All the other Chumps

This weekend while I'm "barely" working, getting double time on Monday all the other chumps are headed down to the S&M 100 :) 

Chris Scott apparently runs a premier dungeon for cyclists too stupid to know better than riding 100 miles being anything but fun.  Sure there is drinking, camping, etc, etc before and afterwards but 100 miles of hella hard mountain biking in one day is just about the stupidist thing I've heard of.  Hell many of them won't finish, and know this from the start. 

I'm going to practice my 80 hour 12oz endurance series myself this weekend, with old friends such as Founders, Stone, Terrapin, and other new friends I'm sure.  Tonight it kicks off with pre-made pulled pork from the BBQ.  Should be good.  Deciding if I am going to do another run tonight.  Choices.

Sunday I will ride, just a question of MTB or Road'ish.  Maybe I will do the DKEG Leesburg Gravel Grinder.  35-40 miles with the rolling hills of Northern VA.  Doing the ride/climb up the mountain road I grew up on freaks me out a little bit but I will plan on doing it for now.  Though I am going to watch the weather.  Next week I will try and do a 60 miler. 

Extreme POGO - Who knew?  Search for Vurtego Pogo

Pretty painful to watch at first but then the start doing okay.

And not sure if I've mentioned/shown this previously but saw it again on Rich's blog:

This will be a mandatory item for a ride I'm planning this fall.

I itch...still. Grrr.

 My grumpy-ness factor has hit Warp 11 due to ongoing battle with Poison Plant Crap (not sure which one) that I picked up on my ankle last week that has now spread to my other leg.  Must resist itching.  Zanfel does seem to be helping, felt much itchier yesterday.

My stress level is slowly creeping back down to human levels, between the insane project at work wrapping up mostly yesterday, house sitting being over, and other stuff, I'm finally getting back into the good side of things in relative terms.  I estimated my Work/Life balance recently as Shit.  I've now upgraded it from that level to possibly Bad Gas after Mexican.  Or 60/40 from say 80/20. 

Got in my first run in 2 weeks last night and it wasn't terrible.  My legs were really tight and I had to walk way early and only did 2 miles total.  Due to how bad the WLB was I went from an okay 203 to back up to 210'ish.  uGH.  Too much eating out so I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast again and today packed my lunch for the first time in a.....while. 

Looking forward to getting out for a good ride today, dunno if I will try and finish clipping phase 4 before hand or not.  Guess we will see. 

And last in the funny kind of stuff line:

MTB Virgins versus Pro's!

If it floats.

Lance, it's obvious if you float, your a witch!  So sayeth the USADA!  Sigh.  When will they be going after Wily E. Coyote I must now wonder.  Or Sponge Bob or Ren and Stimpy.  or....gasp Towlie.  Or my uncle who gets cortizone shots.  Or baseball or basketball players? 

And now with that bit of unpleasantness done.  I move back to my regularly schedule program.

Good group for Thursday night again last night, tons of riders and I was 10 minutes late back to the lot so the sign in ran late.  Oops.  On the other hand I did get another 1/3rd or more of Phase 4 trimmed leaving 1 more small section.  Then it's the bowl next, but honestly I'm thinking of putting an Ad-HOC trail trimming night ride together in the next few mondays.  Do light trimming for 2 hours then do a ride.

Trails in Wakefield were mostly dry.  Accotink was surprisingly wet and I almost went down hard on the descent to the train tracks from Boyscout.  On a slick root, fortunately I caught myself with my foot and head.  Though I was set a ringing for a bit and the neck is a bit sore. Thought I might have banged my helmet bad enough it require replacement but a visual check this morning showed no issues.

Tonight MORE has a low-key fundraiser at The Big Board in DC.  If you are in the area, come on down from 5 till 7 for a Keep The Glass night with New Belgium, each New Belgium gives a buck to the club!

Tomorrow I am planning another assault after work on CJ.  DIE GREEN THINGS!  

