newbie

took one of my old housemates up to schaeffer this evening for his 2nd mountain bike ride... he seemed to have a good time, even if he was getting off the bike a lot. we did 6 1/2 miles at a very casual pace. it's great to ride with beginners and be able to see a real difference just during the course of a ride.

dropped the tracer off at filzbuilt yesterday to get a shot pivot bearing replaced. should be able to pick it up tommorow night which will give me a couple of days to give it a last going over.

trying to decide how much food i should put in my drop bag, i should be able to do okay with the pb&j and banannas from the checkpoints, i haven't had a problem eating them during my long rides. i'll probably stash some full flasks of hammer gel in case the checkpoints are out of flavours that i like.

one more...

I'm going to have a picture in issue 110 (next month, 109 is out now) of DirtRag, but it's in the "Rider's Eye" secton, so i wasn't counting that...

1 down, 1 to go

I started this year with 2 goals: the SM100 and getting a picture published. I still won't know about the 100 for another 6 (argh!) days but today I got an e-mail from Adventure Sports Magazine to let me know that they are going to use one of the pictures that I submitted a couple of months ago for an article on mountain biking in the mid-atlantic.

I got an e-mail a couple of months ago (thanks to a query to the MORE website and a referral from Scott) asking for pictures, so I FedEx'd them a CD and then didn't hear anything for a couple of months. When I fired up the laptop to check my e-mail after work something stopped me from deleting an e-mail, the name was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I took a risk and opened it and got the good news. It's in the September issue so it should be out now... I need to find a shop that sells it so that I can see which one they've used.

1 week to go

it's 10 on sunday... by this time next sunday i'll be finished with the SM100, whether I'll finish the race or not I still don't know... BikeDC volunteer training session and ride yesterday. rode the 1st half of the ride and then broke off and rode in Rock Creek Park. ran into fellow CityBikes rider Eric Welp in the park as I was finishing my ride and we talked about training and the SM100 as we rode down through the park.

Led a casual ride at Gambrill this morning, had a good time, other than breaking a 2nd pedal in as many weeks (attempts to fix it at City Bikes later in the day just ended up breaking it beyond any hope of repair). Ran into a couple of friends who are also getting ready for the 100 up at Gambrill and at the shop.

Just about every conversation with another mountain biker these days starts with "So, are you ready for next weekend?", with the reply "as ready as i'm going to be."

On the weather front, next weekend's now looking cloudy with a chance of rain.

gambrill on sunday

i'm going to lead a casual MORE ride at gambrill on sunday... details here

thursday night at wakefield

it's been a while since i've done an after work ride at wakefield, a couple of months if you don't count the wednesday races in june and july, so when i saw a mountain bike ride on my training schedule yesterday i figured that instead of riding by myself i'd head over to wakefield and hook up with the casual group... i rode the creek trail for a bit while everyone was getting ready and once the groups started to form i chose to stick with the casual group instead of trying to hang with one of the hammer groups, which i might be able to do now... on a good day. after a while with the casual group i split off and headed over to the racecourse area to do some hill attacks; managed to keep a lot of speed up the hills, which felt good... food and beer at kilroy's after in fine thursday night form...

weather paranoia

it's begun... checked accuweather for harrisonburg for labor day weekend for the first time... so far so good, partly cloudy and 82 on sunday... not that it means much this far out.

bike DC

bike DC is september 18th... sign up, ride, have fun.

another day, another ride

rode down to haines point after work to do a half hour of tempo... felt strong, heart rate at the higher end of the range for tempo the whole time. what a difference from the last tempo ride 2 weeks ago when my legs were tired i just couldn't get my heart rate up.

met with my nancy this morning to go over plans for the 100... we talked about food, supplies, drops, etc... she'd made up a tip sheet with some important items to remeber and hints on pacing throughout the course. need to get some gallon ziploc bags to make sure that i can fit everything into my drop bags...

back to work...

11 days to go...

back on the bike last night after a couple days off... easy road ride down to haines point, across the river and back through georgetown and the key bridge... got my last pre-race training plan from nancy this morning, mostly shorter rides with some intervals thrown in... since i'm signed up for training through almost the end of october i've got some cross specific training after recovering from the race

R & R

a bachelor party in atlantic city may not be the best way to rest up from training, but it was a nice break from the normal routine...

It's in the toilet...

Worlds Smallest brewery reopens [from rob]

Richard Montgomery strikes back...

Doomsday wreck in Thames could blow

atlantic city...

heading up to atlantic city this weekend for steve's bachelor party... left work early for a 3 1/2 hour road ride... did 50 miles...

Schaeffer

Quick spin at Schaeffer after work before stopping by my parents place... Conditions were marginal, the trails are going to take some work at the fall trailwork days to fix the mudholes. Saw a deer 20-feet off the trail in the fields and almost ran over a snake...

