seans training blog:

felt pretty strong on the ride in this morning. standing climbing felt alot better than it had been. good power. lake winter shoes were like paradise. bike was making alot of noise though.

complete opposite for the first mile or so of the ride home. i felt dead immediately, and actually had to stop for a few sseconds halfway up the big hill outa work. from the top of the hill though i felt stronger, and after stopping at the bike shop to give the ol' rig a little mini tune up, i was alot stronger for the rest of the ride home.
 
did some exploring in stephen's state park today with the goat. the snow conditions were a little shitty, but otherwise a good time. the dirt bikes made some reeeeaaaally sweet singletrack in there, that i guess is being 'ressurrected'(trimmed/raked). fast, swoopy. lot's of huge log crossings in there as well. i was stuck floundering over the smaller ones like a first timer due to the fixed gear. not so sure i'm gonna keep it on there... tried exploring the south quarry that the state now owns, but it was too overgrown. huge potential in there though. finally got the gps up and running again, after what, 200 unrecorded miles. great.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4852175
 
oh, and randomness spotted on todays ride that i should have had a camera for:

about 200 dollars worth of roadside porn, including dvd's. review of anal university forthcoming...

a piano

a perfectly good bedliner

really cool stone foundations

fully intact skeleton of a buck(w/antlers), draped in it's leathered skin, next to the railroad tracks

beatiful little section of singletrack through a birch grove

a couple of big flat bottomed pits with random huge boulders in them.

animal tracks, not likely deer, along a trail with no footprints following, but leaving a blood trail.
 
anrothar said:
oh, and randomness spotted on todays ride that i should have had a camera for:

about 200 dollars worth of roadside porn, including dvd's. review of anal university forthcoming...

a piano

a perfectly good bedliner

really cool stone foundations

fully intact skeleton of a buck(w/antlers), draped in it's leathered skin, next to the railroad tracks

beatiful little section of singletrack through a birch grove

a couple of big flat bottomed pits with random huge boulders in them.

animal tracks, not likely deer, along a trail with no footprints following, but leaving a blood trail.
Click to expand...

Sean this post brought me right back to my early commuting days. I would so often pass miles thinking of writing a book called "Shit I see on the side of the road while riding my bike", and the coffee table companion "Shit people throw out of cars".
 
So I just passed sean on rte 46 in kenvil. He was racing a guy on a green 'next'. 😀
 
i thought i recognized that big loud redneckmobile. 😀

i really hope everyone had the chance to at least be outside for a little while this afternoon. it was great to be able to really sweat it out on the ride home. i took the longer, although less hilly route, and despite a flat tire by rt 15, it was just incredibly pleasant.

combined 38 miles between this morning and this afternoon. felt great. had the semislick cx tires on the rig, so it was easy fast rolling.
 
oddly, i get the EXACT same thing commuting to my home office. i may try an indoor unicycle. 😀
 
out sick yesterday with a runny hiney. still managed a 4 mile hike later in the day, so not a total waste. rode in this morning. riding in the rain(on the road) is actually really fun if you're dressed right. like a kid riding through puddles. it's also a good way to clean the mud off your mtb. felt really good on the way in. even the one or two little short climbs that are annoying because they're just long enough to be difficult most mornings, i was able to just sit and spin(ahem) up them.

likewise this afternoon, though on the few short hills i sprinted, and felt good power all the way through the top. took the longer way, and ended up riding a portion of it with bart, a co-worker who also rides. so, uh, 38ish miles today, on the road, easy spinning with some sprints thrown in.
 
on the ride in thursday i felt the previous days effort in my legs, but was still very sprint happy up the hills. spent the night at the parent's house to avoid any weather unpleasantness this morning, and today was a day off.
 
friday, saturday, sunday, monday = lazy bum weekend for me. saturday i didn't even leave the house.

rode in this morning. rear tire was a wee smidge soft by midride, so i pulled into the lake hopatcong fire station to check it out under the overhang by the side door. could not hear or feel, or see(they were wet) any air escaping at all, so i added till they felt firm and pedalled away. i had left ten minutes late, and figured that the added 5 minute stop for the soft tire would probably make me late for work. i was actually kinda hoping it would. i'm getting sick of this working crap. i want in on brett's lawsuit against the bike industry and their little-wheeled-jerkitude. i actually ended up getting there only ten minutes later than usual, which is still 15 minutes early for work. musta been the 4 days of rest. or the fact that i really like riding on the road in the rain, especially a slight drizzle(i'm being serious).

after work i charged the hills on the way home and managed about an hour and five minutes, which is quick for the return trip via the morning route. i was in a rush, because i had been procrastinating since friday on sending out a package for a friend in the uk.

