These Boots weren't made for walking

But that's just what I had to do.

I haven't posted a story in awhile, I've been so busy it's crazy. We have a Baby Girl on the way and I've been tied up with everything that includes. But.. On to the story.

Being so busy I haven't been able to ride nearly as much as I should be and in turn I'm still much fatter then I'd like to be at this part of the season. But I've been determined here as of late to get out there and get my riding on.

Yesterday I wanted to get out on the Mtn Bike and since we had no other plans it was a go. I went for a walk with the wife before hand then started to tune up the gears. Took a little bit as they were being extra annoying. They'd shift down perfectly but would grind on the mid gears going back up. Ajust one way one gear was fine .. adjust it the other and another would be but in conjunction they were still grinding a bit. A tweak here an F bomb there and WA LA! smooth shifting.

So I packed up my gear, loaded up the bike and headed for Loch Raven. The ride should be sooooo much better then the last. A couple of weeks I went for a ride at LR and it was 105 with about 80% humidity. I close to dead in there .. it was so hurtful. But this time it was low 90's and lower humidity and it started off pretty well. I'm not going to say I was riding strong but felt much better then last time. Right as I crossed the stream and was head left into the tech single track I rode past three guys. I nodded to them as I rode up and said whats up guys and was about to pass them by when I saw one of them give me a crazy look. I did a double take and I was surprised that I knew him haha. Patrick use to work at the bike shop I went to and I haven't seen him in probably 4 years now that I think about it. We BS'd for a little bit and someone else rolled down the trail and they stopped and also knew him haha. So I said good to see him and rolled on, as I was riding away I then thought damn I should have gotten his new number. But maybe I'll see him out there again.

So I'm off and riding. I ride my normal route. Doube in to the stream, over the stream then head left into the single track. Follow it down along the water and cut back up the double track and make a right on to the single headed up to mid. Snake down to Sams and on to the climb up to Provident. It's a long way it seems, well the fatter I am the longer it seems haha. You do get a couple of good sections and two small streams that test you a little bit but then it's the grind up to Provident road.

I made it up to Prov and took a little breather before heading into the speed loop. It's just a small loop with some log piles and is a pretty fun run. I'm about a quarter of a way into the loop and BLAMO! I'm just riding a normal section at a normal speed and then my legs are spinning at light speed. Damn, the chain popped. I get off and walk over to a log to have a look and yup, the SRAM quick link shattered. It couldnt have done it when I was climbing now could it! Haha It let me make it all the way to the top of Prov and to pretty much the farthest point from my car. But no biggy right? I'll just fix the chain with one of the master links in my camelbak. Well I would have if they were in there. A few weeks ago I cleaned the camelbak and it looks like those links didn't make their way back into their pouch because they most certainly were not in my bag.

So trudge my way out of the loop and think to myself .. road or trail? Which will be the easiest path back to the car. The road seems the first choice but I was thinking there is a good bit of downhill in the trail on the way back and that means a half broken ride through the trail will at least give me some fun. So off I went. And let me say, riding without a chain is an odd feeling, or maybe it is just me. I'm use to the resistance the chain gives and if I lean too far one way I'll use some pedal power to right me. I didn't have that option and soon found it unnerved me quite a bit haha. Maybe it was also that I didn't want to touch the brakes, the more brakes I used meant the more walking that would follow.

At first I was a bit annoyed at the chain and at extra links for not being where they were supposed to be (not me, the links knew what they did). But I though hell could be a lot worse, I could be busted up or a cracked frame or wheel and it would be 100% walk back to the car. So with that in mind I moved on, sometimes walking, sometimes riding or a combo of both. The only thing that sucked were my Sidi's. There were not made for an extended hike and that's what they got. I really do like my new shoes but I'll have to say my old faithful Nikes were pretty comfortable to walk in and when I did look at the bottom of the Sidi's the cleats were taking a beating.

I stuck to the double track for the way back, no sense going into the single track for a walk. The double track also runs right through the middle of the woods (which is why I usually call it mid track.. duh) and is quite lumpy. So I'd walk up and zoom down trying to tuck as much as I could to get the most out of my not walking time. Up and down, up and down .. I kind of felt like a DH rider, just without a ski lift. But while out on my hike I did find a sweet section of the double track that someone had built up into numerous jumps (well at least built up humps). I don't usually ride the double so it was a bit of a surprise and was quite unexpected. I was blasting down the section trying not to touch the brakes and I was flying! I was getting a ton a air, not so high but long and it was a blast. So I did at least get something out of my hike.

I was almost out of the trail and someone finally asked me if I needed any help. A friend and I have been talking about peoples attitude as of late. The last few years it seems that people have gotten more and more rude. People road by be without a word, I'm sure a person pushing up hill looks normal but pushing on the flat? Eventually someone finally did ask and that was cool, too bad it was so close to the end and I figured it didn't even make sense so I just walked it out.

All in all it could have been worse. Sidi's might be some awesome cycling shoes (though not as aweseome as my fifteen year Nikes - RIP) but they are most certainly the worst hiking shoes I've ever worn.

My New Season Begins?

I'm fat .. yup going to just put that right out there.. it's March whatever it is, I don't need to know, the site knows for me! Last year ended in a train wreck. Not really a train but a car. Not only was I hit buy a car on my bike but my wife was also in an accident when a goon ran a red light and smashed into her. Then work got all busy and life as well.

Not to sugar coat it, i got discouraged. Big time. My riding slowed down and on the last Mtn Bike ride of the year I broke my shoes! Old Faithfuls .. Nike Mtn Shoes (model : AWESOME in case you were wondering) that I bought when I first decided clipless was the way to go. I've had/wore/used them for somewhere around 15 years. I can still remember buying them.

Into Performance I walked, at that time that was the shop I went too, I didn't know any better. But anyway, so I'm looking around and back then my budget was non existent. I pick up a pair of Wellgo SPD pedals, can I just say screw that whole system. Maybe better pedals would have given me a better experience but no matter what i did or how i adjusted them I could never release when doom was inevitable. Down down down into that burning ring of fire I would go.

*disclaimer- In case you haven't noticed. My stories are never short and never ever get to the point quickly. My stories never go in a straight line they are more akin to a Mountain Profile from the Tour. Half the time I have to reread what I started with to even remember what story I started to tell. * end disclaimer

As I looked around I noticed all the shoes were high dollar. Well for me at the time they seemed to be. But they did have a closeout table which i walked over to and saw a Nike box that looked interesting. I looked at the side and it said they were 71/2, whoa that was small. But I pulled them out and tried them on. They fit perfectly, at first I thought it must be a different sizing system until I looked in the shoes themselves, 91/2. So either they just didn't have the right box or someone was trying to hold them all sneaky like. Written on the outside of the box, 29.99. Awesome.

The only thing i ever had to replace on them was the cushion, some of the foam was actually drying up and breaking apart but what can you expect from 15 years of use. As my brother in law pointed out as we got back to the car on their final day, " Basically you spent two dollars per year for them". Wow, I hadn't really thought about it like that. Not to sound nutty but I'll miss those shoes. Blue with Yellow Swoosh and Highlights. Not to mention I'm a Nike man, the only athletic shoes I'll wear.

So I had to get something new, Nike doesn't make them any more so that limited the choices. The two Cycling shoe brands I've ridden and like are Nike and Sidi so my choice was now laid out before me. I put off buying them for awhile as I wasn't motivated to ride and didn't want to spend the money at the time plus the mourning period had to be observed. But the time was upon me. I was getting Fat, well fatter at this point. So after watching prices on numerous sites I got a deal on a pair of Sidi Spyders.

Now I'm excited about getting new shoes. I've been wanted to get on the trainer but I don't feel comfortable putting the Wilier up on the trainer with it being full Carbon ( and me now being fat ). Don't know why, but to me the trainer seems to put a lot of stress on the rear triangle, so I usually throw my single speed up there. But, my SS has MTN pedals, Candy SLs to be exact. And just let me say that they are also made of AWESOME, I can release without issue but they don't pop free at the worst possible moment. If you are looking for pedals I highly recommend them ( any eggbeater really but I prefer a bit of a platform ). I had been saying I was going to switch the pedals for some Looks but never did. So now I'd have no excuses, well I'm sure I could make some more other lame ones up but now i was determined to get on the trainer.

I ordered them on a Thursday and they were set to be delivered the following Thursday. Sweet. Enter life. The Saturday in between shoe Thursdays I went to my friends house to cut some molding for him. Brought my Miter saw down, measured some and then went out on some errands. On the way back we picked up his daughter and went to home depot. On the way I had to make a quick side check and felt a little tweak in my back but didn't think anything about it. On the way out of Home Depot his daughter and I were goofing around and I scooped her up. POP! Yup.. that was my back.

