Newness of Note, rain never ending.

Got to ride the new NEW stuff out at FH on Wednesday after working doing the first 2 loop sections (ending at pick nick tables). That's now almost 6 miles. Compared to just shy of 3.75 miles 2 years ago before the first project started and now that the RTP grant work is nearing completion. I think it will be near 6.5 by the time they finish.

The new stuff leading up to and after Jackrabbit Run is going to be sick as it compresses down and gets FAST. The berms are REALLY nicely done.

There does need to be some re-work done especially on PTD's stuff on the Shockabily lead up and a bit of the bypass.

Rained enough yesterday I wasn't down for another CCT ride and didn't want to try chasing Larry around on his vintage '83 Canondale. My legs were tired and I got a LOT of work done on finishing up the 2011 Ride Lists. Hoping to finish the 1st half one today and start normalizing tonight/tomorrow.

Did get to try another CoCoNut Porter, still digging it. Also tried the DFH Pearl Jam beer, a nice mild Belgian ale, the currants were really not noticeable to my palate. Well done beer. Very approachable for Belgian style.

Snow inbound on Sunday the question is to stay local, semi-local or go farther afield and try some skiing. Not sure yet.

Back to Normal here in DC

Well it's raining so things seem back to normal. Legs are almost fully recovered from being miserable Monday and Tuesday. My shoulder is still frickin weird, though trying to do push ups yesterday did not help. D'oh.

I was right in my estimate of our position in the Bakers Dozen results, in that we finished 27th of 39 teams with 8 laps in 11H:10M. 2 More laps would have moved us up to probably only 20. Top team had 17 laps duo, then 4 16 Lap teams, then 2 14 Lap Teams. Ugh! It was still a fun time and I'm hoping to try it again next year.

Looks like stuff clears up late today then we have a couple decent days then rain again Saturday. Awesome. Not.

Works blowing the up and I may be skipping a trip this weekend I've been looking forward to since the winter. Damn it.

Bakers Dozen Links
The Start - Youtube Video With yours truly cruising along near the end 30 to 32 seconds.

Carl Bruce - Photos

JCS48 - Flickr Photos

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.

Wet with a side of Wet.

Yesterday at wakefield ended up being a set of mixed results. We started out with better weather than expected in a beautiful mostly clear afternoon, though running about 8 degrees too warm. I got in a nice 8 miles of pre-riding Wakefield. Good Stuff. I ended up last night with a single rider in my Casual group, and we were SUPER casual over at accotink, the guy was making stuff I wasn't but every major hill set was killing him cardio wise. We trekked around Accotink for about an hour then we both noticed the sky was pretty dark. Low and behold about 3 minutes later the rain started. And it kept raining. Harder and harder. We got to the paved trail and decided to head back. Once we were on the lake trail it started raining even harder. Great. Back to the lot and soaking wet at about 8:10.

We then had a late birthday party for Ernesto with Cupcakes, Beer, Tequilla and misc snacks. It was good. And everyone liked my beer selection for the evening, Founders Porter. Damn good, nice and malty. At 9 we adjourned for normal post ride activities at Killroy's and had almost all the riders there, I'd say 15 people.

Ordering new drive train today hopefully, should get it Monday. I hope.

10.49

10.49

That is the defining number of this month. No, not my mileage (Thankfully, more like 37'ish). No, that is the amount of rain for the month so far, with a regular AVG of 4.42 inches. Oh. Once again we've doubled our monthly average, and this time in under half a month. FUXOR!!!!

More brewing on the horizon, looking at maybe starting planning for the Dunkelweizen officially tonight and maybe try brewing sunday or monday.

Rainy Weekends.

It's been a cycle the last few weeks of rainy weekends and clear'ish midweeks. It sucks a lot, but I've gotten in SOME rides at least.

Yesterday I went and did the Rosaryville Night Ride, nice group of 10 folks. Held up a solid pace for me of a moving time of 1hr 4min. Honestly I could have done a 2nd lap but it was time to get outa the park. Maybe some other time I'll get out there early enough to do a pre-lap. Night riding in the spring is so different than winter with all the leaves back on the trees! Neat! And not wearing 10 million layers is sweet!! I got to the park at 7:10 ish and was changed and ready to go in 15 mins or less vs usually 30 mins in the winter.

Wednesday I hit Fountain head again. Had a moving time of 1hr 15m though I did retry 1 hill so drop a min off that. I also made it up a couple of hills I hadn't on first try and only pushed up 1 hill. And I estimate a total time of like 1:25 which is much better than the 2 frickin hours or hour:45 it had been taking. Ugh. FH kicks my butt.

May try and sneak another ride in Saturday if the rains hold off till the evening like they are saying.