Saturday morning I left the house at 6:45 am to get in some extra miles. I rode over to the Osborne Boat Landing where I met the TnT crew. The legs were feeling a lot better than when I had rode home from work Friday afternoon. Heading into the city I was able to hold just under a 21 mph avg. Then I was reminded about why riding in the city sucks big time. Stop lights and pot holes, stop lights and pot holes, blah blah blah. Made it out to the boat landing and then we progressed out as a team for another 37 miles or so. Towards the end the bike started to make a chain slap noise when I was in the 11 tooth or what I like to call Lil W VA cause thats the same number of teeth W Virginian's have.

Thinking the slap was being caused by a dirty drivetrain I decided to clean it last night. Thats when I found the root of the problem. The lockring on my cassette had started to work itself loose. Yikes!

Isn't that the ugliest skewer you have ever seen on a set of Chris King hubs?

Finished cleaning the bike and started to pray that the rain would move out faster than my rediscovered motivation to ride long distances again does.

You can learn ..

You can learn everything you ever need to know about life if only you eat more Chinese food.  A few weeks ago, Jenn and I went to our favorite Chinese restaurant on this side of town.  I cannot really remember what I had to eat but its not important.  What is important though was the message inside my fortune cookie.  It said something to the effect that I should be journaling (<---evidently I just made up a word or I am smarter than Google spellcheck.  I'll go with making up a word.) my life happenings. So here we are me writing more nonsense and you reading it.  

I have been wanting to try and blog more often especially since there is so much going on right now between riding, improvements to the house and preparing for a wedding which used to seem like it was so far away but now is starting to peak out at us from around the corner.   I am running short on time this morning but I will starting posting more frequently about all of the above and I might actually include some pictures as well.

"tweeting" with blogger?

Cross Dressing

So I haven't really been cross dressing but I have been riding cross, A LOT! It's all I can think about recently. My new favorite 20-30 mile loop from the house has me riding over to Pocahontas State Park and hitting up some fireroads then some singletrack and then back to the house. I can tell from the way my body hurts after these rides I am not in the shape I once was or could be in. The other tell tell factor are my averages on the singletrack. Granted I am on a cross bike and not the BUSS but I think I can get the times closer to each other with some more time on the saddle. The question of the day is, Do I put gears back on it for training purposes or do I train with the SS gear setup at 48x16 and put the gears back on for cross season?

Wind machine continues to blow...

Thursday was the first day of weight training for me in a long time. For most this would mean that you went to gym and lifted heavy objects repeatedly for a set period of time and then stared into the mirror to see if there was any noticeable muscle mass gained. But for me it would that I filled this bag up with anywhere between 13 and 16 pounds of clothing and food and road into work.

It was a tough ride in as the weatherman is full of something other than the ability to accurately predict which direction the wind will be blowing from. What was supposed to be a tailwind for the majority of the day was actually a cross/head wind. While waiting for the light to turn green I was able to snap a quick picture of the wind whipping Old Glory into a frenzy.

Despite the wind, I was still able to make it to work with a somewhat respectable 18.? average for the 26 miles. I was pleased given my current state of out of shape-ness. Before the TnT ride on Saturday morning I threw on a pair of these bad boys. The gatorskins have served me well but it was time to replace them. We just got these back into stock at the store and I have been wanting to give them a go for quite sometime. First impressions , I think I am going to like them. I will give a better idea for their feel after a few more rides.

Friday Ride - A picture story ...

Installed a new Polar CS200 HRM on the Salsa

Zach making his entrance .. And that's not the sun. You're just blinded by his speed.

Chase trying to recover his ability to see after Zach's entrance.

We made it to the Center of the Universe.

Popped a Boom! from the leg for the ride home.

Logistics and wanting to ride ...

What would January be if it weren't for cold windy days. Amazing is what! After putting off riding outdoors last week due to my puss-o-meter reaching an all time high I was able to get out with the TNT crew on Saturday morning for a nice 37 mile ride through the Varina Grove area. It was a perfect day to be on a bike.

While I was busy not riding my bike last week I did start to get some information together so I could start to strategize my state record attempts which will be coming up over the summer. Although Metro tells me they are indeed World Record attempts since those who live in Ashland, VA think Ashland is the century of the universe and Ashland is in the state of VA, Virginia is now the universe or in this case the world. Not sure about it but I will run with it.

My first attempt at plotting a course took me all of about 30 minutes of drawing and erasing routes on gmap-pedometer. Come to find out the straightest line in this case isn't the shortest because some how the previous two attempts which are now current records were about 20-30 miles shorter than what I had drawn. Keep in mind I haven't actually scouted any of these roads but rest assured I will find the shortest route possible even if that means going over the top of the biggest mountains.

All of this emailing back and forth with the records committee last week has me itching for a longer ride. Last night I made the comment to Jenn, "How can I have so much energy, yet am so sleepy?" I think the answer is because I have been so excited to get out and really test my legs for the first time this calendar year. Correction second time, the first time was the impromptu ride home from Osborne Park a few weeks back.

That being said, I announce that on Friday, January 30th, 2009 I will be putting in my first unsupported century of the year. The plan is as follows, take Petra to vet at 7:45. Be back at home around 9 or so. On the bike by 9:30ish. I will be riding through the city and picking up Zach (aka ZNels) and maybe Johnny (aka The Yellow Blaze). They will join me for the 40 some miles out on the Eastern side of town before we head back to the city and I will continue home. I am excited as this ride has both the Varina Grove area and Riverside Dr/Old Gun worked into it. Oh time cannot move fast enough at this point. Till then here are some pics from our weekend trip to Douthat State Park.

Blue Suck Falls

Olympic Long jump distance?

Jenn Climbing Lookout Rock

Sage Can Climb Lookout Rock Too

Overlooking the Lake

Methane Heated Fleece Blanket

Finishing the Last Kabob in the Fireplace

Roasting Mello's

That's my boy!