So a lot of random stuff going on since my return from Spain earlier this week (mostly work obligations) …..but I’m a little bit drunk and a little too lazy to write about anything bike-related right this moment….

soooooooo

a couple observations from the week:

• a bloody mary is a perfectly acceptable recovery drink
• so is anything from Dogfish Head brewery….mmmm (twice now in one week, has DFH been my recovery drink)
• there is NO substitute for full-fat mayo when making a tuna fish sandwich
• speaking of full-fat mayo…home made fries on a Saturday afternoon go pretty damn well with mayo…..mmmmmm

Now you can guess how my week has unfolded.

Ok, so I promise to post up some pictures and some “real” content just as soon as I am done binging on fries.  I have a couple of mtb rides and a road ride to blab about….

stay tuned.

After a 6er of Miller High Life and a long Friday evening of tweaking and tuning….I got the Walt Works ready for action.  Given that Oksana and I had postponed the start of our vacation (deciding to skip the day we had planned up in NYC today), I had a ton of motivation to get the new bike built up so I could sneak out for the inaugural ride this afternoon instead.

I’ll save everyone the worn-out bike review hyperbole and simply summarize today’s first ride as awesome.  I know I’ll own this bike a long time (can’t say that for too many of my bikes).

Walt really nailed the design based on my less than perfect description of my “needs and wants” in terms of handling and geometry….and the result is a bike that is way more agile….and quite simply faster than the Surly.

All this was pretty overwhelming given I had not been on a mountain bike in (gasp) 3 months! prior to today.  I realized today that my last ride on the Surly was waaaay back in mid November (before Thanksgiving) out at Dan Maguire’s place.

It was well worth the wait though.

Here’s a pic of the finished build taken out on the trail (its a mix of both practical and higher-end stuff)

The green cables are re-cycled from the Surly, so yeah…..they’re fugly and yeah, I’ll be changing them soon.  Otherwise, I’m set on most everything else.

I’d go into a description of all the parts, but it’s time to go get some packing done.

Be back in a little more than a week…

http://fedex.com/Tracking?ascend_header=1&clienttype=dotcom&track=y&cntry_code=us&language=english&tracknumbers=872277610000440%0D%0A&action=1&language=null&cntry_code=null

pics tonight!

Ok, time for a catch-up post

Rewind to last Saturday for a bit of irony

So I was mildly bummed after busting balls to get my new xc skis all mounted up and ready to go (see previous post)….only to have the weather spike up to the 50s and 60s (even in the higher elevations in WV) and ruin my chances. I was on the highway heading west early Saturday morning when CJ called me to elaborate on the shitty ski conditions in Davis, WV (he had gone out the day before). Long story short, I had to bail on my nordic weekend, and face the fact that skiing while living south of the Mason-Dixon is a crap-shoot at best. Ho Hum.

On a positive note, sometimes laziness pays off…

Imagine my potential disappointment with all my ski gear packed up in the car, coffee in hand, heading west to get in some quality time in the woods….only to hear word that the snow is vanishing by the hour. Well right away I was thinking of contingencies…..and wouldn’t ya know….I still had all my (semi-dirty) hiking gear in the car from the previous Saturday’s hike with Oksana. So, it took me all of about 30 seconds to link the options together and realize that I was gonna make some lemonade and spend the day getting in a solid hike, scouting some singletrack for summer mtb adventures. The destination was one of my favorite areas of the GWNF…a place referred to as the “Great North Mountain” aka “Wolf Gap recreation area”. Whatever its called, it is indeed “Great”. It’s the prime little slice of wilderness that doesn’t see hardly anyone from the city, despite being only 2 hours away from central DC. It’s got wonderful topography, a great mix of trail surfaces, a very rugged vibe (very little in the way of bailouts if you get in deep) and a very cool lack of “established” rides. There are so many options to link together different pieces, its hard to actually name any specific loop.  So that means you gotta have some map reading skill, or familiarity with the area - something that probably keeps the casual riders away.  In all, I’ve ridden there probably 6-8 times before, but usually in a situation where I’m re-tracing lots of the same sections of trail, either lacking the time to explore or being with a group of people less inclined to spend the day doing potential hike-a-bike and bushwhacking along hiking trails that are sometimes un-rideable (for them anyway….haha ;-0). So my plan was to pick out a loop on which I’d never set foot before – and then do some trail recon.