Down with the.....

Pew.  Pew. Pew.  said Curiosity's laser. 

Hack.  Hack.  Hack said Rob's lungs.

Since Wednesday night I've been coming down with something thats going around the office.  Thursday was rough as I was tired from not sleeping well and several very long days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The ride was okay, felt not too bad but a bit easily winded.  Good group and good fun though.  Huge crowd of 35+ riders. 

Friday it all went to hell over night, way more drainage and by Saturday morning I was hacking up new life forms yet to be discovered by Curiosity on Mars.  uGH.  Still sleeping like crap.  Woke around work time on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep so I ended up running errands then doing 3 hours of solo trimming on my trial before the rains came in.  My shoulders are killing me as apparently I had the pack straps mis-adjusted and was rubbing myself the wrong way with it. 

I did get some new extendable clippers that are AWESOME!  with 2+ feet long handles my back is actually fine versus how bad it hurt after my last trimming effort.  Now I just have 3 more sections that need trimming.  Groan.  One of them is pretty short so I may try and get it tonight if it's not raining again.  I should complain about the rain but honestly it's a good thing right now open trails are extremely dry and dusty.

Tonight's real major project assuming I leave work ontime/nearly ontime is to STORE all the picnic left over supplies at the storage ctr.  Then maybe Tuesday after work I will try and return the mega cooler that pork came in leaving me almost done with picnic stuff. 

Gotta plan a fall trip but I'm waiting on seeing how some projects work out and then how J's new roommate works out with the cats.  If she doesn't then my vacation limits for Sept/Oct really change. 

Still bummed I didn't get a ride in Yesterday but there was no way I was doing something epic, being sick like this stinks.  My goal is to have it mostly kicked by the end of this week.

Ramping up for the big 2012 MORE Fall Camping trip to Davis, WV that is about a month away. 

Did sneak in some beers this week of note the Red Hoptober from New Belgium is very tasty.  Also did a 4 beer flight at WF on saturday including DFH Burton Baton, Firestone's Walkers Double DBA, Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter, and Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin.  The first 3 are all Bourbon Barrel aged and were tasty.  The porter was VERY sweet and was honestly my least favorite at the time.  The DDBA was almost too much.  The punkin beer wasn't bad, but with the cold I have I don't know how much I could trust my sense of taste and I had absolutely no nose.  Yesterday I picked up a bottle of Widmer Bro's Kill Devil Brown Ale special release and am really looking forward to it.

Rainy Tuesday Morning to yah.

Apparently all the Breck Epic participants had a bad day on the trails yesterday with a moderately strong and very cold rain for much of the day, eventually leading to pulling riders off the course.  Saw Dicky and some others hot-tubbing to warm up.  That kind of riding sucks, went through an hour of downpour in the not too cold summer in PA and it sucked.  Can't imagine how cold that felt in Breckenridge.

PICNIC is done.  Well not the wrap up parts but the event is done,  I have to store/return things still but the main part is dealt with and I"m sooooooo happy.  Really.  It went very well and we did end up with too much food.  Probably 100 attendees, about 50 riders.  It was all good. 

Ran again yesterday.  Damn running sucks but I'm slowly getting....better I suppose is the correct word for now.  Before it was a lot of stopping and walking, now I'm doing the main run of 3.5 miles in about 33 minutes.  Felt pretty damn good.  Main running section of 3.2 miles, with 4 of walking was done in just under 32 minutes.  Another week and my goal is to finish the whole damn thing running.

Today I suspect will be a long day at work on major projects due Friday.  Would like to ride but if I do happen to get home at a decent time I'm going to return a cooler up to the person I borrowed it from near Rockburn Park. 

Maybe Wednesday I'll slip in a ride to DC.

Had an EXCELLENT beer on Friday, Firestone's Wookey Jack - Black Rye IPA in a big boy.   Damn tasty, well balanced, smooth for a rye.  Went down good cold, and the last few drinks were at room temp and it was still very nice. 

