What a Great Time

Yesterday was the big MORE Ride out to Catherine's Furnace. All total there were 34 riders; a pretty awesome turnout. It's always tough to keep groups together when you have more the 10 riders, but Scud did an excellent job waiting at landmarks for everyone to catch up.

Here's a nice group shot at the overlook.

I rode in the back with Phil most of the time who was suffering up the five mile climb.

It turned out to be a pretty awesome day. It was about 45 degrees and sunny. I even took my jacket off while climbing. Sorry Phil's got that on his camera.

As we gained elevation, you could see snow that had accumulated on the ground and on my tire.

I'm pretty satisfied with the amount of tough riding I got in this weekend. Between the road ride and yesterday's epic, my legs are toast. I think I'll rest today and tonight and try to nab a night ride tomorrow night before my thanksgiving ride. That should carry me nicely through the weekend of debauchery that's ahead. Hopefully I can resume a steady riding schedule on Monday when I get back from Buffalo.

BS

Ya know those rides?.. the ones that show you exactly how unfit you are? Today I attended my shop's Saturday morning road ride. It's supposed to be a 28 mile loop. I'm embarrassed to say that thanks to a handy bail out point along the way, My ride was about 20 miles. I was SLOW!!! At least I was warm though; my jacket, while not as insulated as I had hoped, is a total wind barrier. My tights, plus leg warmers both did their job as well. My toes were cold though, so I'll be duct taping my shoes to stop wind for tomorrow's ride.

I suffered a good bit today, on what for these guys, is a casual ride. I have a special respect in my heart for the road bike. There is no hiding on a road bike, there is no granny gear. The difference I'm talking about, that makes "roadie fit" more real than "mountain bike fit", is that on the road you almost always pedal. Terrain does not limit your speed like on a mountain bike. In most cases, the only limiter on a road bike, is your body screaming for you to stop.

To make things worse:

This afternoon I swung by the shop to buy a few things and add air to my front wheel (mtn bike) which happened to be in my back seat. I just switched to tubeless, which uses a sealant in the tire to fill the little pores in the rubber instead of an inner tube. I added too much air and about 30 seconds after I removed the air chuck from the valve stem, while holding the wheel at arm’s length, the tire blew right off the rim! This scared the hell out of everyone in the shop and Jackson Pollock’d the whole left mechanics area, myself, and Hassan. I stood there, hand throbbing, ears ringing, wondering what the hell just happened. The explosion carried so much force that it blew the wheel out of true. I built these wheels by hand last summer and have not had to true them once since I built them, till today of course. Grrr!

Planned for tomorrow? A big, long, epic ride out at Catherine’s Furnace in the Shenandoah Mountains. Catherine's Furnace is all that remains of an old coal fired metal foundry that was built in 1846. This furnace made more than its share of Civil War cannon balls. Lets hope I don't blow up any wheels! But hey, I packed the camera!

Also my last post was rife with misspellings…I apologize.. I’m working on that. But I'm going to continue to join sentences with dot, dot, dot.

BS

Chewbacca?

I say, it's been cold out! I'm really hoping our order from PI comes in before Saturday. I'm looking forward to two group rides this weekend. The weather is looking dry but cold. Hopefully my Octane jacket (plus a few other heavily discounted goodies) will come in soon.

I've got a pretty busy couple of weeks leading into the holidays this year.

November 27 - 30
The holiday season officially begins on Thanksgiving. I'm staying down here in VA and planning on a traditional dinner with some friends. Instead of wine, probably some nice craft beer. I am making snowy mashed potatoes, a typical dish that reminds me of home. Im going to try to squeeze a ride in that morning too. Then it's off to Buffalo for the Bills/Niners game. Our tailgate crew has grown to about 20 people; should be a good time.

December 14
Punk Bike Enduro!!! For those of you unfamiliar, this is a big group ride in Pittsburgh that Dirtrag Magazine holds every December. They call it a stage race, but from what I've gathered it is just a group ride in the woods till you get to a parking lot or a hill, Once you get to an oppurtune place you race a "stage" which can include anything from a derby to a race up or down a hill. I'm not really sure what a derby will be like. The first seven in each stage get tickets redeamable for prizes and beer. Did I mention that everyone is drinking at all of the stops along the way?..Some prefer whisky and hot chocolate in a thermos. Moderation of course kids..We've all got to ride the full loop!

December 21
Xmas Maddness Race in Schenctady, NY's central park (weather pending). I know, white christmas and all, but I hope this one doesn't get snowed out. I hear that anymore than 6 inches and they cancel it. I read about this in a bike magazine, The course is 4 miles long and you race for 2 hours. The person with the most laps wins. It own't be me but it's a good excuse to get 2 hours of ride time in.

I'm hoping to get home on Dec 20 to race this but I still need to get final approval from work. I'm planning to be in NY the whole week mixing telocommuting and vacation time. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and relaxing with some HBO on demand. I even miss their new cat Grazy.

I call her Chewbacca because she is so humongous and furry. Had she been brown I would have gotten her a little ammo belt or whatever the hell the real Chewbacca used to don in Star Wars. In the picture she's actually wrapped up in a little cat shirt because she needed a lion cut to keep her fur in check. I don't know about you, butIf i were a cat I'd rather have an ammo belt.. right?

BS

Rain again!

I had planned to go for a night ride with Hassan from the shop, but mothernature brought the rain a day earlier than I expected it. I was hoping to get on the bike tonight and loosen up my legs which feel really tight after my "run" on Saturday. Yeah, i know..Since both the trail and road would be no fun at all on Saturday in 50 degree rain, I strapped on my sneaks and found a mix of paved and multi-use trails behind my house... 20 minutes later I returned to my house with a broken spirit and a blister on my foot! I despise running but I'm going to try to keep it up at least one day a week.

Buffalo plays tonight so I guess it's a good night to spend inside. I ordered some cold weather gear yesterday from Pearl Izumi's pro-deal site. I'm psyched for that to get here. I've got one more necessary purchase coming up and that's a trainer. I figure having a trainer I can put my road bike on is really the only shot I have at getting a solid base in this winter.

Bad Ideas

For the life of me, I could not think of a creative title for my first post. I sat here for ten minutes and began thinking that this whole blog may have been a bad idea. 2009 is going to be full of bad ideas though. Riding my mountain bike in the Shenandoah Mountain 100 is probably a bad idea and racing solo at 12 hours of Lodi Farm is surely, a bad idea. Each of those events and the preparation for them will be a sufferfest and I'm not really sure why I've decided on this journey. We all know that acting on a bad idea can lead to regret (and sometimes handcuffs) but not acting on a bad idea may lead to the very same thing, less the handcuffs.

So why am I writing this right now? Well mostly, I need to log training and I think I'll hold myself more accountable for riding if I am writing for an audience*. I mean, who wants to read about me sitting on the couch all winter drinking beer and watching movies on USA. Nevertheless, you'll see a lot of posts and pictures about my rides, my life, and my races.

So here I sit, tapping this out with a Dale's pale ale, and I cannot think of one last thing to say except perhaps a toast.

Here's to bad ideas.

-BS

*Yes even if the only one reading this thing is my mom.