So after fighting on parts and stuff I re-greased my jockey/chainwheels and finally hit the road around 2 yesterday. I ended up only going up to Schaeffer Farm but still had a good and enjoyable ride. I did 9 miles out there in a bit over an hour. Not a great pace but not horrid. I spent a lot of time figuring out lines and what features I could handle and what I couldn't. Normally I'd be pushing to get outagain to even just Cabin John but we've got a pile or three of things going on this week, and I need to set my schedule, so we'll see.
Schaeffer is a rolling slightly winding stretch of singletrack in Germantown MD and its a good series of trails. Their are 2 or 3 loops, though the main trail (yellow) has a loop at the end of an out and back that can be varied by taking side trails (ORange and Blue). Kudos to MORE for providing an excellent riding spot. I hope to be able to contribute some trail work sometime this spring.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Bike Maintanence
Oh the other hand my free year of support from my bike shop is now over and I've got to do it or pay the $$. So on my ride home yesterday I heard a LOT of chain/gear noise and new that it was high time for a good cleaning.
My chain and Jockey Wheels were disgusting. The cassette and front sprockets were varying stages of gross. So off came the chain. Got it good and clean but used up the last of my finishline de-greaser and my jockey wheels were gross and all. So out they came and they were bad. I'm gonna either have to re-grease them or replace em. A lot of grit and stuff inside the metal covers on em. So I'm gonna go by City Bikes on the way home for some advice.
Monday I'm off to either Greenbriar (Checked out the race course) or to Shaeffer - Just ride like hell. :)
See ya'll on the trails!
My chain and Jockey Wheels were disgusting. The cassette and front sprockets were varying stages of gross. So off came the chain. Got it good and clean but used up the last of my finishline de-greaser and my jockey wheels were gross and all. So out they came and they were bad. I'm gonna either have to re-grease them or replace em. A lot of grit and stuff inside the metal covers on em. So I'm gonna go by City Bikes on the way home for some advice.
Monday I'm off to either Greenbriar (Checked out the race course) or to Shaeffer - Just ride like hell. :)
See ya'll on the trails!
Woot for Nice Weather!
Thank the weather god for nice weather returning to DC. I was going stircrazy in general, and especially in wanting to hit some trails on my Sunday/Monday days off. Well the weather was nice, traffic wasn't too bad and so I've officially opened my cycling season (EastCoastStyle) as of Friday April 20.
I got home re-kitted out the bike, my car and myself and drove to my launch point a mile or so away from teh WOD Trail. I bombed the steps down from McAuthur Blvd near the bridge down to the trail only having to walk the 3 worst steps (GRRR!). A few adjustments later I was off down the trail. My pace at first was a nice and solid 17 or so till almost little falls. I let up a bit then and averaged down to 15 slowly by the time I hit George Town. A quick stretch break and I was headed back. I dropped down to the capital cresent and hauled ass back up the trail following some roadies, holding 17-18 for a while. A detour to Little Falls went for about 10-15 minutes of wheelie practice. Some of my better wheelies. Still can't go as far/fast as I want. But it was better. I need to work on my 1/4 crank and balance drills a bit. A quick rest stop and it was back up the rest of the way. 16.5 miles round trip in about an hour 10. Nice ride and felt pretty good.
Soon I will start loading my rides from the GPS data to Motion Based but the basic tool from Garmin isn't bad I just wish it's mapping was better (Overlay onto perhaps googlemaps instead of its own). My heart rate was solidly in zone 4 for most of the ride so I'm pleased again. (Vs when I went spinning for the first time Wednesday and was in oh zone 5 the whole frickin time).
Being able to watch my cadence/hr when riding especially on flats is very good for my training goals currently.
I got home re-kitted out the bike, my car and myself and drove to my launch point a mile or so away from teh WOD Trail. I bombed the steps down from McAuthur Blvd near the bridge down to the trail only having to walk the 3 worst steps (GRRR!). A few adjustments later I was off down the trail. My pace at first was a nice and solid 17 or so till almost little falls. I let up a bit then and averaged down to 15 slowly by the time I hit George Town. A quick stretch break and I was headed back. I dropped down to the capital cresent and hauled ass back up the trail following some roadies, holding 17-18 for a while. A detour to Little Falls went for about 10-15 minutes of wheelie practice. Some of my better wheelies. Still can't go as far/fast as I want. But it was better. I need to work on my 1/4 crank and balance drills a bit. A quick rest stop and it was back up the rest of the way. 16.5 miles round trip in about an hour 10. Nice ride and felt pretty good.
Soon I will start loading my rides from the GPS data to Motion Based but the basic tool from Garmin isn't bad I just wish it's mapping was better (Overlay onto perhaps googlemaps instead of its own). My heart rate was solidly in zone 4 for most of the ride so I'm pleased again. (Vs when I went spinning for the first time Wednesday and was in oh zone 5 the whole frickin time).