Dusty-field

Wakefield was a dust bowl again last night, but hopefully this mornings rain is tamping that down to a more manageable level.

I kept casual in Wakefield for a change and it was okay.  We had Jason's wife Lisa go down hard early on the reverse race-course descent into the last creek crossing.  She stopped before then tried to restart after dropping in and went OTB due to being to far forward and going too slow I think.  Ouchy.  She was okay after 5 minutes and we rode on.  But she was panicked and had issues for a bit so we stopped and sessioned the big hairpin in Phase 1's upper half till she had it cold.  After that she was a lot better.  We hit a ton of stuff and got a nice ride in. 

As we were finishing we watched a storm start to come in but it never rained or directly thundered over us last night.  Now the rain is fine :)

Unfortunately after our ride finished and most of the groups were back we heard a friend who was out with some others (but who hadn't been on the official rides) went down and broke his collerbone in the bowl on some loose material.  Also think his pretty Niner took a beating too.  Hope he's feeling better soon. 

Picnic is Sunday and all I can say is I will be very GLAD when it's over.

WoB - Arlington VA

Hit the new World of Beer in Arlington last night for the grand opening, pretty early a bit before 6.  Killed a bunch of beer and went home to have more.  Nice place as expected.  Food they offer is minimal but they have BGR, BW3 and other stuff near by. 

Rogue Shakespear Stout on Nitro - Super smooth stout, went down sooooo easy.  Well balanced, it's not trying to be one of the Founders mega stouts. 
Troubadour Magma - Belgian IPA - The IPA part is pretty minimal but a good belgian beer.
Terrapin Samurai Krunkles - Jeez I dunno what STYLE this is but it was surprisingly good for a beer with Ginger and Green Tea.  :Not too sweat, but pretty drinkable since I killed most of the tall boy myself. 
Rogue XS Imperial/double Ipa - Wow great IPA, very nice balance of Malt and Hops.  The hop flavor lingered for a LONG time but not in an unpleasant way to me. 

Price is Definitely higher than in orlando by a third or more.  Gotta watch all the prices as some stuff is not a bad deal but other things are BAD like a Flying Dog draft for 9.25!  And it wasn't even one of the special ones like El Dorado or such.

Went home and had a Lagunita's WTF while playing some Left for Dead 2 with a buddy Jeff.  Damn I'm terrible at that game. 

Today I'm off to Gaithersburg to pick up a cargo rack for my car to help haul stuff for the Picnic of Doom on Sunday. 

MTB on Mars

Today I diverge slightly from the normal things I talk about here to something more related on the periphery of my geek-dom. 

Curiosity the #MSL (Mars Science Lab) landed sucessfully on Mars last night, after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida back in November.  I got the priveledge/opportunity to watch the launch from on KSC at the Apollo Rocket facility.  It didn't have the earth shaking, unbelievable power of a shuttle launch, but it had more in some ways.  Hundreds or thousands of people who built it, put together everything and sent it on it's journey.  J herself works on the SAM module of MSL and is also part of the general science team for MSL and will be at JPL on and off for at least the next 3 months to help run the rover and SAM.  The level of stress leading up to this was almost unbearable.  The number of jobs riding on it landing was amazing.  This shows NASA still has the right stuff to push boundaries and be the leaders of America's Dream.  The EDL system alone was a feat of amazing engineering.  The rover is built by a ton of different groups putting together a nearly 1 ton monster.  Most people get nervous shipping their car across the country.  Now imagine shipping it to another planet. 

Not many people may know but when NASA and JPL were figuring out how to build the rover, they made a decision to go with Titanium for the arms that the wheels run on.  But back when the rover was under design in the early 2000's they didn't have the knowledge on how to work with Ti.  Well NASA instead went to experts at pushing the boundary of working with Ti.  Lynskey Bikes.  Yep, they went to mountain (and other bike) builders Lynskey to learn how to optimally weld and bend Ti tubes/etc used in the frame and power train of the rover.  Pretty cool.  I know a handful of people who ride Lynskey bikes.  Their bikes and the rover share some distant DNA almost. 