That night I finished up the molding for him. Hung out with some friends and then went home. It was sore but not terrible. Sunday was pretty much the same. Monday and Tuesday I went to work and the horrible chairs their must have aggravated it. It was now uber tender so when I went home I put a heating pad on it and even slept with it. The next morning I tried to get out of bed but I couldn't even lift my leg! Every time I moved I'd get a feeling like someone was shiv'n me in the back. I'd lock up. Called out of work and then called the Doctor. Got an appointment at 10:30 and figured if I just took it real slow I could get up and get a shower then head to the doctor.

A slow torturous trip out of bed to the bathroom to then realize I had no clean towels. I'd have to go downstairs to retrieve one and then return. Down i went trying to bend as little as possible. Every step; Boom fire, Boom fire, BOOM fire, and so on. I tried to speed up to get it over with, turned and hit the laundry scooped up a towel and then right back to the steps. Going down the steps was hateful but trying to go back up was brutal. I was two steps short of the landing when my back could take no more and I collapsed on the steps. The pain was terrible. I laid there cussing for at least ten mins before I just got so angry I stood up through the towel into the bathroom hobbled to the bed and fell onto it. My face was wet with tears it hurt so bad. I had to call the Doctor and cancel. There was no possible way I was going to make it anywhere. She called in a prescription for Muscle Relaxers which my wife picked up for me. Thankfully they brought the pain down to a tolerable level. I laid in bed the rest of the day and called to make an appointed for the next day.

The pills had helped and I could at least move the following day but it was still ultra painful. It was like the shiv was still in my lower back and if I turned a certain way or moved my leg too far it would cut off all feeling below my waist. My legs would give out and almost fall. But I made it to the Doctors which is only one mile from my house though it sucked the entire way. Couldn't twist to look any way but straight and every push of the clutch was pain. I get there early but i still wait a fun 45 mins trying to find a comfortable position to sit in. Then watch people who got there after me going in before me. Yah!

But once I got in there she did her doctoring stuff and and told me I needed to rest as much as possible and gave me some pain meds which I normally don't take. I don't like to be out of my gord, I prefer to be in control with just a smidge of OCD thrown in for fun. So I roll home and tell Angela I have more meds that she'll have to get for me. When she got home she picked them up and I took the first bit of them. Whoa, enter the Zombie. I'm pretty sure I was drooling on myself a good portion of the night and that was with me only taking half of the pill! But I rested the whole weekend and felt better come Monday. I figured I'd be able to make it to work. That didn't work out so well. I ended up hurting the back again and was back in bed that night in pain until the zombie pill kicked in. Now it's Thursday and I've been taking it super easy. Haven't carried anything heavier then a cup of something to drink and have avoided bending as much possible. Because bending is the devil.

And just to rub it in the weather has broken and it's been in the 60's all week. 60's, new shoes just sitting there looking at me. Oh do I want to ride. Should I try the trainer this weekend or give it another week? A smart man would wait, but right now I'm more fat then smart and I hear the Sidi's calling .. actually I think they are saying " Wass a matta U? "

The New Whip

Here's the New Whip all together .. finally got the bike all built back up. Now I'm trying to get use to the new setup. So far I can only say, AWESOME! Now if my insurance would stop screwing me around, they found the guy and he does have insurance. He's also with Nationwide, and they are "looking" over the information. Of course he lied and said he was parked. Well if he was parked and it was my fault why would he not give me his info and say he didn't have insurance. It's complete BS really, gotta love the A-Holes!

Here's a link to a few more Pics http://picasaweb.google.com/sincain

How you like me now?!

Yeah, that's what I said to the 12' hill at Loch Raven that always laughs down on me as time and again fail to clean it. Oh, but not this time I finally conquered it. Using BJ's trick I rode up and off the trail giving myself enough space to turn and it worked like a champ! I'm not saying I didn't come to a crawl and I'm not saying it wasn't the suck, cause it was. But I beat it's dirty a$$ (get it, it's a hill made of dirty. No huh? damn). I was so excited I was struck with the idea to stop and take a picture so I could include it with this post but then I'd have to stop. My nemesis is just the start of another climb that wines it's way back up to Mid range. I was on a roll and didn't want to stop so I just kept on going until I reached the intersection with the Mid Double Track. This weekend was a good one, the temp and humidity were both down and it felt great. I got ditched on Sat but there was no way I was going to miss such a great day.

I don't know if I've improved this weekend or if it was just because of the wonderful weather (aka no humidity which seems to beat me down) or that I might actually be gaining some form. I've lost some weight so that's helping for sure but I'll wait till next weekend before I decided that I'm feeling stronger.

My MTN ride was the best of the season. I cleaned all the hills that usually give me grief and never had the taste of my spleen well up in my throat. Oh yeah it still hurt but no where near as bad as it has been. I went from Mid down down the S's to the shore past Sam's Grave crossed over the log pile bridge cleaned both steep sections and made my way back up to Mid without taking a break. First time in awhile I didn't feel spent and could just keep on keep'n on. Went up to Provident Road hit the speed loop dropped back in and then even cleaned the other rutted steep curving hill that I usually burn out on. I had enough juice in the tank to pick a good line and take my time, most of the time I'm just seeing black spots hit a root burn out and then start cussing. No cussing required this time. 8)

The root section down my the shore was the only painful section for me. My knee still isn't 100% after the accident but it's feeling a ton better. I can at least get out of the saddle to climb now. I finished with a good time and even had enough energy when I got home to get out the never dull and polish the Chameleon (that's my bike, a Santa Cruz Chameleon, get your mind out of the gutter).

Sunday it was again super nice. I headed up to Falls Road to get in my climbing loop. My knee started out a little sore but it cleared up pretty quickly. I felt good most of the ride until the last big climb at mile 40. But at least I'm feeling stronger and that is a bonus. If I can just get my insurance bike stuff all cleared up and done.

Sunday was not fun day

Sunday morning my wife and I were planning on going to the Outlets to get her some cloths for the summer. Before the trip up to Lancaster PA I wanted to get in a ride so I got up early and was out the door by 8:30 or so. I should have stayed in bed.

I went down to Fait Ave to get the little steep climb in then headed back to my normal loop. Adding that little bit to the ride appears to have been a bad idea as it put me on a not so cool timeline.

I was shooting down Delvale and started to climb up Sollers Point Road. I was looking right at the yield as a car was pulling up and was making sure they were going to stop. They stopped, so I turned my head back around in time to see a car pull out of the grass on the right hand side of the road. I started to yell but it was too late, I swerved as fast as I could but I was going about 15 mph and he was backing up quickly. There was no way I was going to make it around him.

BAAAAM! I slam into the trunk of the car and go flipping over it. I got some good hang time and remember seeing car, ground, sky.. car, ground, sky. I was yelling out something but I don't recall what I was saying. Thankfully I tucked and rolled and didn't hit my head (and yes I was wearing a helmet, no scratches on it at all so I'm pretty sure I didn't touch head to pavement). I checked my limbs and all seemed to be working, sore, but working. I had a gash on my right leg and road rash on the left leg. My right hand was hurting along with my hips and shoulders.

A car drove by and a lady asked if I wanted her to call 911. I should have said yes.. I don't know why I said no I'm ok. I wasn't ok but figured it wasn't so bad. But I was pretty stunned, I haven't been hit by a car before and flipping over one to land on the ground is a new experience. I was shocked by what was going on. Two black guys got out of the car (the one that pulled out in front of me), they appeared to be in their early 20s and checked their car. I was trying to get up but was having problems as I was sore and with bike cleats on I was slipping. One of the guys helped me up and the other guy picked my bike up trying to fix the chain. I told him not to even bother, the bike was totalled. For a link to all the pictures :http://picasaweb.google.com/sincain/BikeAccident#

The guy gave me a ride to my house which was only about a mile away. Once we pulled up to my house I asked him if he had insurance. He replied " no ". For one it's illegal in Maryland to drive without insurance and two my road bike was now destroyed. "Dude, my bike costs about five grand. And now it's destroyed" to which he replied "Man I'm sorry". I got out of the car and leaned my bike against my porch. Came back and pulled out my phone. I gave him my name and phone number and he said he'd give me a call next week to help me out with some money. I expected him to give me his information but he just got back in his car. I didn't want to get into any confrontation as I was bleeding, sore and standing in my squeezers. So I just snapped a picture of his license plate. I figured that would do it for me. It's a TEMP Tag so I really hope they can find it.

