Sunday, May 29, 2011

Makin' time



Starting at 8:30 PM at Spencer. 5000->Blue Ridge Parkway->276->1206->5000




View 2011-05-28 20:18 in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Total Distance: 52.87 km (32.9 mi)
Total Time: 3:34:23
Moving Time: 3:03:55
Average Speed: 14.80 km/h (9.2 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 17.25 km/h (10.7 mi/h)
Max Speed: 65.19 km/h (40.5 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 712 m (2334 ft)
Max Elevation: 1513 m (4965 ft)
Elevation Gain: 1513 m (4966 ft)
Max Grade: 21 %
Min Grade: -14 %






Thursday, May 26, 2011

Run Club

1.8 miles, 175' elevation gain, 18 minutes. 82* and muggy.
That's not a bad start.
Let's see if I can walk (much less run!) tomorrow.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Late Spring road riding in Asheville.

Riders around every other bend, car tourists, perfect road conditions, bears, and big views.
Mike B. and I got out for a fun paced road ride today. Mike is just recovering from a bad elbow injury so his choice of bikes was interesting, his go-to cross country mountainbike. It made since though because the reach isn't as far as the road bike. It was, however, still a surprise to see him pull up on a 29er with 2.3 tires.
Our route for the day: Craven->Depot->Victoria->Biltmore->Wyoming->Kennilworth->Beaucatcher->Town Mountain->?->Sunset->Patton Mountain (gravel)->Town Mountain->Webb Cove (gravel)->Beaverdam->Merrimon->Weaver->Riverside

The temps were in the mid 80's with a UV index of 1000%. The warm-up was tough for both of us but for different reasons. Mike has been doing intense P.T. for his elbow and has added to it a bunch of small bike rides and good sized hikes. I've not done anything involving increasing my heart rate in a week.
Once we were through Kennilworth we climbed Beaucatcher, a first for me. I had been back in that neighborhood years ago for a party at Fred's chalet, but other than that it was all new to me. It was a fun ride through that area. We stopped at the spooky bridge but otherwise kept moving at a fair clip.
Next we made our way over to the other set of one lane mountain roads with a spectacular view of the city, Sunset Mountain. The climbing is fun and easy over there and we ran into a memorable scene along the way: A guy was out of his car, SLR camera in hand shooting away on one knee. He saw us coming, raised one hand silently, asking us to stop. We complied then noticed what he had in his sights: A mother bear and three cubs about 50' to our left.


After the bears went on their way we exchanged WOW!'s and Mike and I were then on the closest to Asheville gravel road that I know of. Up Patton Mountain and up Town Mountain were fun as we kept a easy pace and talked just about the whole way about god knows what.
The descent down Webb Cove was also something to remember. Who is faster on a gravel road descent? A 700x38 road bike with mechanical discs or a 700x60 mountain bike with 100mm fork and hydraulic discs? The answer in this case? The road bike by a hair. I took off from the top and cranked into the first set of switchbacks with confidence. By the third one or so I could hear Mike trying to race and pass me on the left so I hammered out of the turn and took off into the straight. This happened two or three more times as Mike has FAR faster in the turns and I was FAR faster in the straights. At one point I blew a corner and did the full-lane-drift and got the loud 'NO WRECKING' warning from Mike. Like, he was commanding that I do not wreck. Well, it worked, we both made it to the bottom with the rubber side staying down.

View 2011-05-22 12:46 in a larger map


The rest of the ride was the usual... drivers scared to pass, green lights all the way down Merrimon, a bit of greenway through the university, then Riverside back to Richmond Hill for Mike and Westville for me. Great ride Mike. Thanks for getting out there.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Heartbreaker with Teamdicky.

Droid stats: 20.5 miles, 5365' elevation gain, 2:53 moving time, 4:05 total time, 7 mph! average moving speed, 24.5 max.


I was on the road at 6:55 this morning to meet up with Rich at the Kitsuma parking lot at 7:15. Our plan for the day: HEARTBREAKER!!!! We were on the bikes at 7:30 and right away I was feeling the lack of big rides in the past few weeks. We climbed through ridgecrest and at the ballfields I thought, I think I can follow the hardest nine miles in town route from here, you know, as a change-up. We climbed the paved road of death
photo by Rich:


to Adventure trail and after a quick call to Mike B. to verify directions, and a quick photoshoot at the overlook we were on our way to the helipad.
From there the route was classic Heartbreak Ridge. On our way up Old Toll we talked about all sorts of things: Old friends, the bike industry, PMBAR, The Boy, proxy servers, cycling teams, new friends, bike parts.... and Rich kept a perfect 6 foot distance in front of me, no matter how fast or slow I could go at the moment. When I was feeling good it was like having a tractor-beam, or an adventure racing bungee, holding me to his rear wheel. Of course he could have pulled away at any instant but this was not one of those types of rides. It was casual, it was fun, we stopped and took photos of flowers:
and we took a lunch break at the overlook which came right on time for me.


My knees were hurting from the lack of fitness and the 60something degree temps and I hadn't had a bite to eat all day. I guess that's why that 'tractor-beam' feeling was suddenly starting to fade. Well, after the longish break I was feeling great again and Rich pulled me all the way to the trailers which were upon us before I expected them.









View 2011-05-15 07:36 in a larger map

Thursday, May 5, 2011

New fork shakedown ride #3


125 top and bottom to start. Not quite as compliant on the small stuff as I'd like so I let a pshhht of air out of the top and the fork started acting rather nice. Enough travel on the small stuff and not too much once I was headed downhill.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

New fork shakedown ride #2

115 top, 100 bottom. Excellent in the small stuff but it dove through the travel once I was pointed downhill

Sunday, May 1, 2011

New fork shakedown ride




Starting at 9PM. Out and back on Laurel. Fork settings? Who knows. Whatever it was straight out of the box, plus some fiddling, plus a front flat.