OMGWTF -08'

This bastard of a ride I did last year with Bruce, Ryan, and Mark, came back to crush me this year. I had done an actual evite for the ride to make sure people knew about it, and put it on their calendars. The ride was a big test for me to see if I was going to do Mountain Momma, and the SM100. Well the verdict is no...... The group consisted of 3 bike lane riders, 2 DCMTB's and like 4-5 bike doctor boys. so I think around 12 people total. We started out, at a conversational pace, and then the hamburg climb came to get us. My game plan was to go at my own rhythm, and see what happened. The climbing wasn't the issue as much as the riding in between the climbs. The bike doctor guys weren't riding hard but just riding, and I think last year we cruised between climbs. Well I had one road not exist for me, so that was annoying but for the most part people seemed to enjoy themselves. Around 25miles in Jud's computer fell off and some of the guys went back and helped him look for it. Then the group I was with I waited for Bruce and Ryan at a turn and then gave them directions to shortcut back. I think rode to catch up with the group, but never saw them again. I ended up doing 30miles of the ride solo. Which was ok with me cause I could go the pace I wanted to go. I also cut out the last two climbs, but in doing my"shortcut" I went up a climb that was pretty tough and then did like a 1+ decent on a heavy gravel road that had a steep gradient where I had to go real slow with the washboards. My legs cramped, but I was able to myself together. I finally made it back to the car with 72miles for the day. I am thinking next year I will maybe do part of the ride and try to combine it with Wild and Wonderfull and make it a ride with some climbs, but more manageable.

Assateague 08' Spin Spin!

I did my yearly ritual Assateague Beach weekend. I end up doing some riding there, while I visit the beach. This year the weather was very nice compared to last year's trip. I rode up in the Element with the Tandem and 3 people and all our beach stuff. I also had two bikes on the hitch rack. I got dropped off at Hebron again and left from there to go to the beach. The route I take is not the most direct but, by going to the town of Snow Hill I know I have a place for a pitstop. Well last year my 72 miles turned into an 80+ mile journey. This year I was determined for that not to happen. The ride started off with me getting out of Hebron going to the small ferry. The ferry ride is fun not sure why they don't have a bridge. I did well until the turn right on SeaTick it wasn't there, but I knew from doing the ride last year that I was going the wrong way. Now in doing this ride, you have to imagine that I have a squeak in my bike, I now know that it is coming from my wheels. So the whole 75 miles I am hearing a noise on all the down strokes when I am pedaling. I Finally get to the rest stop, and the place where I stopped last year, has not cleaned their Port-a-John in a long time so I got out of there quick. I found a Chinese take-out place that sold sodas. I saw they had a bathroom-jackpot! So I went in used the bathroom and then filled my water bottles, and then bought a Mountain Dew from the cooler in the Chinese take out place. I then traveled on to the shore, and hit some massive headwind. I was doing a pretty good avg. speed around 19.7, but with the trolling around Snow Hill my avg. went down. After I went down by the shore I headed up to Berlin, around this point my undercarriage was not feeling great so I would stand out of the saddle to relieve the pressure. I finally got to the Verrazono bridge that goes to Assateague. The campsite was farther than I thought. I finally got to the campsite around 7pm or so.
Some things I remembered/learned on the ride:

Flat road riding has so much spinning!

You never really get a Cardio workout, unless you push it, which you can't do for 4:45 hours.

Flat road riding is really about Leg strength.

The next day I did a Tandem ride with Sara, we were lucky that we were able to leave from the campsite then have Jon(who drove my car) there to take the Tandem back to the campsite. At first Sara and I were flying we were tapping out a good rhythm. After 15 miles we were on the route that others would be doing as well. We did the route and around 30 miles, Sara's leg started hurting. I am not sure why it did, but it might be because her seat is too far back. The other issue was that my undercarriage was not liking having to bike again. So I had to stand to relieve the pain. Well we finish strong with 47miles and a 19mph avg. The issue was that we had to hangout for almost an hour and a half for people to get back. The reward though was going to Rayne's Reef diner where they have great burgers and milkshakes. Rayne's Reef is also where they filmed the Run Away Bride as Falcons. It was good ride, and I felt that we had some good power on the roads. Hopefully we can get her leg issues figured out.

Lost River Ride 90miles 8800ft

I was going to do the 12 hours of Cranky Monkey, but a broken bike and the fact I was getting over a sinus infection changed my plans. I saw this ride on the PPTC calendar, and it interested me greatly. I have ridden here some on my mountain bike, and knew there were some big climbs along the route. I found out that Jonathan and Chris would be doing the ride, so I teamed up with Chris to carpool out there. Chris and I got an early start and got to the ride start where there were more people (15+) doing the ride. We started at Columbia Furnace and then went over Wolf Gap. I rode the climb a little slower than the really fast people, so I ended up solo behind them. I had planned this ride to be a long, steady ride. The people in front were pace lining and I could have joined them, but it was going to be a long day in the saddle and I didn't want to blow up. On the way down, Chris caught up with me, and he seemed like he wanted to catch the others. So we took some pulls, and then I asked him if he wanted to catch them again, and brought up the speed and caught the lead group. We were with them for a bit, but then it started to get fast again. I let them go and Chris stayed with me. We did another climb that was on the opposite side of the mountain (WV) of the Liberty Furnace ride. The weather started turning bad, and as we climbed I enjoyed the drizzle. On the way down, I kept it slow so that I wouldn't crash on the wet roads. At the Lost River Store rest stop, we met up with the front group. Jonathan decided to ride with Chris and I, which I was happy about. After the stop, the weather was starting to clear. We rode some nice country roads that had elevation gain that wasn't one climb, but a bunch of rollers going up. Jonathan and I would climb together with Chris following, and we would ride together on the downhills and flats. I won the Mountain KOM points doing a cheeky little move on Jonathan. Chris surprised us all at the VA/WV state line sprint. We passed a rest stop, since the next bigger one was only another 10 miles. My legs were really starting to lock up before the rest stop. We pace lined to the rest stop, and refueled for a long charge to the finish. Joyce said the last part was the hardest. I did agree with her, since we basically rode the ridgeline going up and down these rollers that were mostly going up. Chris fell off the back, and I ended up going on ahead in front of Jonathan. I felt good, and found I still had some hamstring strength, but my quads were pretty dead. I ended up taking a wrong turn, adding like 700 ft. of climbing and 5 miles. After going back the right way I was totally spent—just wanting to get back. The last small steep climb, I planned to ride strong, but my leg cramped, so I limped to the finish. I ended up finishing a bit after Jonathan and Chris. Was a great ride—should help my endurance for future rides.

Lost River

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