If you haven't yet go check out the photo's do it.  Here is my favorite showing a shadow of the rover. 

Click Here

I've been an space geek since my earliest memories with the shuttle back when it's tank was still white.  I remember the day Challenger explosion very clearly.  Sitting in the school library with all the other kids in shock.  Our 6th grade science teacher had been in the final 5 to be selected.  I remember seeing shuttles up close on the back of transports, fly overs in Florida.  Moving to Orlando and hearing the twin booms of it landing.  The first launch I saw, then the first night launch.  Amazing stuff.  Then Columbia happened while in Tallahassee.  No booms as it passed over.  Bad.  Space exploration is not safe, nothing is guaranteed except you are always taking a risk.  We must take risks in moving forward and advancing our selves, and our knowledge.  NASA has problems but it does a LOT of stuff right also.  So for now all I will say is

Go #Curiosity, #MSL, #SAM  go!

Whooops there it is

Been a busy bunch of weeks.

Vacation down to OBX was great.  Rode bikes, played/relaxed on the beach, drank beer and wine, flew my kites, almost killed a few people with my BIG kite, ate some awesome food.  J t-boned a car on a bike path at about 5-6 miles an hour (from 16).  Bent the hell outa her bikes front wheel but a replacement and it was mostly good.

Food and Beer/Wine recommendations -
The Brine and Bottle - Wow try the Tuna Carpaccio if it's available and the other food is great also.  Good wines and beer.
Trio - Wow, 15 taps of good to amazing beers, 1 on cask, amazing small plates, sandwiches, etc.  Wish we had tried dinner here but probably would have needed a cab ride home.
The Full Moon Cafe and Brewery - Go to the brewery side.  Great small pub feel.  Solid beers, well done.  Tiny brewery.  Food's pretty good also, did lunch and really enjoyed it after a ride.

Plenty of good beer places if you look but not many offering DARK or Imperial IPA's.  A LOT of Ambers/etc are available for a nice change.  

There were 2 other places that were pretty good but I can't remember the names right now.  However I did want to SLAM a few places.

OBX Brew Station - Beers were lame, food was a bit weird but well done.  My wasabi mashed potatoes were HULK green.  You don't need to add that much food coloring!
Ice Cream Stands (General) - Hersheys and Blue Bunny are not a big deal folks.  How about some REAL store/home made icecream like I get at the northern beaches.

Biking - Pretty good and generally felt safe rode about 50 miles in 3 rides.  Would have been 60 but the car incident.  It was a badly/well hidden drive and the old lady just pulled right on out, J was going a bit fast and not considering the potential for pull outs.

Beaches - Love em, though the undertow/etc could be rough.

Jockey's Ridge State Park - Amazing place to watch sunset, fly smaller kites.  My big 6 foot delta-v stunt kite almost killed a few people who wouldn't get out of the way.  Way too much wind and too big of a kite to fly the night I tried.  I wanna try hang gliding.

Kite Surfing - Expensive ass sport to learn/do.  A one day class series runs 400-500 typically.  Some schools have 2 day schools that run $600 and is the way to go.  Next time maybe.  Watched a ton of this from   The school down near Rodanthe is pretty cool and has good beer.  The food at the cafe is pretty lame though.

Got back from Vakay and started prepping for the Big Summer Picnic only to find - SURPRISE!  It started raining Friday night and didn't really stop till Sunday AM.  Postponed.

Now rescheduled for Rosaryville on Aug 12.  Don't think we are going to get a huge turnout.

We've been averaging 25 rides over the summer since W@W started and that's up again from last year we were pulling maybe 20. Trying to get back into road also on the CX, my mileage really died in July due to the heat/etc.  Going running tonight though.

