Ride Allegheny Blog

Final Blog Post

I am afraid this blog must come to an end.

There are two reasons. One, I know people don't like the fact that there is no email banter any more, so I am creating a google group that will allow for banter (instructions at the end of this post).

But the more important (and emotional) reason has to do with mountain biking. You see, I don't like mountain biking, ever since the one hard-core mountain biker we had in Ride Allegheny thought it would be okay to be my friend AND have sex with my wife (remember when he used to chide RA for not taking care of its riders?!). So I try to distance myself from mountain bikers because from where I sit, they (as a community) lack a decent moral code. They'll make sure you get off the trail okay, but they have no problem destroying your family.

And it turns out, Mountain Bikers write blogs. It's a cool mountain bike thing to do. You write a blog about your rides, and your friends coment (kind of like we do). Here is an example:

http://wrenchout.blogspot.com/

This is Todd Bauer's blog. Note that the most recent post is a delightful account of how he and my ex-wife (his mistress) had a grand old time getting second place in a race last weekend. Note the nice picture where they are all smiles on the podium. Oh, and you should also note that the tagline underneath his "about me" link is the following:

Living the good life in G-town with my wife and 2 wee ones.

He has the AUDACITY to brag about his good life--where he gets to see his children every day--and then brag about getting second place with the woman he screwed for a year and a half--AFTER I confronted them.

It took a lot of strength to take the high road last fall and not call Todd's wife to tell her what he did. I told him directly that I would not mess with his life. But it is taking more strength now to hold back as I watch him publicly flaunt his perfect life. Does he not realize how painful it is to wake up fifty percent of your days WITHOUT your children? To throw that pain back in my face--in a PUBLIC forum! It is taking all of my will to keep myself from commenting on his fucking blog and exposing him.

So if mountain bikers blog about their biking, I will not.

Instead, I have created a "Google Group" for Ride Allegheny. It will allow the whole group to communicate by email (and yes, you'll be able to REPLY to these posts now, and it will go to the whole group. I know you non-bloggy people like that!).

Those who were subscribed to the blog by email, I've sent you an invitation to join the Google Group. Those of you were reading by RSS, go to:

http://groups.google.com/group/rideallegheny

and join the group. You will have to have a Google Account to do this (hey, doesn't the blog look easy now?). If anyone has trouble, let me know.

Sorry to dump my emotions on everyone, particularly the new guys who didn't know the back story. But this one sent me over the edge. I promise once the Google Group is up and running, i will return to more traditional RA banter.

Jamie

Report, Friday July 4th

Terry, Ron, and Bill did the reverse Piney loop Friday morning. 21 miles with a 16.9 average.

Weather permitting, we will ride Sunday morning. I am tentative because of my writing schedule, but we'll see. Rumor has it Ron went ahead and waited til the day AFTER our weekend road riding trip to get a carbon road bike (Serotta no less!), so I should show up just to see that! Tentative routes mentioned did not include canal: Barnesville or Sugarloaf.

Jamie

Elevation Charts

I don't think the elevation charts worked the last time, so here they are:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Almost Heaven Report

The two vehicles left Kentlands (after a huge rain downpour) around 5:30. Jarrett was too busy working to actually drive, so Ron filled in for him. We all were quite alarmed as we headed down I-81 and saw the rather large mountains looming to the east as we headed to Harrisonburg. The brew pub in historic Harrisonburg was awesome, and I even got carded. Mostly we talked about how annoying the other large group there was (and we didn't even get the irony).

We got up bright and early the next morning for the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn, which wasn't particularly ready on time. Dave, of course, had left two hours earlier to get a head start. Dan loaded the bags in his vehicle to take to Sperryville and we headed down rt. 33. The rolling hills (mostly downhill) gave us a fast average on teh way to the mountain (about 21 mph). Then we went up.

It got steep immediately. I know I was in my lowest gear, and all those who had granny gears were using them. It was about 2.5 miles up to the park entrance, and after that it was another 4 miles up at least. Elevation chart:

After the initial climb we had a number of major up and downs. It seemed we were either going 35 miles per hour or 6. By the time we hit lunch, Dave had been there for an hour (napping). We fueled up and hit the road. There were a series of deadly hills (every time we hit one, John G. would say "this is probably a short one.") and then with about ten miles to go, we came down the mountain. It was even an easy down hill into town. Even though it was a sixty mile day, our average speed increased by more than 1 mph on that last descent.

Stats for Day 1:

Miles: 63.15
Avg: 16.3
Max: 40.24
Time: 3:52:29
Rest: 2:59:36
Avg HR: 155
Max HR: 184
Calories: 3833
Climbing: 5076 ft

We rolled into Sperryville at about 3pm. In retrospect, this might have been a problem, because that meant we basically had nine hours of drinking ahead of us. I have been debating what to include in this report about our magical time in Sperryville. The dinner was awesome (Clark said they were the best crabcakes he ever had). The bed and breakfast was high quality (but don't try to go into their kitchen). But beyond that, I'm afraid you must ride up that mountain if you want to be in on the wild and crazy goings on that night.

