Just a bit bigger

Weird week this week with a bit over 40 on Sunday, and 31 more between Tuesday and Thursday, it puts me at around 70 miles. For me, that's crushing it. What I need to avoid is having a do-nothing week next week. (Sun thru Sat). So I'm either going to do a harder ride at Elizabeth Furnace or head to Rosaryvile for an epic lap fest. For what will be 27 to 36 miles.

Thursday was a good night with a smallish group 11 sign ins with I think 9 riders. It was a solid night we rolled 11 or 12 miles with the group. Started off nice temp but by the end of the ride it had cooled down. The new vest kept my core warm even though it was sweaty underneath, the wind off is a huge temp change. PIcked up a pair of Endura knickers and will break them in on Sunday I think.

Time to catch up on reports/etc....

Hot and Humid - Wait it's October

Snuck in a solid ride last night at Wakefield. However it was not only unseasonably warm, but humid as hell I think I had almost negative evaporation. It was gross on that point except when we passed thru occasionally pockets of cool.

Did the bowl loop myself once as a warm up, then Joel K and I rode a bunch of the back stuff in odd order Rusted Truck, power station, Salamander, (top Phase 1 reverse, power lines to forest, to Phase 4 lower, to racecourse of the creek/old creek section, back to forest/lower power lines, and back across lower phase 1) and back. I think that was about 4 miles.

Then the group ride started with about 10 of us heading out together. We went right to the bowl, did a bunch of it, creek trail, phase 1 lower, race course creek trail, phase4 reverse (Low to High), power lines, berms/ascent, rollers, phase 1 upper, power lines to rusted truck in reverse to bowl again and done. Probably covered another 10.

Great ride to get in when I was " " that close to not leading/letting Jan cancel the ride.

Helmet light was kinda neat but I need to mount it higher so I don't have to tilt head back as much to keep the lighting/spot ideal. By the end I had to struggle to keep my head up. Having both bar and headlamp I can see is ideal.

Nice social with Joel, Ernie, Chris, Blake, Rob, and another Chris in the lot, followed by Joel and i demolishing food at Kilroys.

Fall in Effect

Amazing ride today with Pete, Sean, Mike, Chris and Martin. Mike and I met with Sean and Pete at WF at 8:15 and we rolled onto LH. I'd never done the final section over to LH from Prospect Rd area. It was nice. We met up with Martin and Chris and rolled all of LH. It was good and I'm modifying my loop to the one Pete led. Much more fun for sure, doing apple orchard the way he did made it feel much longer and funner to ride. Wish I could have done a 2nd lap but in retro-view I think I was cooked. I'm just not up on distance riding. Need to ride more. The return was pretty mellow as we were all feelin it a bit I think. At somepoint my phone ejected from my pack alas.

The Ride-
WF to Laurel Hill and Back by atlantis.rob at Garmin Connect - Details

I rode back about 2 miles towards Accotink looking for it with no luck. I have a few ideas where it might have fallen out. Oh well.

The weather this weekend was amazing. My clothing/layers were perfect for today with the bibs, jersey, fleece on top and leg warmers. The leaves were amazing. Just a great day.

Just enjoyed a biboy of Hopzilla from Terrapin Brewing. Truly smooth and amazing. great blending of hops on the nose and not overwhelming the palate like Two Hearted.

Back to the grill.

New Balance and Ind. Fab.

http://hubnride.blogspot.com/2010/10/independent-fabrications-x-new-balance.html
Thats some major green!

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.

Wool is Your Overlord

A friend asked about wool jerseys the other night and I just sent him this list of wool jersey/clothes suppliers. I'm gonna pick up a new woolie in November.

MORE Jersey in both long and short sleeve. I love mine. EWNR Makes it...
http://www.more-mtb.org/index.php?page=07Jersey
http://www.ewnr.com/

Good wool jersey's - Swobo makes good ones.
http://www.swobo.com/catalog/product_info_m.php?cPath=2045_2046

Dirt Rag is using Woolistic, not SWOBO this year:
http://www.dirtragmag.com/product/wool-jersey-woolistic

Ibex does good woolstuff but damn this jersey is fugly.
http://www.ibexwear.com/shop/product/1751/7827/mens-indie-l/s-jersey

Castelli does decent woolies
http://www.amazon.com/Castelli-Mauro-Sleeve-Cycling-Jersey/dp/B002OJRDNC

Does Everything
http://www.kucharik.com/

A great breakdown with other suppliers may be found here.
http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/wool.html

How Different? Very.

