On Friday I was going to go for a ride with Joe Whitehair but while diving over to the trail head my car was vibrating, giving off some strange smells and all round behaving like there was something wrong with it… I had noticed the problem before but I though it was just because it was super cold on that occasion…. But I guess not…. I didn’t want to risk diving up Hamburg Rd. in that condition so I bailed on the ride and went back to my apt...i’ve got an appointment at L&B Auto Repair on Monday … Hopefully it isn’t anything too serious.
I still had the itch to ride so I rode from my apartment… i decided to take some back roads over tord watershed trails…but I never got there… as I hit a particularly steep section of Hamburg Rd. and was standing up pulling on the bars I notice that the front end of my bike was flexing way too much… I stopped and noticed a crack going almost entirely around the down tube... that explains why it had been making more creaking sounds than normal. I decided at his point to turn around and go home but I was super paranoid that my frame would give way and I would destroy my somewhat beautiful face… but I was 7 miles from home and I didn’t want to walk… so I rode my bike but i rode it like it was made of glass (the thin type they make Christmas ornaments out of not the reinforced bulletproof type or the super thick type used for shark tanks at aquariums)… I could watch the crack on the side of my down tube open then close again slightly with every rotation of the cranks… a bit frightening but I made it home safe.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
I went mountain biking in the snow today, through the streets of downtown Frederick… so it wasn’t technically mtn biking but with the amount of snow it was still demanding.
me this is what the roads looked like Joe, Jeff and Anna (back to front)
C and O is pretty but about as untechnical and flat as a trail can be... some days when I am in a certain mood I actively seek out places like this… places where my body is occupied but my mind is fee to wonder so I can concentrate on listening to my audio books… I save the music for the times when I am riding hard and need something to keep me motivated… the audio books keep me from getting bored with out making me feel like I need to be riding fast.
before autible.com and my Ipod I would ride with a tape player and books on tape… this was super bulky filling up two jersey pockets one for the tape player and another for the tapes… I was thrilled when I found out about autible.com 6 years ago... now I can carry multiple books on my ipod and it takes up a fraction of the space… I would recommend as a great alternative to music for solo easy rides.
So I listened to short story’s of the Sherlock homes for a few hours and stopped to take pics of the sensory at times.. here's what I got…
this bridge at the seneca creek aqueduct one of the many locks of the canal paralleling the c and o one of the more well maintained sections of trail big rocks in water
Saturday I joined Anna at the Kelly Acres indoor compu-trainer class… It was my first time doing one of these classes… it was way more motivating than riding in front of the tv at home… As Anna described it “Once you see that little cyclist figure representing you on the screen you cant help but feel motivated to ride fast”.
with the equipment hook ups multiple statistics could be measured including… watts, rpm, speed , total distance traveled and position compared to other riders…ive never owned one of those watt meters but after riding for a while I could see why it would be pretty valuable information to know in order to compare yourself to others and personal past performances. I came in third and averaged just under 300 watts on a 15 min course…hopefully i can improve on that. photos from Kelly acres blog
On Sunday I road with Jeff Dickey in sub-freezing temperatures on snow covered trails in gambrill state park… I was expecting it to be pretty slow going but the snow was packed down from others who came before us so it was actually pretty fast… it was just the two of us and we did a pretty big loop in under 2 hours… we ate at the mountain view diner after the ride... it was a good dinner… dinner fanatic John Burns would love it.
Rode the C&O…I joined Anna on her morning commute into work…
It’s a hardcore commute… about 35 miles from where we started @ white ferry in Frederick MD to WA DC.. the first ten miles were petty muddy and the temp was 35 degrees (when we fist started @ 6:40).
The C&O goes all they way from DC to Pittsburgh! Has free camping sites along the sides of the trail and it pretty well maintained…some of the views are amazing including large rock structures waterfalls and views of the Potomac.
The trail isn’t technical… it’s a flat and strait dirt road that only maintenance cars are allowed on...despite being flat and free of rocks I managed to get a flat tire from some broken glass… Anna was kind enough to wait for me despite me making her late for work.. I turned around 28 miles in to are tri to DC (7 miles shy of getting all the way into the city) for me it was 56 miles round trip and that took me about 5 and a half hours including a few brief stops.
I defiantly would like to ride this trail some more… next time I will bring a camera along to get some photos of the more beautiful sections…
I just finished cleaning my bike with one of those pesticide sprayers… there are no hook ups for hoses at my apt building so that is what I am using now… I shopped around and found a pesticide sprayer with 65 psi…
The next most powerful one was only 45 psi and cost twice as much…
I was impressed with the sprayer… it worked better than I expected but still not nearly as good as a hose…
it took longer than normal to clean my bike and at the end it isn’t as clean But its good enough and I and think of any better alternatives.
