James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[Norm]

Today

...I rode at CR by myself. It was Fun Monday, but I had to shuttle a kid and I wanted D to get out. I'm fine riding by myself. I did some tweaking to some stuff in the field, then put together a loop that felt good today. Blue was totally dry so the park was riding really well. By the weekend I imagine it will be dusty. I passed the train and they seemed to be having a good ride. Solid crew, lots of happy faces which is good to see. I think next week we should both be able to start going to this ride. Maybe.

I also did 6 loads of laundry.

I slummed by having a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats for dinner. I did not eat until 10, so I had no energy for anything more than that.

@ChrisG has the location right on the hibiscus.

I added this link to the top banner in an effort to promote the CR Monday ride. By the end of the year I will try to have Matt Damon show up.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I celebrated D's birthday with her. Feel free to wish her a happy birthday. Or to stop by and bring us her some dark chocolate. By and large it was a pretty normal day. She is deferring birthday dinner with the full family until Thursday night. Happy birthday, babe!

We did get out on a road ride tonight. We drove to Burnt Mills Park and rode out in the MAFW area - Rockaway, Sawmill, the hippo, and so on. I like that area because you can get to good roads fast. From our house the distance is too far. I know road rides are great because you can roll from your front door but I also like mixing it up. Tonight we mixed it up.

Also walked the dog at CR this afternoon and trimmed the ball field trails while I was there. I just take the hand clipper and slice random overhanging things. I may also be tweaking something here & there, making small adjustments to help things as I can. Every little bit helps.

We also had sushi for dinner. Because D loves sushi.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I hopped on the road bike again and knocked out almost 31 miles this afternoon. Anyone not locked inside knows it was a jim-dandy fine day out there, if not a little warm. I felt pretty good despite the slightly lead feeling in my legs from riding a lot lately. I can feel things coming around though. As I pushed on today, I started to think that part of me would love to push myself more and see what I could do if I got serious for half a year. Then reason takes over, and I remember I do not have an XC race bike, which means that would leave me with cross & road options. I don't want to race road and I do not want to dedicate my weekends to cross again. At least not at this stage of my life.

That does leave enduro which I have no excuse for.

I also took Simon to soccer practice and walked the dog with Julia around the park. For those of you who remember, this is the same park where we used to have the Horseshoe race. This is literally where we walk the dog several times a week. It's just a mile from the house, or less. Too bad they kicked us all out of there.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I used my new powers to spin up a CR TM page on the JORBA site, which you can view here. As you can see, months of preparation went into building that post. And by months, I mean minutes. We're trying to get some people out this Saturday because the park wants to finish blazing the trails and this is a reroute of that middle crossover trail. From the logover to the intersection with the stream crossing trail, it's going to be new. I'm excited to see how this pans out.

I was also made a JORBA admin on Facebook. I'm starting to see that Facebook is keeping posts out of the mainstream for business that do not pay. Someone else confirmed that they've seen this behavior too. I'm a little disappointed but not surprised. So the way you need to spread that word is by telling your crew to share posts. It's kind of a hack but it is what it is. Like I said to someone, I'm ok paying to promote an actual event of some magnitude but a TM session doesn't fit that bill.

I took Julia to get her braces off today, so she now joins Zac in the Brace Graduation Club. I then went to the dentist 4 hours later.

I did not ride anything formally today, but I put in some time doing sessions in the backyard. This stuff is tiring, I have to admit. I then topped it off by starting to build up the berm exit, which sort of just leaves you hanging in space. I'm starting to think about how to work the East Branch of the park. Note that the North Branch is now pretty much complete.

Finally, I celebrate 1500 days of not drinking today. Actually I did not celebrate it so much as note it.

 

[Patrick]

i tried to be helpful and look for a Kiss song that would be apropos for the removal of braces.

searching for Kiss and Braces together does not even come close to fulfilling the need.

that is all.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Today

...I used my new powers to spin up a CR TM page on the JORBA site, which you can view here. As you can see, months of preparation went into building that post. And by months, I mean minutes. We're trying to get some people out this Saturday because the park wants to finish blazing the trails and this is a reroute of that middle crossover trail. From the logover to the intersection with the stream crossing trail, it's going to be new. I'm excited to see how this pans out.

I was also made a JORBA admin on Facebook. I'm starting to see that Facebook is keeping posts out of the mainstream for business that do not pay. Someone else confirmed that they've seen this behavior too. I'm a little disappointed but not surprised. So the way you need to spread that word is by telling your crew to share posts. It's kind of a hack but it is what it is. Like I said to someone, I'm ok paying to promote an actual event of some magnitude but a TM session doesn't fit that bill.

I took Julia to get her braces off today, so she now joins Zac in the Brace Graduation Club. I then went to the dentist 4 hours later.

