Last night I got to ride with two old friends on the Faraday loop.

The first was a guy I have known since elementary school, since since I am married with kids and he is single, we kinda went our separate ways over the last couple of years. Even with the time gap, we seemed to fall easily back into our "roles", and the ride went as they always have, him blasting ahead, and me puffing behind.

The other friend was my trail bike, between the weather and my schedule, it has spend a lot of time just sitting. It was nice to get the old girl out and about.

Tonight was greeeeeat to be out riding. Low humidity, cool temps. for July, what more could you ask for? I left my house around 645pm and went counter clockwise on the Colts Neck loop. I passed by a couple of single riders and then a few groups of anywhere from 2-5 riders. When I got to the ice rink I chilled out riding around, giving my legs a rest from the hills and then did the loop clockwise to get back home. I tried to say "Hey" or "Hi" to everyone I passed by. I was on a Silver Trek hardtail and wearing a blue & white s/s zippered jersey & black baggy shorts. I'm just wondering which MORE folks were out there too.

Raced Clyde again @ WaW. Last week was a fluke. I ran about 30 seconds faster but finished way down from before. The lead pack was probably 2 minutes up on me and Joel showed up. So did Ernie, Jenkins, and some other faster guys. I am pretty sure Barry also made a much better showing this week. I think he was in front of me where he belongs.

I really don't know where I ended up. I am guessing somewhere between 5th-7th. If I got 5th AGAIN I will be chuckling inside. 5th place is my home in Clyde it seems.

I brought the singlespeed again but went from 32x18 to 33x18. I thought a slight bit more gearing would help out. I was spinning like mad a lot last time.

WRONG!

My knees ache and I was pushing what felt like too much gearing, especially when trying to shoot out of a corner. Instead I lallygagged out of corners. I made up a little time on the creek trail and in the open, but it was not worth the effort. It hurt.

I have a new 32 in the mail. I bought the 33 at Bike Lane today and the 32 is coming in from Speedgoat along with a 17 rear to experiment with.

Can't wait to see just how bad my loss was today in time. That front pack was flying.

Somehow I enjoy the challenge even though I know that I am outgunned. Thanks for all the guys who showed up tonight to add to the thrill, especially those men who were across the line in front of me.

I almost gave a safety lecture this morning to a young woman in a halter top on a tri bike, plowing through Falls Church on her aero bars:

"If you don't sit up, you're going to cause an accident. Oh . . . and it's probably not a great idea to have your hands so far from your brake levers, either."

I am a swine.:rolleyes:

(ED. NOTE: I still do contend that riding time trial equipment in populated areas is moronic. You will hurt someone, probably yourself.)

hadnt planned too, but my father in law signed himself and me up for a double century the year he turned 60. We trained for the ride for all of three months calling it the 3:15 ride, we were going to lose 15 lbs each ride 15 miles per hour for 15 hours to finish the event. It was a major accomplishment of my riding life.

I bring this up because this was the longest time I had ever been on the road in any type of vehicle (car or bike) in one day, until yesterday.

I received a call saturday at midnight from my brother, they were coming home from an event and thier truck broke down. Him, his wife, kids and three horses were now stranded and he wanted me to bring him the other truck.

DId I happen to say that they were outside of Memphis tennesee?? Ironically Hertz doesnt rent any vehicle that will hold a family and their horses, even in Tenneseee. Being the good samaritan I am (read sucker) I said yes, googled me some directions and caught three hours of sleep and rolled out of my bed at 3:30 am . 20 hours later I rolled back into bed with 1400 miles under my belt and 9 diet mt dews in my belly.

In comparison of the two events I am proud of them both. One I was helping my father in law fulfill a quest, the other I was rescuing my brothers family, both worthwhile ventures.

There were other similarities both had spectacular views, both were calorie fests, the drive a calorie gain of about 10000, the ride a deficit of about half that and both had thier moments of excitement and boredom but went quicker than I would of expected.

The difference was in the end. At the end of riding 16 hours and 205 miles (we got lost). We were exhausted and thrilled at the accomplishment, 5 minutes from finishing we were high fiving each other and already reliving the ride. My wife and kids were there to greet me cheering me on.

5 minutes out from the car ride, I was equally exhausted stuck in traffic on 395 only half mile from my house (why there is traffic at 11:00 pm I will never know) and the only feeling I had was. I am glad this is over. My wife opened the door form me, gave me a peck on the cheek and joined the kids in slumber.

There was also one other odd coincidence of the two events. After 16 hours on the bike my father in law learned he had locked his keys in his car so we had to stuff all the bikes, kids and adults in my wifes car and come back and get his the next day. After 20 hours of driving I made the mistake of throwing my keys not the rental keys into the rental car overnight drawer requiring me to come back later to exchange them.