Did a big bunch of bike maintenance this last week and it payed off, the MTB is riding nice and not making tons of creaking/etc.

Olympics have been pretty good so far, looking forward to MTB and BMX.

Escape Velocity Built

Wow, after what feels like forever, my vacation starts next week.  My last one was back in early March to see my folks and well, visiting the parents, isn't really a vacation :)  Say it's a half-cation.

This time I'm off to the OBX which I haven't been to since probably Reagan was in his first term as president.  I want to say I was in 1st grade but not positive.  Staying in Nags Head and hoping to get some good riding, good relaxing and good swiming in.  Also hoping to make it to the Wright Bro's museum.  

Wakefield ride last night was pretty good, we rode mostly Accotink which is sort of amazingly clear excluding 1 or 2 spots, especially the last big descent near the dam area which is blocked by a HUGE tree.  Got 8 miles and change, no pre-ride as I stayed late at work.  Post ride was good time chilling, drinking beer and hanging out.   The girl who damaged a tooth a few years ago came back for the first time.  Felt horriible hearing a few others were also damaged!  Ouch!  Major dental work for her.  Damn.  Now she wears a mouth guard, probably not a bad idea really.  

Put a deposit down for J on a bike to checkout on our way outa town on Saturday.

Tonight it's Dream Theater at the Warner.  Should be another awesome show, saw them earlier on tour and was really impressed.

Oh and Happy Friday the 13th.  :P

Sawing Along

Well it's been a long and busy week.  Work has been stupid due to working an extra hour everyday and the 2 extra on Thursday morning REALLY sucked.  Been playing catchup on sleep since then still need a few more.

Thursday we did a ride and clear at Accotink.  Damn.  A TON of trees down.  We cleared a bunch of stuff and some smaller trees using hand saws but a lot simply requires chainsaws.  Larry C sawed out a MEGA ton of timber, probably 100+ cuts or more in 2 hours. 

Also "found" a wasp nest on the Gas Plant trails near the BIG Grass Field.  One of my guys was stung 10-15 times, another maybe more but on the head and body and he bailed out.  Not that I got away without being stung, I got taped once, on the thumb thru my glove.  Oy I was damn lucky.  And very glad I wore my 3/4's shorts over my tights. 

Still a lot of stuff to clear on the new interior trail I believe, though WF is now fully clear.  Actually trimmed the lower third of Phase 4 that was just horribly over growing.  Got tired of battling plants while riding thru.  Another week or two and it will be clear for a good while.

Ran again yesterday, felt much better than on last Friday's same run, this time running probably 2.5 and walking 1 mile of it.  Not sure of time, but definetely ran further and better so my estimate for last week should have been like 1.75 and 1.75 I think.  So thats about  11 miles of run/walking in the last 2 weeks, starting to feel better.  Now I have a major goal to be in good shape as I'm doing this run at the end of October:

Run for Your Lives - Baltimore - Oct 27 2012.

Well that BLEW!

I was one of the lucky folks in the DC area in that my power only flickered on Friday, never fully lost power at all!    Who knew buried power lines were a good idea????

My work wasn't so lucky their power went out and didn't come back on till 21 hours later at 8PM.  We were on generator through that time.  Unfortunately the COM Room for our whole building is not on Gen-set so we lost phones and some of our networks as the UPS's in there are just too old.  So things are STILL catching up as of 12 hours later and it looks like the queue's won't finish for another 4 to 6 hours. 

Cabin John park is reported CLOSED due to down lines. 

Other trails I've heard about include 17 trees down at Schaeffer and WF and Accotink are war-zones.

Day 7 straight of work is sucking.  Hard.

The Dusty Trail

Dusty-field should be the new name for Wakefield.   After a relatively dry and VERY dusty 2 weeks wakefield's trails are ALL very dustry especially the ones in the open.  Powerlines was super dusty I kept coughing from all the crap.  Can't imagine how bad it was during the race.