I did not ride anything formally today, but I put in some time doing sessions in the backyard. This stuff is tiring, I have to admit. I then topped it off by starting to build up the berm exit, which sort of just leaves you hanging in space. I'm starting to think about how to work the East Branch of the park. Note that the North Branch is now pretty much complete.

Finally, I celebrate 1500 days of not drinking today. Actually I did not celebrate it so much as note it.

140 days...

 

[Norm]

Today

...I planted that hibiscus from the picture the other day. I put it in the garden because there's a fence to keep the deer from eating it. We've given up trying to grow things to eat in this garden because it doesn't get enough sunlight. It's apparently the perfect amount of light for lilies. When they bloom I will show you.

I decided to go on a road ride, even though I had a lot of free time today, I debated Ringwood or Mooch but ended up doing 45 miles on the road and saw Jim Gould in his truck. I did some of my old roads & climbs in the Bernardsville/Gladstone area. I should make it out that way more often. It builds character, or something. I was out for 2.5 hours which was plenty yet it allowed me to remain somewhat responsible and such.

I then took Bear to the dog park where he played with a golden named Kili, who is named after Mount Kilimanjaro. When they said that, I asked if they had climbed it, to which the answer was yes. So I met 2 people today who have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and have a golden retriever. That's not something you can say every day. Nice people, and the dogs got along well. Hopefully we run into them again.

If we had done something similar, Bear would be named Mansfield. I prefer Bear.

I also had a little piece of leftover cake that Julia made for D's birthday last night. I mention this only to allow this picture to be pertinent to the "today" concept.

 

[mattybfat]

1500 days is no joke congrats
And damn I want reach through the screen and rip a handful of that cake

 

[jmanic]

So I met 2 people today who have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and have a golden retriever.

My sister and BiL climbed Kilimanjaro and also had a golden retriever.
I can introduce you if you like.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I started my day with an hour ride at Loantaka with Julia. Even though we do not technically have kids this weekend, her mom works in the city on Saturdays so I often take her out Saturdays. We've been dialing back some of the weekday activities for some reason, and I gave her the opportunity to choose bike or hike - she chose bike. D suggested Loantaka and that worked out well. We did 8.5 miles and it wasn't too hot. Good start to the day.

Back at the house, D came back from the NICA ride at Nassau and after hanging out for a bit we headed over to pick up Zac for his AAU tournament. Even though we do not technically have the kids this weekend, his dad doesn't really support this basketball endeavor. We dropped him off in Manasquan and parked about a mile away and rode the bike path to Brisbane and did 10 miles in there, for a total of 18 miles in 2 hours. We followed a ride @Mitch did with Goz but when we got to the far end, the GPS spaghetti was impossible to follow so we sort of just winged it. It worked out ok.

We had dinner downtown at some place called Max something...I think. I invited @rottin' for both the ride and post-ride, but being a bit of a jerk, he declined in lieu of making wishes in south jersey or something. The food was decent but a bit heavy-handed. If we hadn't both ridden 3 hours today it may have been a bit much.

We then spent 5 minutes on the beach where the water was about 35 degrees, and there was a wall of cold air at the ocean. It was kind of wild how the temperature went from 90 on the sand to 70 at the ocean's edge. We picked up Zac shortly after then drove home.

Long day but this was good for us to get some us time for a change.

 

[rottin']

I'm going to try and dial down the jerkiness next week...scouts honor...but I wasn't a scout. So...? No promises, but probably.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I rode Stephens this morning at the bright and early time of 10:00. Despite the heat we did not feel like waking up early. In the end, it really wasn't that hot. The summer Jersey humidity hasn't become odious yet so the temps were just fine in the woods. D and I were joined by Capers, Steve & Joy, Steph & Jeff, and their friend Corrine. It's not every day that you have a group of 8 split 4/4 women/men. This was pretty much the loop that Kirt led last week but I tweaked it a little towards the end. Solid ride, solid group. Great start to the day.

I will say that I think Tally Ho is overrated and that I want someone to tell me how to go up Hally To and then down Burger Meister instead.

After that we went to have lunch with @jmanic and Mrs Manic in their hood around the corner. Things are really starting to return to normal now, and I have to say this is not a moment too soon. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say, enough already. Bring on the normalcy! Hanging out was great and they stuffed us silly with great food, like they always do. It was an effort to stay awake on the drive home.

Rounded out the evening with a team Zoom call. Talked a little business and BS at the same time. Looking forward to seeing this crew in person more in the coming weeks & months.

I also blew out my weekly 10 hour goal with 12.5 hours in the saddle this week. I need more of these in the next 6 weeks. Kingdom Trails is coming up before too long!

Like I said to D earlier, I got my money out of this weekend.

