Monday, January 11, 2010

2010, Year of the goblin

Race License came in the mail today… so its time to do my annual photoshoped race license... for 2010 i decided on doing a goblin theme...


inspiration...


Here are some of my past years themes…


2009
devil theme


2008
Neanderthal hockey player theme

Friday, January 8, 2010

fixed up

Joe Whitehair was kind enough to let me borrow one of his bikes till i get a new frame... Thanks!!!


made some modifications so it would fit me more comfortable...


Car issue ended up being a miss-firing cylinder... the gentleman over at L&B Auto Repair was able to fix the problem right on the spot.
he replaced the black do-dad to the lower left of the green circle.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Broken Down

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)

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Audio books, c&o pics

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

Monday, December 7, 2009

Kelly Acres compu-trainer & sub freezing snow mtn biking

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.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

the C&O

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.