It just goes to show the adventure is never over when you think it is.

Did Colts Neck on Saturday. And rode to Great Falls on Father's Day.

I don't know what's up. My heart rate spikes really fast and I have to rest frequently. I suppose being on 4 powerful BP meds for 5 years, and now, finally being free of them has a cost.

But you know, my fitness may not be sufficient for even a casual group ride, I really don't care. I've got plenty of leg strength, and I can handle pretty much whatever the trails I ride most can throw at me. I just do it at my own pace.

I've never ridden bikes to be fast or competitive.
Riding is such pure unbridled pleasure. That really hit me Saturday. I started out really off my game. Clumsy, slow, awkward. But as I warmed up, I became more confident. I love the feeling of the bike taking the roots, rocks logs and all; the running of the gears and chain, the suspension response, vibration of the bar on my hands, even the squeal of brakes.

I rode the neck backwards, cutting into it from the connector path from my house, and climbing the hill to the skate rink - resting - and climbing some more. (I know, that's lame, but I don't care).

It started to drizzle on the CCT section after Brown's Mill, and by the time I got to Carpers Farm Way, it was poring. I stood under a maple and enjoyed the experience.

And that's the thing. There are some really pretty places along that loop. And having to rest so often forces me to take notice, and enjoy them.

Riding makes me very very happy....

After the rain stopped this evening, I hopped on the commuterand rode out to the new EMS store next to Wegmans in Dulles. It's a pretty easy ride of about 6 miles and the rain cooled the temp down to tolerable levels. I had done some tweaking to the bike last night and wanted to see how it felt.

One of the changes made was seat adjustment, and I must say that it is a surprising time consuming task. I had decided that the seat needed to be moved forward a touch and tilted forward to relieve some pressure on the jewels. After about the first mile, it was obvious that I was now sliding off the front, but it wasn't too bad so I pushed on.

The ride requires that I cross a pretty busy street at a light, and for the first time, I get to it with no other traffic going in my direction. I waited there for a while and even watched the light cycle for other traffic, but never for me, so I ended up having to zip across during a lull in traffic. Not a comfortable feeling, but what else is there to do.

After riding the WOD for a couple of miles and taking a sketchy "path" behind the BMW dealer I made it to the Wegmans Land!

The EMS has been open for a week and even at 7:30 at night there were quite a few people in the store. They have a dedicated bike setup area but only about 12 bikes on display. Scott, Iron Mountain and Salsa were represented, including an El Mariachi rigid 1x???. The sales guy said he thought they also got ROcky Mountain, but wasn't sure.

The ride back was much the same, but I did stop off at the Ice Rink to peek in on offspring #1 at a b-day party.

All in all, a nice, quiet ride.

A Shake-down Ride . . . er, Race

Spent the day at work pretty much uselessly, drinking water and charging to the bathroom every ten minutes to pee. I will never enter a race dehydrated - drinking is practically a nervous tic of mine.

Last minute issue came up at work, and I didn't get to leave until 4:30. Sprinted out the door, arrived at Wakefield at 4:45, signed up by 5:00, changed and rolling by 5:15. OK, back on schedule.

I rode up the gravel road towards the finish line, and cut a hard left onto that uphill where the trail enters the woods. As I crested the off-camber turn, my front wheel washed out and I went down in the grass. Huh. One data point on the new tires.

Charging down the hill towards Salamander, I noted an interesting tendency of the bike - it felt like the rear end wanted to outrun the front end. I can't decribe it better than that, it was just a sensation, and I chalked it up to the switch back to a freewheel after running fixed since October. Other than that, I loved how the new bike allows me to let it run, and reign things in after they get crazy.

Wound my way around Salamander, and started up Phase I. Hopped the log, three or four hard pedal strokes and POW!! Sudden bars-to-nards interaction and an instantaneous trip to the dirt. Dusting myself off, it seems I dropped my chain. WTF!?! Put the chain on, tension is fine, two pedal strokes and it's off again. That's when I noticed the outer plate that had peeled right off one of the pins. It seems that when removing that link on Tuesday, I should have focused on lubricating the chain with an approved product, rather than lubricating myself with malted beverages. Time to start running.

By the time I had jogged back to the car, it was 5:40. I figured on of SRAM's Power Links would be my only salvation, but nobody had one to spare. Cursing myself, I frantically dug in my piles of junk, and found the single link I had removed, two days prior. To say I was nervous as I removed the damaged link and pressed the other into its place would be an understatement. This was my last chance. I tried to slow myself down as I worked. At 5:48, it was as good as it would get, so I wiped my palms, locked the car, and headed for the start.