 

[mattybfat]

Well if you go to bed early and set your alarm I can show you some proper fun runs. I agree with tally ho assessment which it's usually my last run down because the others are better pay off for that long ass climb up haley for a third or fourth time.

 

[Patrick]

I'm trying to place which movie this is from....

 

[Norm]

Today

...I went back to work and had a pretty boring day. I didn't make it out to the CR ride, so I'm unable to regale you with the copious amounts of fun that was had. More than that, I didn't get to check out the work done on blue, which I'm looking forward to. I just did a 3.5 mile dog walk followed by a 12 mph road ride to really nail down that recovery thing. In reality this weekend left me pretty beat today so this was probably for the best.

I did create a video for a venture that we're looking to start in an effort to make the site more of a place for content - something that's been nagging me for 2 years now. I guess this is something I swing back & forth with but a YouTube channel has been on the back-burner for a while, and it may be time to try our hand at making more useful content. This specific video is in an effort to A) give some credit for the work being done at CR, B) to show off the great work being done there, and C) to make the work JORBA is doing more visible. I think that JORBA can use more visibility in this regard and this is something I want to try to help with. At least for the parks that our team is involved in first-hand.

If you actually read this, you should subscribe to the channel. As far as the video goes, I made it in 10 minutes and I know it's too long. But the whole point of these is to get info out and to turn them around as quickly as possible. Taking 2 hours to produce is not maintainable. I do have someone who's going to be helping with the construction but we decided to just leave this as-is.

 

[rlb]

The video was a good update, especially for someone like me who is interested but a bit out of touch the the moment. It's also some motivation to get back out there

 

[Norm]

Today

...I put a new rear tire on the road bike. I noticed it was pretty square a week ago, and the cornering was a little sketchy at times as the tire would roll from flat to edge. It had long ago lost its round, and would skip a bit on some corners which sketched me out, for obvious reasons. When I took the tire off I noticed it had worn through the rubber at one small spot. So pretty much not a day too soon. Later in the day it would feel much better. I also figure I should go 25 wide and not 23 for the next set of tires.

I'm also tired of this pollen.

We went for a road ride tonight, just under 30 miles in a bit over 1.5 hours. It was a pretty damn fine night to be riding. We saw the TMB guys and some dude knew who I was, though I did not recognize him. He said something about representing and a few moments later I realized he was wearing MTBNJ socks. I am still totally at a loss who that was. The only guy I know who does those rides as part of TMB is TripJ's but I am pretty damn sure it was not him. So...

 

[Norm]

Today

...I hit the road bike for an hour+ somewhat on the harder side. It was really hot, into that Hot Oven realm on this one. I was hanging a solid 20.1 until it was time to turn it back up into the hills to get home. Then it all went south from there and I went up & over the other side & back up just to make sure I got my hour. I am not ready to post a 20 average yet. And certainly not in this heat. I felt pretty good but also the weight of the heat bears down on you after a while.

We also saw tall @seanrunnette today. He returned all the GoPro stuff as I'm starting to think about doing some more videos. This is another itch that I've had for a while. We have no curated content on the site, and we should. We should have somewhere to go to get a sense of what a park is like, some routes, videos, descriptions, and so on. This is going to be part of the new MTBNJ front page I'm working on. I want to throw together a prototype content post for CR and see what people think.

 

[Patrick]

Today

...I hit the road bike for an hour+ somewhat on the harder side. It was really hot, into that Hot Oven realm on this one. I was hanging a solid 20.1 until it was time to turn it back up into the hills to get home. Then it all went south from there and I went up & over the other side & back up just to make sure I got my hour. I am not ready to post a 20 average yet. And certainly not in this heat. I felt pretty good but also the weight of the heat bears down on you after a while.

We also saw tall @seanrunnette today. He returned all the GoPro stuff as I'm starting to think about doing some more videos. This is another itch that I've had for a while. We have no curated content on the site, and we should. We should have somewhere to go to get a sense of what a park is like, some routes, videos, descriptions, and so on. This is going to be part of the new MTBNJ front page I'm working on. I want to throw together a prototype content post for CR and see what people think.

I've been thinking about an "introduction to <park>" series for awhile -
even started shooting some for RV/Cush. Seems my video friendly baritone voice was not captured correctly by my phone.....
Anyway, i guess we should chat and get some video peeps involved.

 

[Norm]

Today

...I did nothing of note.
I did not ride.
I did not hike.
I did not walk the dog.
I did not do TM.
I did not work on the trails in the back yard.
I did not work on my bike.
I did nothing JORBA-related.
I did nothing MTBNJ-related.

I did pack the car with bike stuff and put 2 bikes on the car. Then Zac and I started driving to New Hampshire.

I am currently on the Tappan Zee Bridge.