Being able to watch my cadence/hr when riding especially on flats is very good for my training goals currently.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
With the shit weather here in DC the last few weeks I"ve been either running or hitting the exercise bike at the gym. I'm working on my cadence but I'm just not solid, so instead I'm trying to just maintain a solid 90-100 most of the time except on the hell climb sections. It looks like my first op for a nice ride will be either Saturday afternoon, Sunday (hmmm probably not) or Monday.
2 weeks from Sunday marks the Greenbriar challenge that I had wanted to race, and if I go ride it and find myself acceptable on MOnday then so much the better...we'll see.
2 weeks from Sunday marks the Greenbriar challenge that I had wanted to race, and if I go ride it and find myself acceptable on MOnday then so much the better...we'll see.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Moving In, slowly....
Well we got the gear in Friday and on Saturday J and her family unloaded most of the trailer, Sunday afternoon we finished up the last pieces with the couch and the monster mattress.
We cleaned and put way a lot of Sunday and put way a bit of stuff. Yesterday I got a late start on stuff after a lengthy trip to the hardware store.
The neat thing I did discover is i have a good 1/4 crank drill area in my basement by looping the workbench or even the outer area. I couldn't do it for long as my legs are worn pretty low from all the moving crud. So I did about 5 minutes of those on Sunday, today I'm gonna try and do that and some trackstands. Later I might try some hop-offs push/pull drills out back. Wheee for back lawns!
I want to ride soon so I'm looking at a ride either Thursday or Friday. Then I'm definetly going next monday somewhere cool like greenbriar or such.
We cleaned and put way a lot of Sunday and put way a bit of stuff. Yesterday I got a late start on stuff after a lengthy trip to the hardware store.
The neat thing I did discover is i have a good 1/4 crank drill area in my basement by looping the workbench or even the outer area. I couldn't do it for long as my legs are worn pretty low from all the moving crud. So I did about 5 minutes of those on Sunday, today I'm gonna try and do that and some trackstands. Later I might try some hop-offs push/pull drills out back. Wheee for back lawns!
I want to ride soon so I'm looking at a ride either Thursday or Friday. Then I'm definetly going next monday somewhere cool like greenbriar or such.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
In DC now.
The move is half over and we've been in DC since early Sunday morning. Tuesday I finally got lucky and went for a great bikeride on my father-in-laws way to small bike. But it was good. I dropped down on a fairly serious trailhead with some nasty steps (Excluding 2 small sections with no good lines). Then I road the canal from near Glen Echo down to the falls, about 2 miles from Georgetown.
It was a beautiful day and I look forward to doing that on my own bike soon.
My car may be here by Friday actually it looks like, while i suspect my furniture unless it makes a big jump today or tommorow won't arrive till monday.
For now I"m making a list of trails I want to ride asap. More on that later today.
It was a beautiful day and I look forward to doing that on my own bike soon.
My car may be here by Friday actually it looks like, while i suspect my furniture unless it makes a big jump today or tommorow won't arrive till monday.
For now I"m making a list of trails I want to ride asap. More on that later today.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Sunday
Sunday J and I got fired up and went biking. We did 15 miles out around Baylands/Bayshore in MV. It was a beautiful day. We even road some nonpaved trails and some of the trash hills near the kiteflying area. Tons of folks were out flying their kites and I was all jealous. Maybe another thing to try and slip in during our final week here.
Also got a tube for the monster 2.55 tire I want to install soon.
Also got a tube for the monster 2.55 tire I want to install soon.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2188585
That "Should" link you to the effective GPS DL of the ride I took Saturday. The course/etc info is correct, of course the data/time/etc aren't mine.
That "Should" link you to the effective GPS DL of the ride I took Saturday. The course/etc info is correct, of course the data/time/etc aren't mine.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Camp Tamarancho Adventure
Saturday I took off from work to go adventure up in Mt. Tamarancho near Fairfax CA and did the Beginner/Intermediate Bikeskills class from Bikeskills.com.
I will flat out say it was the most useful $$$ ever spent on a class at learning an outdoor activity, and looking back I've done a few. The class is $89 bucks. The free loot at the start is alone worth a good 20-30. Any other part of the class makes it most worth while, also. OH and I really lucked out, there was only 1 other guy in class with me. And we had their videographer helping along with the company boss sometimes also.
The instructor up here is Chris Duncan a championship dirt jumper whose been getting crash courses from Mark Weir and others in all mountain riding lately. He started out with checking our setup on our bikes. For me he recommended that I change over to regular platform pedals. And boy was he right. My old pedals were combos and would have been super annoying, just handling clipping on the trails is moderately insane, and I caught myself from falls numerous times with a quick foot placement. Next he moved my grips and controls in on my bar a few inches for better gripping I think it was. Or maybe just to get around my upper bars for long riding. Next he set our tires to 30 front 35 back and said we could even go 30/40 if we desired later but the lower front helps it bite more. A few other adjustments and we were off.