We got up early the next morning to be sure and have our bags ready for Ron's Dad to bring back to Kentlands. Then it was fresh fruit and frittattas for breakfast. Once again we were on the road by 8. The hills were much smaller today (but still hard!) and the countryside was beautiful. We rolled into Middleburg for lunch and met up with Chris and Mike, who had started at White's Ferry that morning. Dave did not get a head start on this day, so we did not see him again until Clark's barbecue. The day was a net downhill.

We got rained on a bit on route 15 headed into Leesburg and then hit another big shower when we were waiting for White's Ferry. As Stats, I made a huge faux-pas by NOT stopping my GPS as we rode over on the ferry, so it thought I was riding reeeeallllllllyyyy sssssllllllooooooowwwww. I actually dropped .4mph off the average crossing the river.

At White's Ferry we were all certain we could take the gravel road over to River Road and avoid the Canal (which was very muddy). Of course the gravel road was muddy and if you don't know the way (like we don't) you end up going MANY MILES in a big loop just to end up back on White's Ferry road.

Oops.

Then we just powered home through Poolesville. Clark and John Gresh both moved ahead of me on the last stretch, so their averages are higher than the record here.

Day 2 Stats:

Miles: 88.55
Avg: 17.13 (17.4 without the White's Ferry mistake)
Max: 39.53
Time: 5:10:10
Rest: 2:57:22
Avg HR: 144
Max HR: 172
Calories: 4578
Climbing: 3979 ft

After cleaning up, Clark hosted a great barbecue for everyone and families. I swear I barely made it home before I was asleep. I was certainly asleep before the kids were.

Great ride everyone.

Stats

(P.S. Feel free to email me with other commentary. I will add it in a separate post)

July 4th Ride

Terry and Ron are committed to doing a short ride on the morning of Friday, July 4th. Meet at Starbucks by 6:30 (note earlier departure time) for a reverse Piney loop so you can get back in time for coffee AND the 9:45 Kentlands Parade.

I'm in. I don't know about weekend rides. I might be able to do Sunday.

Sorry for the delay in getting the Almost Heaven blog report in. This whole work thing can really get in the way of what's important in life. Here's a sneak peak: the elevation chart for day 1:

Kickoff Event This Thursday

This Thursday June 26th from 7:00-10:00PM @ The Main Street Cafe-317 Main Street Kentlands/Gaithersburg Ride Allegheny 8 Kickoff !

Be there!

Regards

"The Kaiser"   

Chuck's Saturday Report

Chuck sent in a brief report using a "stats approved" Garmin GPS unit (sorry boys, no 19 average for the books this time!).

Terry,  These are the stats I have from our ride today. Riders were John Gresh, Clark, Chris Marsh, Silvio, Kevin? And myself.

Bealsville Loop

Total Distance: 34.26 miles

Total Time: 1:49:51

Average Speed: 18.7

Maximum Speed:  32.4

Total Ascent/Decent:  2378

Now THAT'S a training ride

Check out the rides below from Travis Evans of All American Bikes. Click to the links and then go look at the details of the elevation charts. Yikes!

Hey Gang,

Here are our rides from this weekend.  Michelle is still recovering from her injuries, but did very well.  Saturday's SkyMass ride was great - a four hours of straight climbing followed by 3 hours of flats.  Sunday's Blue Ridger we've already done a few times.  It's good training, but there are limited rest stops, and the roads suck.

See you Thursday,
Travis
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6062267
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6062266

Sunday Solo Sugarloaf Report

I thought I remembered several (drunk) people at the party last night agreeing that they would ride with me at 1pm today. Oh well! I rode Sugarloaf by myself on the new bike, including the ascent. I did stop for rest breaks this time, though. I was definitely in my small ring in the front and biggest cog in the back for the ascent. This Almost Heaven climb is going to be interesting. I had an 18 average when I reached the base of sugarloaf. On the way home I brought it up to 17.1, but those hills on Seneca beat me back down to 16.8. Got the bike computer to work this time. From now on I can now add the stat of average cadence (woohoo!).

Stats:

Miles: 51.70
Avg: 16.82
Max: 41.66 (love that 50-tooth big ring!)
Time: 3:04:25
Rest: 19:02
Avg HR: 157
Max HR: 179
Calories: 3071
Climb: 2628
Avg Cadence: 83

Sorry

Sorry for the lack of blog coverage of the rides this weekend. I was without internet access Friday night and Saturday, and I guess I just forgot to bring the laptop to the Solstice party last night.

Rumor has it the speed trio of John G., Chuck, and Clark broke the 19mph average on the Barnesville loop yesterday. If Chuck can send me stats from his GPS unit, I'll accept them!

Anybody else who rode, just email me the info (jamienotter@gmail.com) and I'll put em up.

I'm getting ready now for a 1pm Sugarloaf run, in case anyone gets this in time. Meet at Starbucks.

Jamie