I carried the bike into the Garage as it won't roll (The wheels are so egged they won't fit through the brakes even with the release open). Went inside and leaned the poor shattered Orbea against the wall and hobbled inside. Now for the tough part, steps, I knew this was going to hurt. I slowly climbed up the steps and walked into our bedroom, my wife was still in bed and mostly asleep. She mumbled something at me, not sure what she said but I replied "I just got hit by a car". Guess it took a second for the information to process as she slowly looked at me. Then in a burst of action she shot out of bed and went into a fit of "Oh my god!"s. She decided I should go to the hospital but I wasn't sure. I was still so hazy things weren't making much sense to me. She said we'd go to one of "those" places instead of the Emergency Room. "What?" .. I eventually figured out she meant Patient First but all I remember saying was " I don't even know what you are talking about". My brain wasn't working at peak performance that's for sure.

Angela got me a Vitamin Water and as I sat there drinking it I started to clear up a bit. Then I started to get angry. Why did I not let the lady call 911 for me? Why did I just let the guy leave? What am I going to do about my bike? It is now smoked. Getting angry at the time doesn't really help but I couldn't help it.

We head for Patient First. I got X Rays and a Tetnis Shot whoot! The nurses cleaned the cuts and wrapped me up, the Doctor told me there wasn't anything major wrong. At least that's good news. All those falls in the woods came in handy, I'm good at falling. People don't know this but falling is an art, and I'm a master. I've done it enough I should be good at it by this point. The Doctor gave me some 800mil Advil as I turned down any harder pain meds. I'm not a fan of getting loopy.

Now the fun really begins. I call the police and the insurance company. I officers arrive and take the report. The insurance claim is filed and now I have to wait to find out what's going to happen. Its been about four days so far and most of the medical stuff has been handled and all that but I still haven't heard whats going to go on about my bike. Will it be under the uninsured auto or my home owners and what do I have to do. I'm pretty much in the dark right now when it comes to what's going to happen about me replacing my bike. I'm healing but my bike is not. From all this I've come to realize a few things.

1) I thought bikers/cyclists got no respect while just riding. But it is nothing compared to what happens when you are in an accident. No one takes the cost of a nice bike seriously (even the cops). When you say "my bike" people think of a $50 Wal Mart special and the rest of the conversation then turns to amusement. Why are you making such a big deal over a bike? It's at that point I want to choke a beotch out.
2) 90% of the people out there truly don't know we are suppose to ride on the street. Riding on the sidewalk is illegal, it's for pedestrians. Driver's Ed? Who needs to know the rules of the road? Really.
3) There is nothing in place to recover your bike cost. There is no policy that you can take out to cover your bike in the same fashion as a car. Any vehicle that rides on the road should be treated as an automobile or a policy needs to be available for them.
4) I miss my bike.

Hopefully I get some information on my bike soon. Thankfully I'm starting to feel better. Today was the first day I didn't do the crazy hoppy dance when I got in the shower. Yeah, it still hurt but not so much that I couldn't stand it. I'm moving faster, I've gone from a 80 year old with a bad hip to maybe a late 60's with a peg leg. My goal for this weekend is to be down in the 40's! Maybe still with a peg leg though .. ARRRRGHHHH !

Back when I was called Fast..

The other day while climbing a small hill and hurting up a storm it got me to thinking,. about five years ago people would refer to me as fast. I personally never thought of myself as that fast but I was very consistent and that would help me climb the hill pretty well. As I climbed up the pseudo hill I thought, " damn I'm slow ". And I am now, that's hard to take when not so long ago I was at least "not slow". And this had me thinking back to when I got my first "fast" reference.

My friend Donald use to own and run a bike shop. He's a great guy and an awesome rider, be it mountain or road, he's a beast. So I stopped down his shop at lunch to bring my bike in and get the new cassette and chain I had ordered put on. While there Donald asked me if I wanted to go riding that night and it sounded good to me, when we rode I would push and it was nice to have a high paced ride. He'd have the bike ready to go by the time I got off work and we'd roll out. Cool.

Thankfully my house is only 8 miles from work and his shop at the time was only 1 mile the other way from work. So I ran home, got my gear and then headed back up to his shop. When I got there he was half dressed and was running around trying to finish up some shop business. While running around he tells me that he talked to some buddies and we were going to do a group ride down in Ellicott City. "Huh? I thought we were just going to cruise up to Falls from here and back", "Nah, this will be a much cooler ride!". Oh boy, that got me a little nervous as Donald is a strong rider and I'm wondering which of his friends we are going to ride with. I know some of them are super strong. "Don't worry man you can hang, it's all good. it'll be awesome!" awesome was Donald's word.

I load up our bikes on my car and Donald yells out "lube up the chain, I didn't have a chance to." well it's on the car so I said I would before we left on the ride. He finished up and left Pat in charge and off we went. We were late so I was rolling out. During our drive he tells me it's going to be 4 or 5 guys that he knows. One owns a shop down there where we'll be leaving from and the other guys are peeps he knows from races and rides. Oh boy, races? I'm now thinking that I'm in trouble. Two of the guys ride for teams that I've heard of so now I know I'm in trouble. We get to the shop and are a little late so we jump out and start to get ready. Three of the guys are pretty cool and we are talking a little bit which is only making me more nervous. They are talking about racing this and racing that. Bah .. I'm having a sinking feeling I'm going to be puling up rear guard.

The owner of the shop comes out and immediately I can tell this guy is an ass. He's probably in his forties a little overweight but is talking like he's got big game. Donald introduces me and trying to be cool I throw a little self deprecating humor out there "don't crush me out there guys" finished with a slight chuckle. The guy says "Don't worry we won't let you fall too far behind." I think I must have stopped dead, Donald must have seen this and said "Don't worry about Todd, he's a good rider." "We'll see" the owner's buddy chimes in (he will now be know as Cronie). Ok, now it's on. It might sound like they were joking but by the tone it didn't sound like joking. It sounded ignorant to me, firing me right on up. Right then and there I decided there was no way I was going to be dropped that day.

We finished gearing up and they decided where we were going (this is the first time I've ridden here so I'm lost). The loop we were going to hit was 50 to 60 miles and was going to be pretty hilly. The first part of the ride was just getting out of the main congested area. But once we got about ten miles into the ride it started to kick up and we hit the first big climb. Me and Donald were just chilling at the back of the line riding easy, so far the ride wasn't too taxing. The climb was kind of long but the pace was actually pretty low. I don't remember what me and Donald were talking about but we were joking a bit and had drifted about 20 feet off the other guys who were now spreading out a little bit. The guy turns around at says " Don't worry Todd the hill is almost over" laughing.. Yup, I hate this guy. But I was done with his crap so I yell up " I didn't even know we climbing we are going so slow " Donald laughs and leans over saying " Yeah he's kind of a dick, lets pass um ". Donald and I get out of the saddle and blast past them all. We were pretty close to the top and didn't take but a few more mins to get to the top and an intersection. There was a snowball stand on the corner and it was looking pretty damn good. They caught up and we headed off, crushing my dreams of a blood-orange snowball.

After that hill it quited down. The two "Cool" guys were now trying to push it. But the pace still wasn't too hard so I wasn't having any problems. But one of the others guys was having a hard time and actually called it quits about 30 miles into the ride. We said take care and rolled on. Around this time "cool " guy says to his buddy "think we should take Todd to seven hills?" "yeah we can do that" smiling. I lean over and ask Donald "what's seven hills?" " It's called seven hills to college, just seven biggish climbs up to the college. Lets hurt them!" As we get to seven hills one of the other guys says "that's enough for me, I'm just going to creep over these" and slowed up. Donald and the "cool" crew take off. Donald is a sprinter and that's how he climbs. He'll burst then slow down, burst and then slow down so I wasn't surprised to see him take off. I'm a consistent climber. I just find my gear and motor away, usually on longer climbs I'll start to feel better and I can push the pace up.

They smoke me on the first hill, I just settle into my rhythm. Down the first and start on the second, I'm starting to catch up. By the fourth I was right behind them and was picking up steam. Down and back on the fifth, about halfway up the fifth I pass Donald and Mr. Cool. Donald yells out "Get it man!" so to be a jerk I ask Mr. Cool (as he is now known) "Where do I go after I finish these?" Shooting him the biggest smile I have. Donald says "Just stay to the left and stop at the bottom of the decent". Cool, all I needed to know. I took off, passing Mr. Cool's cronie on the sixth hill. I was alone on the seventh and after cresting I turned left and bombed the decent. I was hitting it pretty hard at first but then slowed up. I had no idea where I was haha. So I let the Cronie catch me, I just hung a little behind him for the rest of the decent. We stopped at a little intersection and waited. He was out of breathe, I was not. At this point I was feeling pretty damn good.