Tyler Hamilton wins Olympic TT; Julich takes bronze

Hamilton wins Olympic TT; Julich takes bronze

Just Another Tuesday

Just a quick ride today... Down through the park to the river, back through Georgetown and then back via L St. and Conn. Ave... Downtown streets at rush hour... Fun? Couple of graffiti pics from the Key Bridge.

Top 5 All Time Favorite Downhills

I've done a lot of fun downhills on mountain bike rides, but until yesterday my "Top 5 All Time Favorite Downhills" list only had 2 entries. That's not to say there are a lot of other great ones, but none that warranted the all time favorites list. Yesterday's ride gave me another entry... The Braley's pond downhill, Bald Gap, was a classic. It was smooth, fast, and twisty, with a flow that was perfect - twisting down the side of the ridge on beautiful bench-cut singletrack.

So here it is, my Top 3 All-Time Favorite Downhills...

1. Brushy Hollow (Douthat State Park, VA)
2. Dowell's Draft (GW National Forest, VA)
3. Bald Gap/Braley's Pond (GW National Forest, VA)

Or maybe Bald Gap should be number 2?

Shenandoah Recon

Drove down to Harrisonburg on Friday night for our Saturday recon ride. Met up with Mike Bender for dinner the night before and to talk about the route for Saturday. We went to a local brew-pub and had a good meal and couple good beers.

Saturday morning we met up with a couple of other riders at the Stokesville market. The general plan was to ride the start of the race through checkpoint 2, about 25 miles. After that a couple of us were going to drive to the other end of the course to ride the "Braley's Pond" loop (checkpoints 3 to 4).

The first part of the ride includes the first 2 large climbs of the day, Narrowback and Lynn Trail/Wolf Ridge. With a couple of navigation stops, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish the first section. The cookie trail on Narrowback was a lot of fun and the Wolf Ridge trail almost made the ride/walk up the Lynn trail worth it.

The climb up Bridge Hollow at Braley's Pond was better than the Lynn Trail climb and the downhill was, well it deserves a post of its own... Overall the day had 42 miles in about 5 hours riding, with at least another hour of waiting around and refueling.

On the way home I stopped by Mitch and Amy's new store in Front Royal. It looks like they've got a lot of work to do but it's a cool space and I'm sure it'll look great by the time they're done. Their Store: Vintage Swank (online only until October)

on the way home...

more rain...

it's raining and i'm stuck at work, working on a last minute change to a system that's had lots of last minute changes....

rain...

i've always avoided riding in the rain... but whenever i do i end up enjoying it - with the possible exception of my second lap at Lodi last year, but by then i was very cold and very wet and had no dry socks left...

this afternoon was fun, the rain was really heavy, it was windy, and i was almost alone turning the cranks in the big gear...

Haines Point in the Rain

It's Wednesday, right now that means a long road ride with an hour of tempo at Haines Point, unfortunately the weather looked like it wasn't going to co-operate with the skies darkening all afternoon. The heavens opened at 4, not a good sign for a ride that I needed to start by 5 in order to finish by dark... Fifteen minute later the storm was down to drizzle and by the time I left the office the rain was over and I thought I was in the clear... When I hit the road to start the ride the streets in the neighborhood were dry, but by the time I got to Haines point the rain was picking up again and half way through my first lap it was pouring... The rain didn't last long and by the end of my third lap the rain had stopped and and there was a rainbow over the tidal basin... After 8 laps I crossed over memorial bridge to the Mt. Vernon trail to start home... Passed Ezra, a fellow City Bikes rider and one of my snowshoe team-mates, then back across the river, key bridge this time, and through Georgetown to rock creek and home....

Got my new camera phone today and tried to shoot the rainbow... It's in the shot but you've got to look closely... A couple of pictures that I though I took weren't on the phone when I got home...

Shenandoah Mountain Touring

The SM100 is organized by Chris Scott/Shenandoah Mountain Touring

the 'shed

Legs are very tired right now... 5 hr mountain bike ride at the 'shed on Saturday, then 3 hrs on the road on Sunday... 13 1/2 hours total last week, and a bit more this week. Then rest and "tapering" until the event...

The 100 will take me 12-14 hours IF I finish... still in doubt right now and will be until it's over.

The race is on 9/5 so 4 weeks to go...

City Bikes

I ride for the City Bikes Mountain Bike Team... If you're in the DC area and you need a great bike shop, check out City Bikes in Adams Morgan or Chevy Chase...

The Shop : The Team

Intro...

I'm going to try to blog my attempt at riding the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in real time... If I've got cell coverage out in the woods then i'll use audio, photo, and e-mail posts to chronicle my race. I'll be heading out to the Harrisonburg (VA) area this weekend to pre-ride some of the course and i'll see what coverage is like out there....