head phones and cranked away. Enjoyed passing a bunch of people repeatedly, they were good folk and let me pass.

Thursday at Wakefield was good, got over nice and early and did a preride of Accotink with Mike E and Jason M. Good rolling. The casual group at first had to go pretty slow as we had a relatively new rider out, eventually Neal dropped and rode with her and JoJo.

Going to try and make it out Tuesday to Wakefield as we might have rain thursday. Riding the next weekend looks a bit questionable due to commitments. We'll see.

Wetness.

Last night was a weird weather night. On the way to WF I drove thru at least 2 different storm bands of moderate intensity where traffic slowed and everyone's wipers were on high. However it appears those bands never crossed the Wakefield area. Surprising because one was up near Mason on Braddock Rd. So I called in a cancellation to a coworker who also rides. He posted on forum. Once I parked and looked around at WF I saw that anything under trees was still bone dry and even the wettest of gullies was really only Tacky.

Ended up with 5 riders out. I took out on new night rider and Delmar led out 2 other guys. We didn't ride for super long but it was nice to get out and till the rain started picking up at 7:40'ish it was pretty nice riding. By 8 the canopy was dripping and trails were starting to move towards slightly wet from a nice level of Tackyness. My bike only really got dirty in those last 20 minutes. Oh well.

Accotink was reported to be "GREAT" by Mike P's group. It was nice not to be running into tons of other cyclists out for a change. We passed Dylan 2x and I saw MP's group pass once near 7:35 as they chugged up the CCT/Creek Trail towards phase 1. The XR's held better on the damp logs/etc than I thought they would. Probably 12 miles I think between my short preride and the small group ride. That puts me at about 50 miles on the new bike and I love it more each time. And for the week I'm near 42 I think. Not bad. Going to try and ride maybe tomorrow and sunday after work.

2nd Ride Thoughts

Blasted around Accotink from 5:30 till 7:30'ish. By Myself till around 6:45 when I met up with El Jefe, RickyD and tuba who were riding up the fire road. I hung off the tail of there group the rest of the evening. Tuba was a bit off form and the group ran a bit slower than normal I'm sure but it still pushed me hard to try and hang. i need to ride better :) Less braking. More fitness also. But still felt decent.
could pushed myself harder. next time.

Tuba tore a sidewall out of his racing ralphs so an emergency repair sucked up about 15 minutes I figure while he booted the tire, put in a tube and stuff. He rode it the rest of the evening no problem. I was impressed.

Trails were in best shape I've seen in a while due to last Sunday's rain. Hope the Thursday night rain holds till post ride.

Must gotten in 20 miles or more. That puts me in a decent 27 at least for the week. May try to do a partial ride in tomorrow. We'll see.

Oh and the seat HAS TO GO! Its killing my ass! And my magic shine cord fits fine using the seat bag to hold the battery! that is awesome! Moved in brakes and shifters helped a ton also. Might need to adjust the angle a bit more of the controls. Bikes got a solid 32 miles so far and it's super sweet.

A few Tweaks and it will be ready

Shakedown was last night. It was a damn good first ride. The beast climbs like a mountain goat, and it does roll over stuff that slowed the old bike a lot, I rolled right across a rock garden in Accotink that had frustrated me for a Very Very Long time. (well a few weeks of trying and failing). Descending is a blast, and as I make a few small adjustments it will get better. And the 3x10 is actually pretty cool. I think I spent more time in the 2nd ring than I have in a while as I did end up in 2x2 (32x34) a few times to make climbs I'd previously granny'd on.

Blasting around Wakefield was a riot, I was really letting the bike go on the powerlines and it blazed thru.

I'm feeling very happy about the new bike. Picture soon.

Issues -
Brakes and shifters need to be moved in on the bar. To grip the brakes the way I like my damn hands were almost halfway off the bar!
Gotta drop some air out of the tires and see if they're a bit more stable. So far I'm holding my opinion on the Bonty XR's.
Seat - I like the seat in some ways but it feels too wide.