Donald and Cool showed up shortly and we waited for the last guy. Donald was all smiles, as soon as we started off again he rode up and said "that was nice man. Lets finish them off". Cool, I was all for it. But at this time two things happened. 1) I was almost out of water 2) I didn't lube my chain. I've explained before what happens when I run out of water and I was getting nervous. Plus on the next climb my chain was starting to get a bit audible. Then my right leg started to cramp up. I was getting annoyed, I wanted to finish this ride up strong and send a message. I downed the last bit of water I had, shook my leg out on a decent and then nodded at Donald. He knew the final section of the ride and we started picking up the pace. First the tired guy dropped out the back. Then the cronie. Mr. Cool was trying to hold on with all he had but as the last climb got steeper he drift back farther. We cleared the top, tucked and hit the decent hard. The last section of the ride is a false flat that takes you back to Rt40 and his shop. We had lost sight of them and by now my leg was cramping bad. I told Donald and he gave me what water he had left, "Come on man, keep it up."

Finally we leveled out and came to the intersection of Rt40 where his shop is, I can see my car. We wait for the light then start to go, well, Donald does. My chain locks up. I limp to the side of the road and straighten it out, cross the road to my car. "Thankful the chain waited to the end to get crazy!" "I told you to lube it, haha, hurry up get the bikes up on the car and change. I want to rub this in." So we changed super quick, got the bikes up on the car and just as we sat on the bumper they rolled up. Donald stands up "Damn man, where you been?" Cool just glared. "Thought for sure you were going to catch up when Todd had to fix his chain. Told you he was a good rider." All I got was a "yeah". I talked to the tired guy for a few mins and said it was fun to them all. We hoped in the car and took off.

Donald was so stoked, "Man, you rode him off your wheel. That's Awesome! I know that's going to bug him." "well he was being an ass, no need to talk down to me and all." We stopped at a gas station to get some Gatorade as I needed some drink bad. As we walked him Donald says "You've really improved man, I'm impressed". It felt good, he's a strong rider and the fact that I had put those guys into the hurt locker was nice. I dropped him off and rode home feeling like I had just won something.

The next day I stopped down his shop and found Donald, Patrick and Mike in the shop BS'n. "And here he is, should have seen him last night. He rode (enter names here) off his wheel. Todd's fast!"

A day of firsts, seconds and everything in between

Yesterday I left work and it looked a little overcast but nothing too bad. That is until I got home. Enter the thunder and lightning. It was booming pretty bad but it looked like there was light on the horizon and I figured the storm was passing me. hmmm ... yeah, not so much.


But as it was, it ended up being a day chock full of new stuff. First, I've never riding during a hail storm. And I have to say one was more then enough for me. Those little things hurt! Riding my normal road route takes me across Peninsula Hwy and the draw bridge that resides there. It's never up, well it's never up when it's nice. It appears it's up quite regularly when the poor weather hits. As I ride towards it I slow down and pretty much just slow pedal up the ramp. This is about when I feel the first few drops. I got to chill at the top of the draw bridge and watch the curtain of rain run up and over me. I go from dry to a wet mess in little under 3 seconds. Now that the bridge has done it's job holding me up so the rain can catch me the gates start to raise. Thanks for that drawbridge ..


Now, as you know a draw bridge's center span is a metal grade type thing a ma jig. It's painted and the road is it's most slick when it first starts to rain. Not to mention there are a line of cars that have been waiting for the bridge. I was a little nervous as you can never tell what people are going to do .. Amazingly everyone passed me in the other lane and no one screamed at me .. that's a first and a surprise. Numbers were on their side and I figured where would be at least one goon in the pack. Pleasantly I was proven wrong .. or at least the goon in said pack was just a quite goon and choose to think lame things about me instead of yelling them at me. who knows.


So I'm over the bridge and heading along the road.. that's when the hail started. It was pouring and at first I thought the rain was stinging me but NO! I was lucky and it was HAIL! Yay .. smacking into me, bouncing off me. It was the best, let me tell you. I had to ride about a mile and a half before I came to the only overpass and cover for miles around. I climb the small hill and shoot down into cover. Where I start watching it pour and hail thinking this is the first time I've ridden in hail and only the second time I've ever had to pull over for cover. The first was under a bank's drive through window (thankfully it wasn't open, and it was my bank so I felt I had the right!). I hung out under cover for about 10 or 15 mins I guess. It passed pretty quick so I hoped back on the bike and rolled on.

I usually head down to the old steel plant and then circle back, as I turned around there it was! BAM, a huge rainbow. Not just a half either, I saw the whole arch. So another first, I've never rode into a rainbow either. It ended up being a day of super crazy weather.. Sun, Rain, Hail and then a nice Rainbow. I got to finish it off with the craziest wind as well, it would blow one way, stop, then blow the complete opposite way. Then it would go back. It was a crazy day.

And at least I wasn't the only crazy one out there, while heading back I came across an older gentleman running in the opposite direction. I gave him a Nod, Smile and a howdy .. he returned the smile and gave me a thumbs up. Old or young we were bonded by crazy I suppose!

They Make it .. I'll Break it ..

I seem to have an amazing ability to break pretty much anything on a bike. A wide variety of parts and brands ranging from the cheap to top of the line, ranging from the mundane to the unique. Nothing is beyond my amazing destructive powers! My friend Dan is sure I'm missing my calling, a bike product tester.

The List is long, but here are just some examples.
Roughly 6 Seats - From Bending and breaking rails to cracking the platform.
More Derailleurs then I can count, front and rear. Snapping off Arms, Cracking a Barrel clean in half, tearing off cages and so forth..
Beat a Chris King Headset loose
Snapped Crank Arms, pulled their teeth and put a hurting on many a BB ..

But the latest addition to the broken parts lists is a XT Front derailleur and the more worrisome part, my Chris King rear hub .. The last time I was riding I noticed that my gears were hoping a bit, they just seemed to jump up or down at random times. I figured it was just time to tune up the rear so I cleaned the drive train and started to adjust it. Unusually the gears seemed to work smoothly without any issues. Maybe it only happens during a high load? I adjusted it a little bit figuring I'd pay attention more when I went out this weekend. I adjusted the Front Derailleur and it seemed to be working better but the cage seemed excessively loose.

Last Saturday me and BJ were going to hit our normal loop around Loch Raven so I thought was tuned and ready to ride. As I'm loading up the bike I noticed the rear wheel seemed loose. I inspected the wheel, thinking it was just the cassette I remove the rear wheel grab the tool and try to tighten the cassette. Nope, that thing is on there TIGHT. Hmm... maybe the wheel was just cocked? I replace the wheel making sure everything is lined up and tighten it on up. The Axel is completely time but the body of the hub is floating around. Not good. I'm hoping the hub is just loose and will require a little tightening but it's not really looking so good for it.

I'm not messing with it anymore .. I'm taking it into the shop this Wednesday. Hopefully the ringdrive is just loose.. I'm hoping that .. but I'm pretty sure it won't be. That's just not how I roll.

Bring me the Water!

The last post reminded me of a funny story. It's a good one so I figured I'd post it next. First thing that needs to known about this story is my high liquid requirements when riding my bike. I mentioned before I sweat more then most, and with that I require a lot of liquid to replenish what I'm losing. If I run out of water my sanity follows pretty quickly.

A few years back (probably more then a few now that I think about it, I wasn't using a camelback then) BJ, Jay and I hit up Ptap for long Mtn Ride. Usually we do somewhere from 15 to 18 miles but this day we ended up rolling for 24 or so. Usually two 24oz bottles holds me over but it was stifling humid that day so I was running out quicker then usual. Now I say two bottles holds me over but that's actually not true. That is how many I would bring but I would then also drink most of the what BJ brought as well. BJ can typically ride the whole time only taking a drink once an hour which I can not even fathom.

We rode our normal loop but once we got back to the Xroads we dropped back down to the ridge trail. The trail then Y's off, left takes you to the waterbar section that leads down and out. Right takes you back towards the Xroads. I told them "we have to go left", but for some reason they were determined to head right. Usually I navigate through the trails, I know them all and have an excellent sense of direction. I tried to explain that if we go right we'll be back on top and will either have to head back out though the white or blue trails. To which I got the response "Cool!". "No, not cool, I'm almost out of water". I even held up a quarter full bottle, "this is all I have left and that is not enough to get me back up and over the ridge again". "You'll be fine" is all I got. I told them they have been warned but as they both wanted to go right, we went right.