So yesterday I took Ye Olde Giant out to Wakefield for the first time in a month. Once I started riding I realized just HOW different a relatively SMALL change can make huge improvements in how bikes ride. The damn thing is just jumpy as hell compared to the Fisher. It feels top heavy and unstable, I nearly bailed on a bridge in phase 4 from wobble. Going over logs is weird also. Just felt all sorts of wrong. I may take it out to FH tonight if I can get out of work early enough, but I don't see myself riding THAT beast very often anymore. I'm tempted to move most of the good equipment over to Jen's bike, or at least once I get a more dedicated commuter.

Took it pretty easy out there last night. Had 9 riders out. Tons of walkers out and we saw I think a ladies jogging group on the CCT at the start. It's starting to get chilly again especially by the end of the ride. time to start leaving a fleece in the car.

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.

Out and In...

The last week of September blew for riding for me with the mix of rain and work stuff. I didn't get out on the bike till Yesterday. And boy did my legs let me know that I sucked. LH half kicked my ass. The other half got clobbered by my seat when I didn't commit to a log over and the seat ass stabbed my right side. A good 16 miles though.

Though on the plus side I have already mastered re-edit TCX files for Garmin from where I stopped to help move/setup the charity ride post ride stuff for 30 minutes. I edited out the non moving time in about 10 minutes. I need to find an xml supporting editor to do it quicker. With collapsible branches editing each lap would be much simpler.

Hopefully I will be able to get back out on Tuesday maybe. If not I'm hoping to get a quick ride in at Cabin John after a trail work meeting on Wednesday. Have to see how the rain goes this week.

Weird weather this year, we basically got thru a hot weekend the last weekend of Sept and then a switch was thrown and we are now really in fall weather.

Tried Founders Nemesis 2010 on Friday on draft and was under impressed other than the fact that the alcohol was not really noticable for a 12% ABV beer. Instead I went with Widmer's Deadlift IPA. Nice but a bit sweet on the finish.

Putting Your Money where your Mouth Is.

Washington State Potato Exec goes on all spud diet for 20 days.
20 Plain Potatoes a day for 60 days

Douthat 2010 Photos

Phil VW's Douthat 2010 photo set - Check out the last photo in the set of the camp lit up at night. Very cool!

Bob Caverly's Douthat 2010 photo Set

Douthat Finally, Part 1

Finally after 2 previous years of trying to make this event I finally made it this year. And it was a blast. But really for me Douthat started Thursday as I left work for the WF Night ride. Got out moderately early and put a 6 mile warmup in, then intending for a pretty mellow group ride we laid down at 12 mile casual ride. OOps. Unfortunately we had a rider on the un-sanctioned fast group go down with a compound fractured arm in the early part of the Boy Scout trail in Accotink. He's doing well now but will be off the bike for 3 months.

I bailed from WF Early to go home and prep food/gear for an early'ish departure to meet my ride to Douthat in Man-ass-ass. I got my potluck dish ready and hit the sack a bit late around midnight. Woke up at 7:15 ate some breakfast purchased a few final items, packed the cooler, loaded the car and headed to meet about 15 minutes late. We ended up leaving Manassas at a bit past 9:30 and we rolled solidly arriving just over 3 hours later in Douthat State Park. Hit the campground setup the tents and as we were putting our sleeping bags in El Jefe rolled up. We helped him setup and by 3 we were bored and decided to hit a quick ride even though it was stoopid hot (93'ish). So we climbed up out of the campground up to the trail head for mountain top/mountain side. After a quick discussion we hit mountain side! A bit in and I mishit a gullied turn and fell back/down a gully. Suck. Got back on and caught up with Dave and Jason who were waiting and wondering where I was. We finally crest mountain side and have a nice view. Off we go to brush hollow. Descend a bit then blam! Flat on the rear. Ugh. I change the tire and right as I get the new tube in and start to pump the guys ride back up.