At six, we took off. It's funny - it seems that I can put out as much power as I need to, but race starts are always a difficulty for me. It's always a balance between getting in front of the guys who are going to blow up without blowing up oneself. I was definitely two places behind where I wanted to be entering the singletrack, but at least the lead group was staying in sight. Phase I and the creek trail went without event, and JoeP and I passed two or three guys when we hit the doubletrack. Rick, Joe, Tony and I formed a love train of sorts for the remainder of Lap 1, crusing along. Bike felt very good, not quite awsome. Joe noted later that he was overgeared for climbing, which I noticed as he crested the ridges in Phase II, and I came around him during the climb back to the start. I felt like making a move, and came around Rick when we got back to the gravel road after starting Lap 2. Figuring "nothing ventured, nothing won," I pushed it as hard as I could through the armored sections, which are typically a slow spot for me. My level of finesse was certainly lacking, which was clearly evidenced and as we entered Phase I. It was time to see whether my gambit had worked, it became quite clear that it hadn't. My front tire had gone flat. You must be kidding me. Data point #2 on the new tires.

I ripped out the old tube, threw a new one in, and grabbed my inflator. As I put the whole cartridge into my tire, the end of the singlespeed field passed. Masters were passing as I started rolling again. As I crossed over to the creek trail, it became obvious that my tire was not up to a rideable pressure. I pulled off the course, and saw that the sidewall was pulling off the rim. I deflated the tire in time to save the tube, and was all set to hike out, when a bystander offered to help. He was carrying three cartridges - thanks, amigo, and when I went to put the one he offered into my inflator, I saw that I had cross-threaded the two halves together. It was all I could do to unthread them, but they went back together perfectly, and the tire came up to pressure. Out of the pits.

On the creek trail, I had some deciding to do. Walsh was certainly going to finish the race, but would it be angry, frustrated Walsh turingin in a solid third lap, or Walsh the big puddy-tat? Angry Walsh soon took the helm, and I chased down as many folks as I could. Only one was riding a bike without mechanical assistance, and he might have been one of the masters as well, just riding his single-speed for fun.

The rest of the ride was not at all noteworthy, until my third trip down the Phase II whoops. I saw the cameraman, decided that I always wanted a picture of myself up in the air, and went for it. I don't even know what went wrong - probably everything - but the impact was pretty hard. I bet it's going to make an awesome shot. I rolled up and was off again, pushing it to the line. I can't say I was happy with the results, but any results beat a DNF in my book. The complimentary Honest Tea was tasty.

Afterwards, I did some playing around with tire pressure. I had dropped my front tire pressure to a hair under 20psi before the race, figuring I would get he maximum cushion and traction out of the 2.55" tire. Although I ran some really low pressure on the Mongoose with great success, this turned out ot be a big mistake. I took the pressure up to nearly 30 and went out for another lap. The tire cornered far better than it had at the lower pressure, and didn't bounce around the armored sections the way I had expected it to. And guess what - that feeling of the rear end wanting to go faster than the front was gone. I must note that the rear Crossmark did an excellent job of hooking up throughout the race, though I may turn it around for a little extra traction when climbing in the loose stuff.

Well, see you Wednesday, I guess. :)

Now here is a new one. I raced Clydesdale tonight at WaW. In the past I almost ALWAYS place 5th in Clyde. Joel and Doug were AWOL. So that would explain it.

But still, I actually stood on a podium. I got 3rd in Clyde. It put a smile on my face and it felt good in a small world kind of way. :D

I rode the singlespeed and finished somewhere around 56 or 57 minutes from what my bike computer told me. That was over 3 laps.

If I do it again next week I might throw some gears in the back. I spent a lot of time spinning out. 32:18 on a 26er is just too short for Wakefield.

(With apologies to Team Dicky.)

Well, Weekly Ass Whuppin' #1 has rolled around, and there is total radio silence on the board. I tried to stir the pot, and nada. Nobody took the bait, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess the folks that I know and ride with are too busy installing 36x16 ratios on their sub-twenty-pound Ti twenty-niners, and I am set to have my doors blown off.

But I have a new bike. Robin is very steel, and very blue.

No, not exactly. More like this. The new ride is simply awesome, and I've taken some time to get it completely dialed. "Dialed," in this case means that
1) the craptastic stock Aheadset is finally tight enough
2) the seatpost may be at the correct height
3) I've taken it for one dirt ride already
4) Picking tires made my head hurt, so I brought beer to help me decide
and
5) the grips match the paint scheme.

Yessir, I am ready for some serious racing, or at least I seriously have no idea how this race thing will go. I am currently contemplating racing hobo-style, in a plaid shirt, in recognition of the disparity between my dreams and reality. I guess only one thing is for sure:

It's TIME FOR PAIN!!

[Ed. Major Payne image removed]

Greetings.

I was honking up the hill on the WoD behind Lion Village shopping center (you know the section... it is the up-hill S-turn as you're riding away from DC) and I broke my chain.