By the time we got back to the top of the ridge I was out of water and starting to get hostile. "Wow, we are back at the X like you said!", .. "Yeah I know, that's what I said. But here we are and I have no water!" this all came out in a wild eye'd burst. Both of them looked at me like I was insane. But at this point I've lost most of my control, my brain is cooking and I'm starting to go a bit nutty. We started back toward the Horse Farm area where there is a little pavilion that I'm hoping has a water fountain or something .. anything.

We make it to the Pavilion area and realize something is going on .. it's a giant party. Music, a ton of people, food (you could smell it) and i can only imagine something to drink. We start to head through a little hole in the vines/fence and start looking for something to drink. Unfortunately it looked like it was a business outing and we certainly didn't match with the crowd. My water starved brain is in desperation mode and I'm close to just making a brake for it. I'm thinking I can just haul ass through the middle of the party, swipe a soda, water hell it could even be a beer at this point (coming from a guy that doesn't drink). But my friends seeing me looking longingly toward the tents reeled me in and we started walking around the area looking for something. We found something .. a garden hose. Have you ever drank out of a garden hose before? If you haven't I highly recommend you keep it that way. Plus it was a hose attached to a shed type thing, god only knows where the hell the water was coming from.

I first just start pouring it over my head which felt great. I was starting to come back from the edge. I drank a bit from it. At first it was great, but then I started to notice a funny taste. I commented about it and got "It's just the rubber taste from the hose, it's fine". Being so thirsty I didn't care and drank some more. I then proceeded to fill my water bottles and we bee lined it for the trail. As we are sitting there trying to figure out which way to go my throat starts to get all scratchy. I couch a few times and try to figure out what was going on. This leads me to look at my water bottles. I really wish I hadn't done that. It looked like the bottles were filled with sea monkeys. It was super cloudy and I don't even want to think about what it was floating around in there. And whatever was floating around in there was now floating around in my stomach. I almost threw up then and there, the only thing that stopped me was anger. I'm screwed. We are way into the trail and it's going to be a long ride out. "I hate you guys .. you know that right" to which they just laughed at me.

So back we head with me leading. We hit the blue/white trail heading toward the road and the swinging bridge. There is a long fast down hill that crosses over a few trails with some tight tight turns. By now I'm losing all control and cook into a corner way way way too hot. I skid sideways and to my credit keep the bike up while only bouncing into one tree which directed me back onto the trail. I come to a stop and after all that can't unclip. TIMBER! I fall over and can't seem to get myself untangled from the bike. Insert vulgar narrative number one here. I start cussing up a storm. Yelling at the bike, yelling at my wide eyed buddies and whatever else crossed my sight. I get up and proclaim "We go right here". I gave them both a look that said this is the trail we are taking, there are no change of plans, there are no other options just get on your bike and lets go.

This last part of the white trail takes you through a huge rock garden. It's a good kilometer long and is highly technical. Even on top form it will throw you around and always requires all your attention. At this point I was not on top form, I was a ragid angery man. Insert vulgar narrative number two here. I have no recollection of what I was saying but I unleashed a devastating Salvo of F bombs, carpet bombing of the like that hasn't been seen since WWII. It was loud, long and strong. Ever since that trip I have referred to that section as the Lunar Surface. Mid tirade I come to the section that leads you up and out of the rock garden blinded by a haze of crazy. I tilt my head up and see five little kids. They are just standing on the trail. Staring. They ranged from probably seven to about sixteen I'd guess and I had just unleashed the worse display of filth they had ever heard or will ever hear. I immediately come to my senses, I feel horrible. But what is there to do. As I ride by "Pardon my outburst of obscenity's" and I just keep riding.

BJ rides up and says damn man didn't you see them. Nope, not even remotely. "I was so fired up all I saw was red". Jay came up next and said don't worry about it.. they are all back there laugh right now. We all burst out laughing, I had to look nuts and at that point I probably actually was. "See, see what happens when I run out of water!". We exited the trail buy the restrooms which has a water fountain near by thankfully. I probably stood there for five mins mashing on that stupid foot pedal drinking. That was the best tasting water I've ever tasted. Sea Monkey Free.

So now when I mention I'm low on water during a ride... I have no shortage of water bottles jammed in my face.

I'm up, I'm up, .... I'm down

Last weekend I decided to get in my first real Mountain Bike ride of the season. I didn't really think much of it until I got ready and headed outside. It was super humid, it's only May and had no business being that humid. I can handle heat and I seem to actually ride better in the cold. But, humidity crushes me under. I sweat a ridiculous amount when I ride, It's actually quite disgusting. It's like a waterfall from my helmet. But anyway.

I get out to Loch Raven and start to gear up. I drop in at the church on Seminary Road as usual which starts with a quick little up. Nothing too bad, but I can already feel the humid air closing in on me. I know the farther I go in the worse it's going to be. I head in and take the single track that follows the waters edge. A little more technical with log piles and jumps, it's a fun ride. But as I go it's getting worse as I expected. I then head up towards mid ridge. This is the first real climb of the ride and normally it hits hard as I have to find my climbing legs but this time BAM! I must have left my climbing legs at home. It was horrible.

When I got to Mid I rode around in a little circle trying to catch my breathe. For some reason I have a hell of a time getting my breathe back when I come to a dead stop. It's like my lungs freak out and I feel like I can't get enough air to fill them. I ride in a little circle and I breath fine. ?? who knows .. after I recover I stop for a few and let a group of walkers pass me coming from the other direction. It's about this time I realize i've drained half my Camelback already! When it' hot and I'm sweating like a freak I need water and it appears I was sucking it down with reckless abandon. I'm not that far in yet and my water reserves were already getting low. Which for me is not a good thing, I have a tendency to lose it when I am water deprived ( another good story ). But I push on and hit the switchback back down to the water and cruise by Sam's grave. I start heading back up towards Mid again but after some more climbing I realize... I'm done. If I go any father I'm going to hit a lot of climbing that I'm not going to be able to make. So I did the only sensible thing, I got off the bike and sat on a log.

And there I sat trying to catch my breathe and trying not to have any ants run down my pants. They were all over the place, and they were HUGE.. after only a minute or so I had to get up. They were converging on me and I didn't like the looks they were giving me! So I'm sitting on my bike thinking about what I was going to do. I'm almost out of water, I'm out of shape and with the humidity I can barely breathe. Sadly I realized the only option and turned the bike around and decided it was going to be a flat riding day. I headed back towards the water and just road the flatish technical trails. I still got about a 2 hour ride in by the time I was done and was completely beat but still was ticked about not hitting the big climb up to Provident Road. But better to get the first ride under the belt then to blow myself up on the mountain and never be heard from again!

When I was out of water I started heading back. I took the single track out to the fireroad to make one last climb and then down the starting incline. It's a gnarly down, It's rutted and there are rocks of all sizes all the way down. By the end I usually feel I've earned it and bomb it as hard and as fast a I can. You easily clock high 20s going down it. And I'm not going to lie, it's a bit sketchy. You are flying down that hill and it would be so easy to catch a rut or hit a rock but it's a rush. So I'm flying down the hill, at the bottom it makes a hard left and shoots you up and out of the trail. I cook down the trail, feeling happy that I had made it out tired but in one piece and I guess that's what I did wrong. I was 20 feet from the road and feeling good until I got that uh oh feeling. First I was up and all was smooth sailing and then my back tire is washing out. It was one of those I'm up ..... I'm down slams. I had no idea I was going down until I was grinding my handlebars into the dirt. It was a hard fall, I was flying and didn't have the time to grab the brakes. I just went down. Slid about 10 feet and ended with a nice shoulder block to the ground. TAKE THAT DIRT MOUND!

I was so mad I just hopped up and started cussing. WTF ! I have never wrecked there. I looked all around but I didn't see anything that should have caused me to have laid it down. The bottom is all loose gravel type stuff and it had been raining a bunch the last week. The trails were all dry but the only thing I can figure is that the gravel was wet and a bit looser then normal. Legs bleeding, arm bleeding and my hip is uber sore. I'm not going to drop my pants right there and check it out but I know there's going to be ugliness there too. I look around and at least I didn't have any witnesses haha.. So I start to head back to the car. Was bad enough I had been thoroughly wiped by the hills but now the indignity of laying it down on something easy I've ridden over a hundred times. I guess it just wasn't my day.

And now my buddy BJ and I are lined up to go this Saturday. Oh boy ... Friday night I'm going to do an anti-humidity dance .. otherwise I'll be tying a rope onto the back of B's bike so he can pull me along!

PS. I broke my front derailure.. yay me!