Went for a night ride last night and at Gambrill state park @ about 6:30 … I was on one of the dirt roads that go through the park and I saw a silhouette of what I thought was a deer… it was frozen just looking at me… it had four legs and was kind of shaped like a deer… it wasn’t till I was pretty close about 100 ft away did I realize it was a big dog... it looked like a German Sheppard...and as I got even closer (20ft away) I noticed another German Sheppard just off the road also frozen looking at me… no tail wagging or barking just a blank stare. I was moving along @ about 17mph and it was pitch black so from the time I noticed it wasn’t a deer to the time I noticed I was next to a couple of big dogs was only a few seconds....At this point I was a little freaked out as the thought crossed my mind that these might be wolves... I didn’t see any collars, …I hadn’t seen any a possible owner… no people or vehicles parked on the side of the road … and they looked identical…either I saw two stray German Sheppards or a pack of wolfs.
thought about turning around to get a better look… after all they didn’t show any sign of aggression …but then I reconsidered realizing that that would be kind of stupid… if they were wild animals why risk getting bit.
because I didn’t have a tail light i couldn’t see anything behind me … then I thought to myself... Are they chasing after me right now!?! Could I stay upright if one of them got a hold of my leg!?!?... being alone in the dark was making me more paranoid than I would normally be…instead of riding fast to get away i decided to keep the same speed that I passed them at not wanting them to think I was panicking… if you don’t want be treated like a victim don’t act like a victim ( I leant that from watching Opera but i'm not sure if it applys to dealing with wolves)
I left the park and took the road around back to my car to avoid having to ride through the wolf gantlet again.
When I got back to my apartment I goggled to see what kind of wolf lives in this area…could have been red wolf
my possible wolf experience reminded me of this t-shirt that team mate Sean Daley had told me about…
Like other hobby’s and sports mountain biking is a good way to relive the stress of your work and life issues…
The more mountain biking in your life the greater the relief… to a certain point… because when you get more involved and serious about mountain biking you become more likely to have your emotions involved…Getting worried about races…being angry if races don’t turn out well… feeling the needing to have the newest and best technology all the time… needing to ride a least x amount of miles a week to stay fast… ect ect ect
So instead of being a way to relive stress and the burdens of life, cycling can cause stress if ambitions to achieve mountain biking goals go beyond a certain point...Its hard to point out exactly where that point is...Its probably different for different people... but a possible indicator is if when trying to achieve mountain biking goals it feels stressful like a job… when you feel your worth is directly linked to how well you perform on a bike… when in the pursuit of accomplishing your goals leads to neglecting other aspects of your life…when worrying and nit picking details about riding takes up an obsessively large portion of your days…
Its just like the guys who get too serious about world of war craft...
The reasons why you are doing the activity in the first place can become lost… clouded by the blind motivation to accomplish goals (or in the case of world for war craft… the need to complete quests).
My conclusion… I believe less emphasis should be on accomplishing specific goals and more should be put on fulfilling the reasons you started started riding in the first place... for me that's fun and relief (sometimes transportation and/or socializing) could be different for others.
Another group ride… there was a group of 15 of us…we split in to two groups; A and B… I was designated to lead the A group… im ok with getting my self lost but i was a bit worried that I might get my whole group lost… i took them on trails that Anna Kelso had shown e on another group ride the week before… there were a lot of turns involved to retrace the same loop we did… I remembered some portions but about half of the time I just guessed… so I was amazed that we were able to retrace the same route with out taking a wrong turn…i was also amazed that none of us had a flat tire... with so many sharp racks and so many riders i would have put money down that at least one person would have a flat...
the route is a particularly technical … I was planning ion bringing my camera with to capture just how technical they are… but I forgot… I will try to remember for next time.
We all ate at place to the left of “If The Show Fits “ shoe store (I don’t remember and I cant read the sign) after the ride.
On Saturday some riding @ my new local trail network Gambrill park and the watershed… starting to find my way around a bit better… I rode with Jeff Dicky (also a UNH alumni) and some of his riding buddies… I think there was 7 of us and between all of us there was 5 flats and two torn off derailleurs. there is a lot of sharp rocky sections that cause flats. I think every other ride I have been on up there so far I have got a flat tire... so the day before are ride I went to the local bike shop here in town Wheel Base to pick up some extra tubes and a mini-pump. I bought this topeak pump… It was a petty reasonably priced pump and it was put through the test last weekend… It seems to work really well… I am happy with the investment
Then on Sunday I did some trial maintenance in Gambrill park. It was nice to meet some people. Their seems to be a pretty passionate group of mountain bikers in the area.