Here’s a sample of what I found:

My oh my was I pleasantly surprised. It was the second hike within a week that has yielded miles and miles of additional ride-able terrain. I ultimately logged close to 10 miles of hiking on Saturday (including a few on a dirt road I had to hike out on). I’m now compiling some pretty detailed notes about this Great North Mountain area (don’t recall the exact map#) and my hope is to catalog the entire map with thorough annotations as to where the most premium sections of singletrack lie…..and believe me, there is some great stuff: some technical stuff, some flowy stuff, some aerobic climbing stuff - basically a little of everything (well, maybe not any teeter totters). I was licking my chops the entire hike, fantasizing about my first Walt ride out there. I intend to return and actually do an extended version of what I did on Saturday, as the inaugural Walt ride…sometime the last week of February after we return from Spain.

Now for the twisted irony portion of the story. So all this talk about diversification and how I need to cross-train, and “mix it up”. Well it turns out that 10 miles of rocky trails even with a lightweight pack….is not the friendliest form of exercise I could have chosen (for my knees anyway) to “mix it up”. By the end of the hike, my right knee (not the IT band knee either….which is also weird) starting aching like a sunnofabitch. Yeah, so much for diversifying my training. I know, I know…10 miles was too much. In fairness to myself, I hit a point where I had to either double back down a huge slope I had just climbed up (boring) or log the extra miles going the long way around. So looking back, the pain was the price of admission for that roundabout route.

By the time I got home that evening, my body wasn’t in terrible shape, but I was hobbling a bit and favoring that right knee.  I went out for drinks that night, which involved a short walk to the metro, and could definitely tell something wasn’t quite right, but on the way home….man oh man, I just got this wave of intense throbbing pain in that same knee….every time my knee extended it was just pure pain. I was totally pissed….I mean, this wasn’t achy chronically inflamed IT band pain…it was searing acute pain. I went to bed just so demoralized, cursing myself as a pre-maturly aging piece of shit and kicking myself for having bitten off more than just the casual stroll in the woods I probably should have opted for….I honest to god went to bed fantasizing about trading all my bike shit for a motorcycle and saying “fuck this pedaling thing”. Its hard to understate how discouraging it is to want so badly to train and get fast, only to be sidelined by all these aggravating flare-ups.

Anyway, I woke up on Sunday to a milder ache in that same knee. Being as stubborn as I am, I decided that the 65 degree weather could absolutely not be wasted without at least a brief “recovery” type spin on the bike. It was just too damn nice out. I hopped on the Seven and off I went. The irony? No pain at all. None in the IT band leg, none in the hiking knee (me knocking on wood right now)….it was like it felt better to be spinning on the bike than to be walking around. I guess there are more ironic things in the world…but still, I felt like a million bucks, after what has been weeks with minimal riding. I rode for about 90 minutes and actually started to feel the fire coming back. The motivational fire that is. I got home and iced both my knees and then again at night. I figure on diligently stretching and icing down as a preventative measure the rest of the season. If I get “injured” again, then so be it. If I’m doing all that I can to hedge the odds…then what more can I do….

I’ve since ridden every night this week, VERY cautiously with high rpms and an easy pace, but I’m feeling the groove….and I’m liking the day to day training thing again.

“I’m back baby, I’m back!”

-George Costanza

Walt Works Update:

I’ve been pretty low-key with the Walt updates so far, but I expect to be extremely excited tomorrow evening when I get home to the most highly anticipated Fedex delivery in LONG time.

Pics to follow….

Its about damn time.

The self-pity party is officially over and I’m getting back on the horse (well, at least for another week until I leave for Spain).  I’ve come to the conclusion that diversification is gonna be key this spring.  Over the last couple weeks I’ve gotten in some great xc skiing (more tomorrow and Sunday as well) and hiking - both things that I haven’t done in soooo long on account of my obsessive focus on bike time.  Here are a couple snapshots of those trips:

Here’s CJ pointing to the sign telling us we’re about to get our asses kicked climbing up another 1000′ of narrow trail that is totally non-conducive to xc ski travel.