Determination

That was what last night was about. It's been raining here now for a week. It's also been windy and has had a large temperature variation from week to week. I wanted to get two long rides in last weekend but both days were pretty much a bust and Monday it was also raining so three days of no riding was getting me riled up.


Yesterday, pretty much all day I was just thinking about getting out of work and getting on the bike. While at work it was gray and cloudy but it wasn't raining and I was feeling confident that I was going to get my ride in. 5 Oclock hits and I start my drive home, I call my wife and as it's ringing .. drip drip drip. What? oh come on! it better not ......... BOOM .. pouring. WTF. It waited all day so that my hopes were high and then it tries to dash my hopes. That is just plain mean. So that leads to a slight fit in the car which includes me cursing the weather gods. But, I make up my mind right there I'm riding no matter what the weather is like ( minus a hurricane, tornado or other such natural disaster).


I get home and it's still pouring, getting dark as well. I walk in. Grab my riding cloths and start getting everything ready. All the while I'm of course hoping it's going to stop after a short period of rain. I pull the bike down, top off the tires. Fill up my bottle and then head up to change. Pull on a long sleeve UA shirt as it's only about 58 degrees out there. Jump into the squeezers and grab some socks. While doing this I'm listening to the skylights in the bathroom being bombarded, it's coming down hard! now. yah..


Now I'm pretty much all set, Angela is surprised I'm still going. "Isn't it dangerous riding in the rain?" "You are going to get sick". I didn't care, I had made up my mind and mother nature wasn't stopping me. I'm so sick of all this rain. Push my bike out the garage and wow it is pouring, I think to myself this is a new one. I'm going to be soaked.


I turn on the Garmin and head off. I am immediately amazed at how hard it is raining, I'm not wearing glasses as it's just a pain when it's raining. But it's coming down good and it's pretty hard to see at first. I make it to the corner of my street and make a gingerly right. The roads are uber slick. This is the first of many thoughts of " WTF am I doing ". I squash the thought and take off. It's cold, windy and pouring and here I am shooting down the road.


I come across a group of little punk wanna be thugs who of course have to start calling crap out to me, the only girl in the group points and moves right in front of me, laughing. It's going to be one of those day it appears. I'm not going to move and just grumble out a "MOVE" as I get close she must have realized I wasn't moving and jumps aside. I was wearing my iPod so I really have not clue what they were saying. It really is amazing. So many people feel the urge to scream and yell at people that really have nothing to do with them. Just like the days of skating, we'd be in a parking lot doing our own thing just to have some goons drive by while screaming out the window. Which worked out well for them I suppose, they really showed us as it mostly just sounded like arrgghhhhhhhhhblluuurrbbbb ahhhhhhhhhh to us. what does that get you? I mean really. Anyway..


I'm about 15 mins into my ride and I can't tell you how many times my brained popped up with " I'm just going to turn around here " but I would just shake it away and keep on going. After 20 mins I realized I wasn't going to get any wetter then I already was so what did it matter. But it was one of those days. The rain, the stupid kids, two fools that couldn't drive pulling out in front of me and the battery in my iPod running out.

With all that it still ended up being a good ride. I felt strong and the rain kept me cool. I road my 30 mile loop and then headed back. I was completely soaked and definitely tired but the ride was so worth it. It's so easy to just call up a ride but when you make yourself get out there knowing it's raining, windy, hot or whatever it makes that ride seem SO much more sweet at the end.

Those Rare Good Days..

You ever have that really awesome day? It doesn't matter what you are into, but whatever it is you do do (haha do do), that is your day to do it. It's like a spotlight from heaven shines down and you are just on point.

Even I do have those days on the bike. They are few and far between now as I've gotten fatter, older and much slower but they are still there from time to time. A few years ago some friends and I went out for a ride at Ptap (Patapsco State Park) and it was one of those days. Ptap is probably some of the best mountain bike riding you are going to get in the Baltimore area. Some hard technical climbs mixed in with fast descents and things that are just fun to ride.

We usually drop in from a park and ride just outside of the park and make our way in on a trail that is just down right awesome fun. It's fast with drops, jumps, a few berms and just enough tech to make you pay attention. It gets you pumped up for the ride and usually you need that for what's coming up next (if you choose to go that way that is). It's called heart attack by most, after you come blasting out of the entrance trail you hit the road for a brief section then to you turn right and it shoots back into the trail. It's a steep harsh tech climb that usually breaks most people I see on it. Typically when I get to the top I'm huff'n and puff'n, where did all the air go to? But not on this day, I cleaned everything with ease and got to the top ready to go. It was just one of those days.. My buddy BJ was right there with me which is no surprise as he's a beast on most occasions. The other guys slowly made their way to the top and they looked as I normally do. Out of breathe and wondering why I choose to ride this stupid climb. But even on the days my chest burns it also serves another purpose. All the other climbs to go up that day will never be that hard and all you have to do is think, DAMN .. at least it's no heart attack.

Anyway .. we meander our way through the old camping area take the fire road and drop back in. This is a long fast downhill that feels like it just goes on forever. But it usually never fails, you are bombing this DH and there has to be someone climbing up it! I've climbed it once and I have no idea why anyone would ever want to. It's long and uneventful, just a long gradual uphill. Well unless you are going up to come right back down! That might be worth it. Not this day though, it was clear and we bombed it hard. It has a lot of twists and turns that give you the option to get some nice air off the banks ( just watch out you don't go too crazy and launch off into the stream to the left). You cross the stream and then run under the railroad bridge and are now back on the paved path. That takes you up to the swinging bridge that crosses the Patapsco River. I use to go there with my parents as a kid so I always get a kick going over it. On the other side you can enter the blue/white trail but I prefer to head up the road and enter on the Orange Trail (Ridge). It starts with a climb up to the ridge and just rolls along, up and down, up and down. It's not too tough but to the left it drops off and if you happen to shoot down that slope you are not going to be a happy camper.

There are some good climbs on your way to the horse farm section with more technical areas. Ptap is a great mix of all types of riding, it's a blast. I was riding strong all day .. climbing without issue, cleaning whatever I saw. Hit the horse farm and the triple drops then started to head back to the crossroads. On the way back we ran into a group of eight or so riders that were walking their bikes over something in the trail. From a distance it was hard to see what it was but it was huge. It appears a tree fell and someone had went all beaver style piling a ton of logs, branches and pretty much whatever they could find. It was at least four feet high and about eight feet wide of unstable mess. Me and BJ were in the lead and without even questioning it we hoped up on it and picked our way across it. At the top my right foot camp out of my pedal to which I road down the backside one footed. We came off the pile and stopped to wait for our friends who did walk across the pile, as we waited the other guys were saying " damn you see those guys go right over it?". It's not much I suppose but it does make you feel good haha.

We crossed back onto the end of the Orange trail and blasted down the waterbar section. You can get so much speed there that you can pretty much double the waterbars, you are flying. It takes you out onto the road by the pavilion area and you ride the road back if you choose but you can take a small tight little trail that follows the river. We cut in and start making our way along the trail knowing there's a nice built up dirt jump at the end. We pick up speed, come out of the trail and head for the jump. It's right by a parking lot and it's still pretty full of riders coming in or getting ready to head out. I'm in the lead and as I head up to it I decide I'm going to go for a tabletop. I go all BMX style rocking back and forth and picking up as much speed as I can. I launch off the top and start to flatten out the bike. As I do my right foot pop's out again and I do a big ol one footed tabletop. My foot came right back down and I road away clean like that had been my whole plan. A group of people in the parking lot let up a cheer and said "that was awesome man! nice". BJ who was right behind me saw me pull off my impressive air. He road up and said, " Nice man, you totally weren't trying to do that were you?" "Hell NO! When I get up the road I might even have to check my pants".

I was almost cool..

Besides having the crazy little voice in my head driving me to do something I really shouldn't .. most of my stupidly attempted death defying feats are usually instigated by one of my friends and their maniacal hopes to see me once again enter the pain cave. This time was no different. It all started with my friend BJ saying, "we can do this".

On one of our rides through Loch Raven we came upon a downed tree. The tree must have just fallen recently because it wasn't there the last time we were there. I was in the middle of the group but as we rode past the tree i saw BJ looking over at it and I knew it wasn't going to turn out good for me. It was early on in the the ride and when we all re-grouped at the typical re-grouping point the tree started to be discussed. BJ' started with "You see that downed tree back there?" Yup... "We should try that on the way back" I knew that was coming. damn him. So we go up to the speed loop then start making out way back and I knew the tree was coming up. I was leading so I tried to shoot past it like I forgot or didn't know it was coming up but BJ didn't forget. He knew where that damn thing was and stopped the rest of the group, yelled up to me and I was trapped.