A coworker or two from bikeskills showed up in the beginning to help us along a bit also. We started out with a demo of how to ride switch backs at the beginning of Alchemist Trail. On i think my third try I got a good run thru it and up the hill. A few more on and we stopped to check out a pretty hairy on with a decent drop, and we road it and picked it up on our 2nd/3rd try. Chris empasized arm angle while riding, line choice and vision and looking ahead and not down during all phases of riding but especially with switchbacks. The looking ahead and not down was very challenging. I've gotta work more on that in the next week if I can.
At the top of alchemist trial they've set up a mini-log trail and chris walked us through exploring how to "approach/handle" one of those and what to watch out for on those surfaces. We then continued climbing with a mix of terrain through some interesting stuff till we hit the first flat. Here we did some skill building demo stuff. It started with 1/4 crack switchback/turn drill where you constantly crank small amounts while tring to maintain as tight as possible figure 8's around a pair of rocks. sweeping out wide and cutting back in hard just like with switchbacks. this worked both on switchback handling and short cranking which is VERY useful in tight corners I made use of it in several narrow spots sucessfully later. The 2nd drill was weight changing so as to eventually pop your wheel/push-pull the bike basically used to build momentum while riding to avoid pedalling. Also it can be used as part of an ejection sequence to get cleanly off the back of the bike. We had a contest to get off cleanly, meaning no pedal movemnet and both of us did the 5. That got us some more super sweet loot to be listed at the end.
After Chris showed off the ultimate use of this to do real hop's jumps by jumping a guys bike we started a cool section into the serpantine trail. This was a curving mix of many different terrains. It had a bit of everything but mainly was a nice rolling trail (hahaha). I honestly don't remeber doing much except trying to work on looking ahead and watching my grip/braking setup. In fact much of the ride till near the end was like this when we started descending B-17 and Broken Dam trail the tightness of the trees and some of the switch backs were tough. By the final climbs I was pretty played out and had a small pull of a quad and had to walk the bike a bit. I finished the final climbs and only ate on the last and hardest switchback of the final climb. The descent back down serpantine was a breeze and I only recall footing 1 or 2 times.
Chris lead us expertly and was willing to answer any and all questions and gave examples of when things could go good or bad and when to use different skills. He encouraged us when necessary and kept the challenge right at our skill and endurance level.
And the loot? 1 Set of WTB Grips, Waterbottle, CO2 Tire Inflator, Misc Bars, Cliff Shot Block's (Which are awesome!), and the biggie was a WeirWolf LT in 2.55. Almost 80-90 in freebies. NOt bad I must say. If your at all interested in mountain biking, go take one of these classes, you will love the ride, learn tons and have a blast.
I will flat out say it was the most useful $$$ ever spent on a class at learning an outdoor activity, and looking back I've done a few. The class is $89 bucks. The free loot at the start is alone worth a good 20-30. Any other part of the class makes it most worth while, also. OH and I really lucked out, there was only 1 other guy in class with me. And we had their videographer helping along with the company boss sometimes also.
The instructor up here is Chris Duncan a championship dirt jumper whose been getting crash courses from Mark Weir and others in all mountain riding lately. He started out with checking our setup on our bikes. For me he recommended that I change over to regular platform pedals. And boy was he right. My old pedals were combos and would have been super annoying, just handling clipping on the trails is moderately insane, and I caught myself from falls numerous times with a quick foot placement. Next he moved my grips and controls in on my bar a few inches for better gripping I think it was. Or maybe just to get around my upper bars for long riding. Next he set our tires to 30 front 35 back and said we could even go 30/40 if we desired later but the lower front helps it bite more. A few other adjustments and we were off.
A coworker or two from bikeskills showed up in the beginning to help us along a bit also. We started out with a demo of how to ride switch backs at the beginning of Alchemist Trail. On i think my third try I got a good run thru it and up the hill. A few more on and we stopped to check out a pretty hairy on with a decent drop, and we road it and picked it up on our 2nd/3rd try. Chris empasized arm angle while riding, line choice and vision and looking ahead and not down during all phases of riding but especially with switchbacks. The looking ahead and not down was very challenging. I've gotta work more on that in the next week if I can.