Here’s a shot looking back on the fresh tracks through a clearing up near the top of one of the ridges we ascended:

So of course an awesome weekend like this prompted a purchase.  I currently have a set of wider/metal edged, true “backcountry” capable xc skis….that just so happen to be wide enough to be relatively slow on the open ground - not to mention the tracks (which they mash up).  So after hopping on one of the skinny “touring” rental pairs CJ had been using….I was convinced I’d benefit from a lighter faster backcountry ski with much less of a shaped profile and more of a touring focus.  I went with a pretty sweet pair of top-end Karhu Escape’s at a steal of a price.  Here they are just after pulling them from their box:

Lacking the time to get out for another ski trip last weekend, Oksana and I managed to squeeze in a pretty solid hike in the GWNF area.  We hiked a sweet section of trail that I’m sure to ride this summer now that I know its probably 80-90% ride-able.  4 hours of hiking on snow, ice and rock up some substantial vertical really kicked our asses, but last Saturday was gorgeous so I don’t think either of us thought twice about the fatigue.  We did run into an unsavory looking individual on the trail that instantly served as yet another justification for my impending (now HK USP) handgun purchase.  The guy, who was a local (queue banjo music), turned out to be pretty nice, but the fact that he was basically tracking behind us for a good couple of miles….always within eyesight looking back around a bend in the trail….well it just makes you think twice.

Here’s a pic of us looking back into the sun…nice butt.

So as you can tell, the one-dimensionality of “bikes all the time” has to go.  I’ll probably be going with a 3-4 day a week plan as opposed to 6.  I’m thinking that those other two days would be great for some running, or miscellaneous (i.e. a hike with Oksana or whatever else).

So I have a confession to make.  As you can probably guess by the numbering of this post, my last post described a ride that never happened.  What happened instead of the ride planned on Tuesday(Wednesday?) night?   Well, a few Family Guy episodes, and this:

As you can see, my inclination to have a few beers instead of ride has gotten the best of me as of late….but no more.  This weekend represents New Year’s Eve round 2.  I figure on going out to Davis, WV to mooch off CJ’s nice little mountain retreat setup, while getting in some solid ski time.

I absolutely 100% plan to get back into my regime on Monday.  Much more moderation in the mix this time….and a much greater focus on the fun of it.  Yes, I still plan on racing the road, and no I’m not posting the Seven on ebay (I talked myself out of it, along with some input of more rationally minded friends).

Last thing…..I did manage to get out for “Ride 68″ tonight.  It was a bummer ride though.  Remember all the foxes I’ve been seeing down around Hains Point?  Well tonight I saw a couple….one kinda jetted off to the normal “safety distance” that they allow themselves to figure out what exactly I am, and whether I’m a threat or not.  Well, the second fox was much slower and didn’t get very far away before stopping.  Turns out the poor guy was probably hit by a car or something.  I didn’t realize this until I got with maybe 10ft of him…..he was crying a bit….at which point I noticed the bum leg when he hobbled a little farther away.  I love animals, but I don’t enjoy seeing one of them suffer.  I’d much rather have seen him as roadkill on the road and just taken it with a grain of salt…but to see this animal suffering - that sucks.   I probably could have chased him down and snapped his neck or something, but I didn’t want to get rabies in the process.  I’m kidding of course.  I did look for a park police officer to maybe ask what could be done about it…..but nothing doing.  Hows that for a downer?

Well, I’ll post up again next week once I get rolling again.

• Seven frame > sell on ebay
• Seven Parts > migrate to Lemond frame
• Lemond parts > migrate to Surly frame (for Oksana’s new around-town bike…the Surly frame can be setup in a gazillion different ways…one of them being a road/cross type bike with cantis)
• Surly Parts > migrate to Walt frame

• Lemond with DA and several pounds lighter
• Oksana with a better bike to roll around town on
• Dan with some extra cash to apply to his Bolivian mountaineering trip (or Glock 19)….