This week I did another race lap to start off with after a quick spin around the lower fields/courts.  Somehow turned a 19:58 lap which is pretty damn good in my books.  Way faster than last week and felt like I still could have been even a bit faster, wasn't pushing it in some area's at all. 

The main ride went well other than finding out the gentleman who crashed horribly off the infamous Tree-Zilla Log-Over was on my ride.  He tried to pull a manual off it apparently and had a bad fall ending up paralyzed for about 2 months after hitting head first.  And that was the end of Tree-Zilla.  Oh well.  He was struggling a bit and seemed unsteady when trying to get out of the saddle and hammer up hills/etc.  He bailed at the far end of Accotink to ride out.

On the way back down Danbury Forest I gate it a good hard spin and hit 33.4 MPH.  Zoom.

Riding will be limited this weekend between working all weekend and the insane heat today and tomorrow with temps at 100+.

If you are out riding, stay safe, keep hydrated and wear your sunscreen. 

Amazing day of weather

Truly awesome weather today other than the 15mph wind when headed into it.  Sub 80's!

Did a quick 12 mile spin in the hood to stretch the legs out from the running punishment the day before.  Legs were sore and not up to full power but felt okay by the end.  The timed mile was a bit quicker than before so thats good but due to pedestrian traffic on the trails I let up a bit more than I should have and missed a chance for 2:40 mile or less. Oh well next time. 

Heats coming in BIG time with temps hitting near 100 by the weekend.  fck.  At least I'm working and not sitting at home in the crap weather. 

Had a new beer today at Whole Foods, DuClaw's Serum a 9% IPA.  Pretty damn good.  Tried a taste of Re-PENT at 14% barley wine.  Maybe as a 8oz sipping/dessert beer.  Off to bed it's been a long day.  Tomorrow I think I'm gonna see about dropping the Volpe off for a tune up after work.

Meep Meep....

Well I did it again.  Oops.  Nope I didn't run into Ms.Spears but I did go jogging for the first time in 3+ years.  My out door running/jogging days are long past and I was never very serious.  In my 2nd college stint I got up to doing a fair amount of indoor track running (Too hot in FL for outdoor) and had a love/hate relationship with many treadmills on and off till I quit my gym 3.5 years ago.  Best $50 I've saved a month in a long time I still think. 

Today I went with a really slow pace and alternated slow jogging (walking) with slow running  (jogging).  A total of 35 minutes with about 17 in running.  I'm sure my legs will enter full rebellion tomorrow or will leave me looking like Vader post volcanic beauty treatment.  But it wasn't terrible.  The tech shirt was very nice to have and new shoes made a huge difference over my old ones.  I see getting a few pairs of running shorts in the future also, as my old gym shorts spandex has died.  When I put them on I heard more Snap, Crackle and Pop then a bowl of Rice Crispies. 

Just Gmap Pedometer calculated my route and it is just about 1.5 miles per lap and I did 2 plus a bit.  Wow, probably ran the equivalent of a whole lap. 

My new bibs for cycling still aren't in it appears the address may have been slightly borked but I figure they should have had a human eventually look at it and fix it.  ugh.

Bikes need cleaning but I'm pretty wiped.  Trying to figure out tomorrow's ride plan but that may be a bit aggressive knowing how my legs are feeling at the moment.  We shall see! 

Great weather tomorrow but then the heat of hell is back starting Thur and rocketing to 100'ish over the weekend again.  At least I'm stuck at work.  Maybe I'll do some after dark rides. 

Hotter than a .....

It was simply HOT last night.  A bit more humid than yesterday. 

Got to Wakefield around 5pm.  Took a while to get ready and I wasn't rushing.  Had to lube the damn chain and clean the bike a bit.  About 5:35 I headed out and ended up doing a modified 1st race course lap then a normal 2nd lap.  The times were unimpressive.  I wasn't feeling super strong.  My measured pace was 9.2 MPH on both my laps meaning probably 9.5. Looking back in Connect I see the last time I logged an Official W@W lap in Jully 2008 I was a tenth faster but my AVG heart rate was WAY higher. 