I was in a pretty big gear and putting out a pretty good amount of effort, so the effect was to catapult me over the bars.

It was my first roadie crash in more than a decade and it was quite enjoyable. The guy behind me said it looked great too. One moment I'm stomping up the hill... the next moment it looks like someone pushed the ejector seat button that flung me over the bars.

The most important thing... Other than one chain link the bike was not damaged at all. There's a small scratch on the body of the brake lever... but that might have already been there.

The great thing is that I've managed to renew the ancient scars on my left hip from roadie crashes of years ago. I also will likely have a scar on my knee in the one place where I didn't have one. I guess that's kind of like completing the set of collectable Elvis high-ball tumblers.

I successfully grossed out lots of people on my way home. Which is always something that makes me happy. I also netted a sympathy dinner INCLUDING the night off from washing dishes. I still had to clean the cat box though. ;)

I'll get pictures of it tonight. I wanted to wait until it was nice and oozie before documenting it for posterity (or posterior as the case may be).

Later!

Pete

OK I was figuring out what I spend on biking annually - its somewhat less than the war effort thankfully. I came up with an interesting subset of costs that I never considered before. Actually three subsets -pledeges to friends doing rides for a cause, bike related memberships and finally publications.

All worthwhile investments but I was surprised when the hundeds of dollars started stacking up in these categories.

pledges for rides - I gave til it hurts, the problem is there is a cause ride or two every weekend and at least two or three buddies are doing them with their hand out - ykes. Race for the Cure shur thing let me get the check book out, police unity tour no problem, tour to stop the overbooking of tours where do I sign up. its like girl scout cookie sales for grown ups, you cant buy cookies from one friend without buying from the other friend.

Ultimately the person who has fun riding thier bike gets credit for all the other folks donations - thats like getting paid to play. yeah yeah yeah I am being grouchy here but I think from here on out I am forgoing the ride donations and giving directly to the causes.


then I looked at publications - velonews, mountain bike action, bicyling/mountabike magazine dirt rag all read monthly can you say chaching

luckily I bought a life time subscription to dirt rag to save some dough. I put it in my 4 year old sons name because he will live longer than me (hee hee0)

finally memberships- MORE no problem , IMBA - okay fine seems like there should be a combined rate for the two but heck I am in, WABA good for the roads and commuting, pptc - fun group and they support worthy causes, PVC - they probably provide the most bang for the buck, bike coOp sure why not its only a couple bucks, League of American Bicyclist (again why arent they and waba offering combined memberships???). the list goes on and on.

so now I am well read, informed and worthy of riding my bike... only problem is I need some money to buy a new rear wheel!!!

Did a 65 mile 4 hour ride yesterday with Pete and Alistair. I weigh about 209. I must have burned over 4,000 calories.

And now I sit and eat Twizzlers by the handfuls. I just can't seem to stop.

Lately I have been pretty bummed that I have not had any seat time on either bike. Trails are too muddy for the mtb and my 10k "training" has been taking the place of any road miles.

Today, two positive things happened on the road front. First, I quit the 10k training. I was going to do a race with some friends, but my body wasn't cooperating; aches, pains, general crappiness. My friends were totally supportive of the decision, which was pretty cool, I was expecting a total razzing.

Second, another friend who normally bike commutes informed me that because of conflicting schedules he would have to drive from now on and wants to get some miles knocked out in the evening. While I feel bad that he is having to cut back on his riding, it is nice to have someone to ride with.

Now, if it will just stop raining...

Wednesdays at Wakefield starts in 4 days and I am thinking about riding a few of them. Might even do all 4.

I have no good racing bikes for that type of course.

I've got a singlespeed which is fun but I ain't no singlespeed racer type. I would almost certainly anchor DFL.

I've got a 36lbs Ellsworth Moment built up for the downhill side of All Mountains. It climbs and accelerates on flats but you have got to be patient. This is probably my best option and would be fun, but surely not competitive. This is my daily driver so I should go with it irregardless of where I place.

And then I've got the GT I-Drive 4 built up with mostly spare parts and a frame I bought new off a friend for an absolute steal.

I got the GT hoping for a lightweight racerboy bike and ended up with a 32lbs tank of a bike with a real crappy suspension design.

So I took the GT out to run the WaW course just to get my balance back on it. It is my backup FS bike afterall and gets ridden rarely.

Now I remember why. It is a POS. Flexxy, awful suspension response, frame is too big for me, seat is too hard, creaks everywhere, dogbone comes loose all the time, weighs a ton, bobs like a mother on climbs, unpredictable on fast descents, rear triangle out of alignment, and lousy customer service from GT.

I am again reminded why I would love to own a 4" FS 28lbs or less race bike.