got home, checked to see which post office had late hours, and took a very satisfying dump. it was one of those ones where you can't help but let out some 'aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh's. you're welcome. got changed out of my sweaty clothes from the ride home, and pedalled off to the hackettstown post office, open till 7 on weekdays for anyone interested. dover is as well, but it's a nicer ride down waterloo rd to hackettstown than 46 to dover. fairly unneventful from there. it was a nice ride. got hungry on the way home and stopped at quick check in byram for a tastey ciabatta.

beautiful weather this afternoon. no sun, but perfect temperature, and a slight cooling mist coming down.

total of just under 60 miles on the day. :getsome:
 
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maaaan it was nice out today. shorts and short sleeved jersey, rain jacket in the morning, bare arms in the afternoon. easy ride both ways. on the way home, about 1/4 of a mile from the garage, there was a big branch laying on the ample shoulder, with a bunch of smaller branchess sticking up to about 4 feet, making a sort of 'fence'. i decided it would be rad in a sort of 'guy from tread jumping through the steam on the railroad tracks' sort of way to just hop high enough to clear the main branch and just bash through the others in mid air. it worked, i rode away smoothly, and it was about the most radical thing that happened today pretty much anywhere in the world. unfortunately one of the branchesfound it's way into my rear wheel and managed to snap a spoke. stupid branch(not stupid sean).

i was also taking one of the long ways home, due to the lovely weather we're having. so 38ish miles on the day. nice relaxing pace. total of just under 3 hrs ride time on my rig with 32x20 gearing.
 
took the kung fu gorilla in 29er fixed gear mode to work today with my weirwolf 2.5's on it. what a difference in resistance going from 32mm semislicks and a 32x20 to 2.5" knobbies and a 32x15. i must've done something right though, because i ended up with about the same time as a quick day on the semislicks. certainly felt it on the way home. legs were burning near the tops of the climbs, but again, about the same time as a quick day via that route. 38ish miles today.
 
WOW! it was a bit chilly this morning... 😉 10 degrees in stanhope when i left, 2 coming through mahlon, and 4 chilly degrees down in the valley. i'm gonna have to admit that my face and exposed shins got a little cold on that final 40 mph downhill...

i left early as i knew the kung fu gorilla would be rolling a bit slower than my other setups, and it did, as expected. took about 1:25 for the 16.5 miles. felt great. i'm running a 32x20 on it, which is what i've been running on my bikes set up as 29ers(when freewheeling). so, that on a tire that measures out at a little under 28" makes for an easier gear. the hills were no problem, even with the heavy, knobby tires. it was the downhills where i was most noticeably slower. it just didn't coast as quick.

this was especially evident on the mellow ride home. the few downhills there are are short and not very steep. with normal xc tires, i roll down them plenty faster than i can pedal the ss. on the gorilla, i roll down them barely faster than i can pedal.

38ish miles, easy pace.

see snow white thread for pics, including eyecicles....
 
alright, here's a rundown of the last two weeks.

2/14: travelled
2/15: a little bit of strolling around anchorage, some bike assembling, su100 racers' meeting.
2/16: played around in the snow, on the kung fu gorilla and kim's wildfire fatbike.
2/17: rode about ten miles and walked about 27 in bitter cold, high winds and snow.
2/18: limped up and down the stairs a few times for meals and the like. went out to the finish hoping to see some of the few hearty souls who pressed on come in, but didn't see any.
2/19: 3 hours of very enjoyable riding on snow at mooseberry mesa.
2/20: about 6 miles walking.
2/21: nada really. little bit of sightseeing in downtown anchorage.
2/22: 2 hours at a decent pace on the coastal trail, some singletrack.
2/23: 6 hours at johnson's pass. decent pace, though quite a bit of stopping for photos/to wait up.
2/24: returned to wonderful new jersey, slept alot.
2/25: rode the kung fu gorilla to work in 1hr 15m, which is alot fast than i expected i could muster those big downhill tires along. stayed at parents' expecting inclement weather for 5 miles.
2/26: 5 miles in, uphill in the morning, accepted a lift home.
2/27: charged in in the morning, felt great. a little fatigued, took the long way home into a sucky headwind. sucky as in bad, not like sucky sucky me love you long time.
2/28: rode in, felt slower, but still 1:20, so not too shabby. headed up sparta mtn road on the way home, and attempted to ride the rail bed to connect over to weldon. not recommended. i rode the wwhole way, but it was very icy and slow going. from there i just took it easy. no hard efforts.

i'm thinking i might ride the 26x3" tires through the winter and maybe more. just switch over to the lighter 29" wheels and tires for races or chasing fast people around the woods.
 
i've also shed some unnecessary 'bodily' weight. does it make me less of a man now that i can only grow wee little icebeards??

2299192498_261dd568a5.jpg
 
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