Now, I knew I didn't have to try it but usually it's the whole come on man we can do this. I'll try if you will, and then I'm suckered in. I have to try it at the point. You know, otherwise you are a punk. That's what friends are there for right? Putting you in dangerous situations and then laughing at your misery when you fail horribly.

Said tree in question was probably about 12 feet long, well at least the ride-able section of it. It was about an average of three feet off the ground. Someone had built up some wood and rocks as a ramp to mount the log (yeah that's right, I said mount the log!). So I'm standing there looking at this thing thinking it's not that high but damn.. riding a tree is not something I attempt very often. BJ makes the first attempt, gets up onto the log and rides about a foot then hops off. Nice man, good job. My turn, oh well. Here goes. I ride up to the ramp and take it perfectly. I'm on the log and riding smoothly down it but I'm not pedaling. I'm just coasting. In my head I guess I thought pedaling would have been a bad idea but I needed more speed. I must have been in shock that I actually got up there and was doing ok .. and as such my head appeared to think that it was all or nothing. Don't just hop off the log and ride away looking like a Bad Ass. Nope, for some reason I was trying to ride the whole length of the tree. I got about eight feet down the tree and then my bike came to a stop. I just stood there for a second or two cliped in thinking what the hell am I going to do? If you said pedal, nope that would have made sense. Did you say hop off the log like you mentioned? Nope. I chose the third option which was to just fall over sideways. On the ground that's no biggy but when you are three feet off the ground plus the bike height it's not so fun. So like the tree I was attempting to ride I slowly but surely leaned to the side and started picking up speed. All that was missing was TIMBER!. BAM.. on the ground. I pretty much landed full on my knee and hip.

But did that stop me? Hell NO ! .. I jumped right back up! My friends were in the midst of the obligatory " Are you ok Man?" which then leads to the typical laughter followed by the " You should have done _________ whatever it was I should have done". But this time I hardly heard them, I was so mad that I had ridden the thing for a good distance and instead of just hopping off one shoting my first log ride I froze up and toppled over like a tool. So I road back and went for it again, now mad and determined to clean this thing. But as I hit the log I realized mad and determined where not what I needed. Anger pretty much wipes away any chance of pulling off said obstacle or trick. I hit the log with way too much speed, road a wheelie about 2 feet until I then went left again but this time flipping the bike out from under me and landing flat on my back. That one hurt, bad. But thankfully I had my camelback on which acted some what as a cushion. But again I pop'd back up. Now super Mad and annoyed that this inanimate object was beating me! I will win this here battle LOG, Oh yes I will! So again I go back to try one more time. I get up on the log but I'm too far to the side and go shooting off, I love my clipless pedals but they do make it hard to leap off the bike when floating above the ground. I crash in a heap and hit my hip again but it will not stop me, I shall prevail. At this point my friends are not laughing, they are now pleading me not to keep at it. "Dude you are going to kill yourself" "Please stop" ... one more try. I go at it again but I don't even have the strength to make it up the ramp thing. I kinda just jump off it and thankfully land on my wheels. I'm sore and exhausted and to my friends relief done with the log ride. what BJ started my hard head finished.

I never tried that damn log again but every time from then on as I rode by it I cussed it out. Like it was a bully from the schoolyard. Thinking, Odoul, I see something really bad happening to you ala Billy Madison. And now as I ride by it, it's nothing more then a decaying piece of wood in sections of about two feet long at max. And I think, who's laughing now LOG!

Way way back ..

Don't know what made me think of it but the other day I was thinking about the time I decided it would be a good idea to try a back flip. All I can say is damn you RAD! It was pretty close to when that movie came out, I remember watching that and thinking wow this movie is SOOO awesome. If you have watched it, and you too remember it as being such an awesome movie then I have two things to say.
1) The bike parts are still pretty awesome, outdated but still slick.
2) Don't stare directly into the 80s. Other then the bike parts the movie is pretty horrible. But I guess that was pretty much the typical 80s movie at the time. Horrible music ( minus Send me an Angel ) and fashion. I don't know where "those" people were but I love the prom scene and the twins where they're wearing the hard V suits. money.

Ok sorry, back to the back flip. Well if you've seen RAD then you know that the BF was THE trick in the movie and at the time. You did a back flip and you pretty much dripped awesome.

So there I am in my back alley on my Columbia Muscle Frame bike. What you don't remember it? Oh it was a fine steed, made of the highest quality Cast Iron and filled with lead to increase it's ride quality. That damn thing was a tank, but it was an upgrade from my Huffy Desperado with banana seat. I know what you are thinking, damn this guy and all his dream bikes. I know I know.. I was a playa at 8 to 12 years old.

So me and two friends out in the alley did what most kids did. We built ramps. And by built I mean we found some bricks/cinder blocks and a hunk of wood and built our triangle of fun. No transition and of course no nails or screws to hold it together. I mean who needs all that. So we are uber cool jumping our danger ramp over and over for hours on end. Amazing how fun that seemed. I think the coolest trick I might have sort of pulled off was a one footer but can't remember. It was mostly tailwhips of the weakest sort but hey, you try a tailwhip with a bike filled with lead and see how you do! As the "session" goes on my friend Bill tells me that I'm getting super high! And now looking back I don't know what super high really could have been off a two foot high triangle but at the time I was stoked. Also I don't know if he was just screwing with me but he did seem genuine and with that said "man you could probably do a back flip". Why did he have to say that. I mean really. That might have been the beginning of the little voice.... "you're the man".

So I took a few more normal runs pulling up as hard as I could which got me "you are really high now". I don't know why I thought "real" high was the only requirement for pulling a flip. I mean it doesn't require skill, knowledge of what you are doing, a real bike and a real ramp? Nope, not at 12, you just go high and snap. BACK FLIP.

So I go way way back. I want a lot of speed. Real high plus real fast sounds like the right equalization to equal back flip right? So off I go, pedaling with everything I have. I hit the triangle of death and launch pulling up and leaning back as hard as I can. For a oh so brief moment I feel as though I'm RAD. But that moment ended so fast it was like it hadn't even happened. To my credit I did get it to start rotating. Of course it was no where near a full rotation, all it did was make my impending doom that much more hurtful. Real high does seem to be a requirement but I was not real high. I was 12 year old goof high and that pretty much equals pain. Not really sure where I was but the bars were level with the ground all be it upside down. The wheel didn't have enough space to come under me as I was only 12 year old high so that really only equaled face plant. I of course wasn't wearing a helmet or any other type of protection other then a t shirt and jeans. I can't truly recall what happened after the initial impact but thankful my bike must have launched itself back up and over my spinning broken form. Unlucky for me the alley is made of concrete which isn't forgiving and it's kind of V shaped so water can run down and out of the alley. Or in this case settle in the middle where I lay bleeding and unconscious, now soaked in some wonderful fetid water. I was dripping something all right but it sure wasn't awesome.

Next thing I know my Mom is half carrying half dragging my butt into the house. Bill ran into my house and got my Mom which was nice.. with what I'm sure he saw I'm surprised he didn't run home. Amazingly I didn't break anything. Nothing. I don't know how that happened but I more then made up for it with the amount of skin I tore off my face, shoulder, left arm, hip and legs. I was pretty much stunned the rest of the night.

But in true 12 year old form the next morning I got up and went out back to check the damage to the Muscle Frame. Other then the bars being scratched it was in perfect shape. See and you thought filling it with Lead was a bad idea. That night we were jumped the triangle of dead again, I mean why wouldn't you? Wasn't like it almost killed me or anything. I did receive praise from my friends for the try. Which I can't say the same for the kid that night who had the misfortune of having the hunk of wood slip off the cinder blocks as he hit the lip. He got no praise at all, which is surprising as he actually did pull out a flip.

Solo Ride

Sunset at Sam's Grave,
originally uploaded by sincainflickr.

Last night I was suppose to hook up my buddy Jay for a ride through Loch Raven but he ended up getting sick and had to bail. I was thinking about the ride most of the day and was already getting ready when I got his message, total bummer. Looks like it was going to be a solo night.

It was a bit hot which usually isn't a big deal but wow was it humid. And in the woods it was even worst. And when it's humid I sweat.. and when I say I sweat it mean a TON. It will actually pour out of my helmet when I have my head down and the wind is going through the vents. It's like I have a faucet in my helmet, yeah for me huh?

But this was the first time back at LR in a month or so, we've been hitting up Patapsco lately and wow does it make LR seem so much easier. I've been riding here for over 10 years and know all the trails so I was thinking I'd take an all single track adventure since I was going to be going solo I could take my time and hit some jumps I usually pass when we are cooking along in a group.