On my 2nd lap my Race Strap gave up and all my @#$@ went fling off the back of the bike (tube, levers, and CO2 cart).  Ugh.  Finding the 2nd lever was a bit of work, then stuffing all the crap in my jersey pockets due to stupid zippers. 

Only had 20 signed in riders this week versus 40 last week due to the race, the movie and the heat I suspect, still it was a good group.  On casual we had a ride start on heat exhaustion/stroke so I took her back on the CCT and she felt better after getting off the punishing hills in Accotink so we spun up to 236 and back.  I ended up with 16 and change logged meaning probably 17.5, which means I'm at 65 miles again for the week.  Not bad , just under 200 miles this month and 242 miles in the last 30 days.

Big weekend on the plans again, Beer Fest in sLeesburg tomorrow afternoon, and more bike buying work with J on Sunday probably.  I'd like to get in a good 30 to 40 but dunno if that will be possible. 

Tonight I may finally try going for my first jog in years and I have to clean out the Rogue.  The amount of crap I've let pile-up is a bit shocking. 

Had Southern Tier's Iniquity Black IPA - Nice and malty with a decent hop load, a maltier less hoppy version than say 21st Amendment's Black IPA. 

In foody news the owner of Volt up in Frederick MD is opening a diner serving traditional diner food modernized and it will probably be excellent but a fair hit pricey.  It's on my to-do list next time I'm up in Fred-neck and not sweaty, dirty and such.  It's name is Family Meal on N. East Street.  Yep another wonderfully confusing Frederick street name. North East Street.  sigh. 

Another week of Blah!

Got in a couple rides last week, thursday night was a bit low mileage but hey I did clip/trim back near a mile and a half of race course single track in case I do any of the W@W series this year.  Right now based on how hot Wednesday may be I plan on skipping week 1 for sure.  MId 90's would suck. 

Thursday this week has been lowered from 100/99 to only 96!  Phew.  I was wondering who was going to show up for a ride again along with the devil.  Maybe I'll bring popsicle's instead of beer.  Regardless it's going to be a warm middle of the week. 

Yesterday I only got 24 miles so tonight I'm planning on riding down into DC for another 20'ish.  Last 3 week's I've been avg 65 miles or so a week, and that feels pretty awesome.  Changed my seat position about a quarter of an inch higher on the CX bike for a "change" to see if that helped improve power/ease up.  What I noticed today is the soreness is in my VERY low quads so not sure. 

My Sunday ride was more of a touring/road riding test to see how the ride to Whole Foods in Lk Fairfax would be.  Not bad excluding 2 parts that would be a bit sketchy in traffic.  Not pushing made it over in about 30 minutes and back 26 or so. 

So as the Jester typically says, "Stay Frosty".

Riding more is fun!

I will say since getting the cross bike a month ago my riding has really shot up, I've done about 50 miles a week extra on average since getting it as my currently mileage this month up till today is around 210 on that bike, which to me is pretty mind blowing, for me really thats 2 GOOD months of MTB.  I enjoy being able to get out and spin out a quick 10-15 miles of distance in an hour from the house or in 3 hours be able to lay down 40 or 50.  Not quite ready to say it's making me a stronger rider yet but I feel like I'm advancing my always keep pedaling mentality a bit away from MTB of coast and pedal that I've lived in.

I still love my MTB and railing Accotink last week was a blast.  The first really dry week in a while, trails were lots of fun to just zoom on.  Also trying to brake less.  Now that seems harder than not pedaling.  I waste a lot of speed/momentum as I brake way too much according to a pretty trusted friend. 

Crap weather is really killing the ability to MTB more or I would have ridden last night or tonight but it was threatening storms last night and raining today.  ugh.  ugh.  ugh. 