At the top of alchemist trial they've set up a mini-log trail and chris walked us through exploring how to "approach/handle" one of those and what to watch out for on those surfaces. We then continued climbing with a mix of terrain through some interesting stuff till we hit the first flat. Here we did some skill building demo stuff. It started with 1/4 crack switchback/turn drill where you constantly crank small amounts while tring to maintain as tight as possible figure 8's around a pair of rocks. sweeping out wide and cutting back in hard just like with switchbacks. this worked both on switchback handling and short cranking which is VERY useful in tight corners I made use of it in several narrow spots sucessfully later. The 2nd drill was weight changing so as to eventually pop your wheel/push-pull the bike basically used to build momentum while riding to avoid pedalling. Also it can be used as part of an ejection sequence to get cleanly off the back of the bike. We had a contest to get off cleanly, meaning no pedal movemnet and both of us did the 5. That got us some more super sweet loot to be listed at the end.
After Chris showed off the ultimate use of this to do real hop's jumps by jumping a guys bike we started a cool section into the serpantine trail. This was a curving mix of many different terrains. It had a bit of everything but mainly was a nice rolling trail (hahaha). I honestly don't remeber doing much except trying to work on looking ahead and watching my grip/braking setup. In fact much of the ride till near the end was like this when we started descending B-17 and Broken Dam trail the tightness of the trees and some of the switch backs were tough. By the final climbs I was pretty played out and had a small pull of a quad and had to walk the bike a bit. I finished the final climbs and only ate on the last and hardest switchback of the final climb. The descent back down serpantine was a breeze and I only recall footing 1 or 2 times.
Chris lead us expertly and was willing to answer any and all questions and gave examples of when things could go good or bad and when to use different skills. He encouraged us when necessary and kept the challenge right at our skill and endurance level.
And the loot? 1 Set of WTB Grips, Waterbottle, CO2 Tire Inflator, Misc Bars, Cliff Shot Block's (Which are awesome!), and the biggie was a WeirWolf LT in 2.55. Almost 80-90 in freebies. NOt bad I must say. If your at all interested in mountain biking, go take one of these classes, you will love the ride, learn tons and have a blast.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Getting back in the Fit
This winter wasn't a total loss as far as my general conditioning and such but it wasn't as strong as I would have liked it. With being sick from the end of November thru much of december it really took all the headway I had going in out.
Finally about 2-3 weeks ago I made the spring bend. It started with a couple of bike rides on warmer days then 2 weeks ago Jen and I did an epic (for us post hibernation season) 12 mile hike up in Northbay out to a cool waterfall. A bit of offroading of the bike led me into a series of fixes that finally have my bike just now straight from (Tire Replacement, Cable Replacement, and a few other things). So this week I decided to really make the bend.
Sunday I hiked up Mission Peak in Fremont CA. The 3.3 up hike took me about an hour and 20 mins with some heavy pauses to stretch my back and legs. But the views and breeze at the tops of the rises were amazing. Hot as hell that afternoon. The down time took longer due to a few calls from an upset Jen. But I will say cell service was very good there! I polished off almost 2 liters of water on that one.
Monday I hiked around a bunch of east bay after shipping jen's car to DC. A 3 mile hike to the bart station at bayfaire and then a mile home after getting back to the MV station a few hour later.
Today (Tues) I finally road my bike into work again. Yep the crazy biker is back out at 4AM in good ole MV. At least for a few more weeks. The ride there and back isn't much a bit over 2 on the way in and 1.8 or so back on the trail. Boy were my legs tired and I felt wimpy as hell. Then this afternoon I hit the exerbike for another 20 mins and then walked/jogged for 30 more. Gonna feel it tommorow, I just have to burn through and at least walk again if not go for a bike ride.
I feel good but tired!
Finally about 2-3 weeks ago I made the spring bend. It started with a couple of bike rides on warmer days then 2 weeks ago Jen and I did an epic (for us post hibernation season) 12 mile hike up in Northbay out to a cool waterfall. A bit of offroading of the bike led me into a series of fixes that finally have my bike just now straight from (Tire Replacement, Cable Replacement, and a few other things). So this week I decided to really make the bend.
Sunday I hiked up Mission Peak in Fremont CA. The 3.3 up hike took me about an hour and 20 mins with some heavy pauses to stretch my back and legs. But the views and breeze at the tops of the rises were amazing. Hot as hell that afternoon. The down time took longer due to a few calls from an upset Jen. But I will say cell service was very good there! I polished off almost 2 liters of water on that one.
Monday I hiked around a bunch of east bay after shipping jen's car to DC. A 3 mile hike to the bart station at bayfaire and then a mile home after getting back to the MV station a few hour later.
Today (Tues) I finally road my bike into work again. Yep the crazy biker is back out at 4AM in good ole MV. At least for a few more weeks. The ride there and back isn't much a bit over 2 on the way in and 1.8 or so back on the trail. Boy were my legs tired and I felt wimpy as hell. Then this afternoon I hit the exerbike for another 20 mins and then walked/jogged for 30 more. Gonna feel it tommorow, I just have to burn through and at least walk again if not go for a bike ride.
I feel good but tired!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)