I usually drop in on Seminary Road and then head up to Provident Road, hit the quick loop at the top of the hill and then cross the road again and start heading back. Double track runs through the middle of LR and then up to Prov. If you are hitting the Singletrack you will Cris cross the double track numerous times. Down by the water you have some technical sections with roots and tight corners. In the middle you get some longish climbs with a few steep section to keep you honest. A few stream crossings and then it's to the top, just some more climbing out to the road. But once you get to Prov you've done most of your climbing and it's some good downhills to look forward to.

Last night was a first for me ... I saw a Watershed Ranger. I've hear of them in hushed tones. Secretive figures that only a handful of people have seen and lived to tell the story. They watch from the bushes... you don't see them. They see you.

Ok .. well that's not that true but really I have never seen one before. This guy rolled up in his "watershed" truck. Parks on the side of Prov Road. Gets out and eyes me up .. all the while walking sideways and heads down into the trail. Just seemed weird to me. I don't know what he was doing. Only thing I could think of was that it was close to sundown and he was trying to enforce his rent a cop like powers to keep you out of the woods. I don't know if that's what he was doing but it didn't stop me from hitting the speed loop and then dropping back in for my ride back to Seminary.

Last night I had that feeling of being one of the fast guys on the mountain. I'd see people on the double track, pass them, go off into the single sections, cut back and pass them again. Sometimes in the same direction sometimes in the other.

I felt pretty good last night, strong on most of the climbs and fast on the downhills. It was a good change from the last few rides where I felt like I was forever in O2 Debt.

As I was coming back the sun was setting behind the trees right as I got to Sam's Grave ( Sam, a good dog. As it's written on a headstone that's been here as long as I've ridden here ). There is a little bank down to the water.. I took a few minutes to check out the scene. I figured Angela would like to see it so I pulled out the iPhone and took a snap or two.

On the way back I saw a few people just heading into the trial, I hope they had lights. They were losing light quick. Got back to the car and still felt pretty good. Loaded up and headed out. One of the best things about going to LR is on the way I get to stop by Arbys.

I've never ridden anything like this before

Famous last words, a few years back my friend Jay and I decided to hit a different trail and went to Robert E Lee (it's a sort of Park, sort of woods on the side of the road type thing) here in Maryland. It's not a super XC trail but there are a ton of jumps and few other fun things to ride. We drop in and start through some of the trails, going here and there pretty much just exploring anything that even remotely looks like a trail. After a few decent finds and more then a few terrible ideas we started to head back but we decided to head over to the jumps. These have been here awhile and from the transitions were setup to be BMX jumps so they are a little tight for our 26in wheels. Still we hit a few and moved on to the dirt half pipe, it actually looks like a 20 foot deep rut in the ground that’s been worked here and there to make some nice transitions. This was all pretty new to me, I switched over from BMX to skating back in the day so I really hadn’t ridden any half pipe style ramps before. You can really only jump out of one side of the pipe so we’d cross, drop in, grab some air and then repeat. From a standing start we were getting around 3 foot of air with little effort. After the 5th jump or so while crossing back over I yelled out to Jay, “Wow this is sweet, I’ve never ridden anything like this before”. And there it was, I called down the thunder, I just assured myself a grizzly demise. This time I didn’t stop to turn and drop in, nope I came out of the ramp rode to the right around a tree and back with speed. Too much speed, way too much speed, somehow it had snuck in there “I’m the man”. I didn’t hit the transition until I was at the bottom and that was the first indication of trouble, a 15 foot free fall set off a warning. By the time I got to the opposite transition I knew I was over, big time. I flew out of the pipe like a rocket. I knew I was in trouble but have to admit it still felt damn cool. I had no idea how high I was and was trying to level out the bike but I over compensated. I nose dived and landed hard on my bars. The force was a bit too much for my left arm and it buckled, hello handlebars, how have you been. I came down hard on the bars catching my left shoulder and proceeded to flip. I spun to the left landing on my shoulder, chest and head ( I’ve pieced the last bit together from Jay’s information and the position I ended up in, I don’t remember any of that bit. For me it was just “ Oh Snit “). The next thing I remember is Jay slapping my face and asking if I was ok. I knocked myself clean out and was out for about 5 to 10 secs I guess. I of course couldn’t answer as I had no air in my lungs to form a response so I just gurgled, waved and counted the stars floating about. Once I started to realize I was still alive and that I could move I started to look around. Where did all these people come from? When we were riding we seriously only saw 2 people, now I had 12 plus people ogling. I had hikers, bikers and kids all around me. Some smirking, some concerned and for the kids it was confusion. One asked “what happened to him?, my boy Jay being a tool tells them he just kicked my butt. Jay now realizing I was alive had fulfilled his duty of friendship and now could laugh at my pain. The kids were shocked, he laughed and said ”just kidding, he fell”. So there I sit, stunned and now with a growing crowd feeling more and more like a goon ,so I hopped up and brushed myself off. This broke the crowd out of their mesmerized observation of the crazy mountain biker who had smashed himself up. And now with no hope of more drama they decide to dissipate. After most of them had moved off Jay started laughing and said “only you man, you were seriously over 7 feet high! You could have jumped me! It looked pretty good until you landed on your handlebars.” “Why did you go in so fast?” I said I didn’t know but I did, I’m not the man. After a few more minutes of recover time we started to head out of the trail. I was riding a bit slower but I was still riding out so I call that a win!

We get back to the cars and start to pack up shop. I put the bike on the rack and load up the gear in the hatch. I look down and realize I’m filthy. I’m not going to get in the car with muddy sweat all over me so I take off my jersey and shorts. I still have my squeezers on so at least I’m not neked. I forgot to bring a change of cloths so I guess it’s going to be a squeezer only ride home. Me and Jay finish up with the typical “good ride” and head out. I get on the beltway and start heading home. I’m starting to stiffen up a little bit but not feeling too bad for falling 7 feet onto my head. Still, was a fun ride and have another story to add to my annuals. So there I am, driving home. Everything status quo. Or is it? I look over to my left and a guy in an Audi is staring at me. HARD. So I look back at him, I mean what the hell? I didn’t cut him off or anything. I’m just a dude with a bike on top of his car, that’s not so strange. Whatever, not going to worry about him. So on I go. Again I look to the left and lock eyes with a woman in a truck next to me. She starts to look away and then whips her head back, big time double take. Then she goes one step farther to reach over to the guy driving and point me out. What the? They are now both smirking at me and I’m thinking what is wrong with me? I drop down the visor and pop open the mirror. WOW, I have a lot of dirt on my face. And when I say a lot I mean a ton, it’s like I stuck my head into a bag of peat moss. My face must have numbed up because I didn’t feel it and everything seemed normal. JAY! Damn .. well I’m not going to knock all the crap off in the car so I figure who cares. It’s been on this long what’s it matter. I grab my phone and call Jay, “Dude! Why didn’t you tell me I had 5 pounds of dirt on my face?” “I thought you knew” .. you thought I knew? “Why would I leave it there?” “hmmm good one”” thanks buddy. “ He seemed like he really hadn’t thought about it, or he hid it well.

I’m almost home, can’t wait to get out of the car and squirt myself off with the hose. I’m a tired, sore, dirty mess and just want to lie down. I pull up to my road and I park on a pad behind my house which I have to access via my alley. I start to pull in and realize someone parked their truck in the alley. I’m not going to be able to make it down to my house. At this point I’m thinking of course, well maybe he’ll be down there and I can ask him to move. So, I hop out of the car and start walking down the alley, no shirt, no shoes, just my squeezers and my best impersonation of Swamp Thing. Though I don’t really thing about any of that until I see the guy and start to walk up to him. He has his back turned and looks to be an electrician working on someone’s AC unit. Now it starts to hit me, I look like a nut, this is going to be good. “Excuse me buddy, could you move your truck down a house or two so I can get to my parking pad? Still with his back turned “Umm sure” .. then he turns around. I almost laughed out loud. The look on his face was priceless, “yeah, sure man I’m real sorry about that”. When he left his house that morning I’m sure he wasn’t thinking he’d have a run in with Swamp Thing, and in his tights no less.

Squeezers

What may you ask are Squeezers? Typically I'll tell someone I'm about to donn my Squeezers and go out for a ride. In person they stare at me, on the phone there is that moment of silence and then .. what? Squeezers? Yup,. you know. Bike shorts. Squeezers. I mean that is what they do, they squeeze stuff they really shouldn't. People may point and laugh but they don't know the saving grace that is a pair of padded bike shorts/bibs.