Jen was complaining about my car smelling like dirty gym clothes due to biking stuff. So I sniffed out the culprit.  My shoes, the clothes I had in were clean, not dirty.  It's the damn shoes.  Maybe a shoe bag is in order to keep the stink down after I air it out soon.  But I love having the shoes always in the car it prevents forgetting them at home.  Maybe some of that sport febreeze is in order on the shoes.  ugh. 

Stormy Times

It's been pretty hecticc over the last week and change between the epic holiday parties for Memorial Day (2 BBQ's and 1 street festival), storms on and off and getting a few good rides in.

Unfortunately my plans for a big ride last weekend went up in BBQ Smoke, but a good time was had regardless.  The Sowebo festival in B-more was a good time, saw some good bands, drank a fair amount of beers, bought some t-shirts and relaxed. 

I got my rear mtb tire back on Thursday from the shop, having it re-tensioned after whatever went wrong with it and caused it to de-tension almost half way apparently.  I could have done the ride on the cross bike again, but this was funner for sure doing the bigger stuff in the 2nd half of Accotink. 

Had a HUGE turn out for the ride due to one of the regular's birthday being that day.  I think we had 36 or 37 riders in 5 groups.  Trails were in better shape in general than the last 2 weeks for sure. 

The next morning though I hurt, shoulders and abs in a way I don't usually feel from mtb.  Must have been from being off it for 2 weeks really.

Also had a self fitness sprint out the WO&D on wednesday doing about 28 miles in a bit over 90 minutes.  Forgot to start the gps at first.  D'oh.  The street crossings really suck as I wasn't in a group so I usually fully stopped or almost did to cross roads.  Didn't get passed the whole way out or back which felt good, passed a fair amount of people at various paces.  18 mph is a gas. 

Finally bottling the Choco-PeanutButter-Milk Stout tonight.  Bottling sucks but it's gotta be done and I want to get the IPA under way soon.  It's a Rogue clone.

God I hate lawn work.

A complete first for me yesterday. 

NO ONE turned out for my trailwork day.  I admit I didn't publicize it like I wished but I still usually get a few late arrivals or a few kids who need volunteer hours.  This year I got 0.  Not that I was really disappointed.  It meant less thinking and some self time out to reflect as I murdered plant life up and down the CJ Trail.  So I started with cleaning up the Tuckerman RD to Goya section entrance.  Trimmed that way back.  Hopefully soon it will have a REAL sign.  Then cleared the corridor a bit up the hill, this section isn't ever to bad and only the entrance area will need a follow up before the fall/winter.    Then I drove up to the shopping center and started from the double bridge area first I worked my way back up the trail toward the entrance to pick off 2 bad spots I noticed then I cleared a bridge of debris and a creek also.  Then it was the long march.  I then worked all the way up till the next bridge.  Some area's I REALLY cleared heavily some were more minimal and will require follow up at the end of June for sure.  This was now a bit before 1pm and I wasn't quite done.  I drove over to the Bradley Rd trail intersections and cleared the big bridge entrance WAY back then crossed back over bradley and worked about half way up that section also.  1 or 2 more evenings in the next few weeks should have the basics in good shape. 

The re-route i wanted to do had to be postponed for major inspections/etc.  Looks like it may also involve more sections and end up on an old roadbed possible,  Good in that it will be high up and will dry off quick, bad in that it won't be as fun or flowy as some of the low area's stuff.    We have flagged a temporary line to move the tread up onto to make it okay but with only myself that didn't happen. 

And now it's raining again, looks like another wet early week and drying out a bit towards the end, though this week it's scattered or smothered or covered T-storms (Sorry have a bit of waffle house on the brain this morning it seems).  Hoping it lets up enough for a quick 10 miles or so at least this afternoon.

Big kudo's out to Rich D for winning the Single Speed class at the Pisgah 111k.  I can't imagine riding 69 miles of pisgah in one day.  I've done a fair chunk of the race.  Across 3 seperate days.  oy.

Off to find some slow moving lunch.