And Mr.Murphy shows up - My new spare tube apparently has a pin hole leak to start with. Jason loans me his spare. In it goes. Pump it up. Way up. And off we go. A bit of a switchback climb to the overlook. Another Great view northwards. We roll on and start the quick and epic brushy hollow descent. Damn fun! Meet up with the guys at the bottom and start rolling some little rocky stuff, stream crossings mostly. Blam! ARGH! Outa tubes and don't feel like patching. Start pushing the bike. Catch up to Jason and Dave near the swinging bridge near the road. I send em on and push back to camp. 2 miles later MOBL rolls by and sag wagons me the last half mile back to camp! My garmin track till my 2nd flat, Here!


Turns out lots of people had problems on Friday with flats. I know I talked with several other people during the weekend who had 2 on either Friday or Saturday. I used up all my patches and had to borrow some from Jen B to finish patching Ssturday morning.

Camp that night was a blast, we hung out, talked bikes, riding places, and had a good time. I passed out in my tent around 11:30 or so. Put my headphones in and was asleep even with being in one of the central camps in 20 mins or so!

Saturday was a better day :)

Growing Pains

Everytime you upgrade gear or move to a new bike you have to expect some growing pains. Mine hit last night at WF. A short preride followed by a late start, I was climbing the access trail the powerco uses to the top of the berms and while powering up a next hill section: KAPOW! The chain blew out. After the long walk back to the car I tried a 10spd sram power link and a 9speed. The 10 was too short and the 9 speed would have fit but the rivets were too tight.

So off to TheBikeLane in burke I went this morning around 10:30. Took it in and the mech looked at the chain and promptly tossed it in the bin. After a quick exchange decides to go with the KMC X10SL - Nice chain. And since it was so soon after I got the bike I got it at cost. A much better chain! Sweet.

Picked up some perpetuem for the big ride day at Douthat.

Now I have to figure something out for the potluck dinner on Friday.

Fountain Head Revisited

Went out to FH today after picking up a new saddle at TBL. Much better, I think it's the same one as on my giant. My problem I had today was that I think I need some bigger/fatter grips and to move the break levers in a bit more. going down the rough/steep stuff I was KILLING my hands holding on.

Also tried out one of the new garmin edge 500's. It dropped about 1.4 miles of the course making me look even SLOWER than I was.

Fountain Head Mid Day by atlantis.rob at Garmin Connect - Details

As I was entering for my 2nd lap I realized that I'd passed a mother-daughter set in the lot who were obviously not expect what FH really was so I cut my lap short popping back up the exit and down the first bit again where I met up them about 3/10ths of a mile in and they were turning around. i helped them out a shortcut and gave them directions to laurel hill and suggest wakefield also. Oy vey.

On the way home poor ole carney had problems and I think the rear driver side is messed up as even with the parking break on I could turn the wheel, vs the passenger side held fast.

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.

1000 Words

From just before last weeks first ride. I also found I can mount the battery/seatbag under the seat and the cords still reach. +1!!!

Final Word- Weather

The weather this time of year is amazing for riding here in DC. Sure it getting dark around 7:40 sucks. But the temps, lack of rain, and clear skies lead to some amazing riding. I love the sensation of the cool air moving past, the smell of the semi moist earth, the half moon in the sky and the crickets chirping. I intend to enjoy the hell out of this fall if I'm in town.

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.

Light Weekend

Let up a bit this weekend, should have pushed and done a ride Saturday but I was lazy and really hoping/saving myself for Sunday morning at Fountain Head. Alas it rained in the AM enough that our organization master cancelled. I spent a lazy day cleaning, doing the whites, and COOKING like a FOOL (did a huge batch of bob flay style fajitas). It was awesome, just grilling takes so much more time on charcoal with prep/etc. Oh well can't win em all. The sun in the afternoon shoulda gotten me going but I wanted to get started cooking/eating early. It was awesome to be done with dinner by 7.

Finished up watching a bunch of LOTR on TNT till 10 or so but was wiped out and went to be before the big battle of doom!

Rode partially into work today to get some activity in. Realized 1 problem with the older bike already. I think the setback seatpost needs to go. My knee acted up on it within nearly no time. Felt the difference in my power/stroke. Need to do a good bit of work to that bike anyways.

Tuesday back at WF to get my official Trail Monitor paperwork done hopefully nearly a year and a half after starting it.

Also had a good new to me IP from Mendicino Brewing Co, White Hawk IPA I think it was. Nice nose, good balance. I think it was $9 at Giant. 7% ABV.

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.