This was my first DST ride. I got outta work at 5pm, and shot over to Gold's Gym for a quick back/biceps workout. My ride plans were to be on the bike by 6:45 while it was still light, I was out the door at 7:03pm - still light!
I was gonna just hit up the Schuylkill River trail, but as I was riding by the Hamburg watershed I decided to head up to the Pinnacle. I hit up some of the double track stuff that Jay DeJesus showed me on the New Year's Day ride, down into Eckville. Then I hit up the road for about 35 minutes back home.
It was a good ride, with some climbing, some dirt and some road. I need to get some more time on the bike, other than on Friday and Sunday. I gotta get back to at least 4-5 days on the bike, and in keeping with that plan I'm gonna try to hit sack soon and get up early tomorrow and hit the rollers for some high cadence drills. 'night all
-matt
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Cooked by Crits...
I tried to make it out the Derby, but thankfully I was running late with a rear flat. Apparently there were two crashes and a pretty good pace. So I decided instead to head to SMC grab a couple of tubes, fix my flat and head over to the March Training Crits.
I got there early enough to get registered, and like a total noob I put my number on wrong. Not just once, not twice, but three times. So after screwing around with number pinning, I caught up with Flask, Swiatek, Kuklis, and Bobby. They had all done the Derby and were doing the B race, since I didn't do the Derby, I chose to register for the B and A races. Later I would find this to be a mistake.
The first race started pretty hard, and seemed to accordion back and forth a ton. This was my first crit after upgrading outta Cat5. Quite a difference, but there still was a crash on the 3rd lap - looked like about 4 people were involved. Apparently there were two crashes in the Derby as well, must be everyone just excited about some decent weather? I got lapped (a few times) because I only completed 22 of the 25 laps.
I rolled around and cooled down a bit and contemplated whether I was doing the A race. Since I already paid for it, I figured I would go out there for a bit and see how long I could kinda hang. The start was a little more tame, with much more a pack of riders rolling together. I only made it 16 of the 35 laps, when I decided to just bag it for the day.
That is some serious intensity for early March. Not sure if I should just keep riding or throw some intervals in, to handle the pace requirements of this kinda racing.
Food and sleep should make it all better! Oh and don't forget about this Friday the 13th and the roller races.
-matt
I got there early enough to get registered, and like a total noob I put my number on wrong. Not just once, not twice, but three times. So after screwing around with number pinning, I caught up with Flask, Swiatek, Kuklis, and Bobby. They had all done the Derby and were doing the B race, since I didn't do the Derby, I chose to register for the B and A races. Later I would find this to be a mistake.
The first race started pretty hard, and seemed to accordion back and forth a ton. This was my first crit after upgrading outta Cat5. Quite a difference, but there still was a crash on the 3rd lap - looked like about 4 people were involved. Apparently there were two crashes in the Derby as well, must be everyone just excited about some decent weather? I got lapped (a few times) because I only completed 22 of the 25 laps.
I rolled around and cooled down a bit and contemplated whether I was doing the A race. Since I already paid for it, I figured I would go out there for a bit and see how long I could kinda hang. The start was a little more tame, with much more a pack of riders rolling together. I only made it 16 of the 35 laps, when I decided to just bag it for the day.
That is some serious intensity for early March. Not sure if I should just keep riding or throw some intervals in, to handle the pace requirements of this kinda racing.
Food and sleep should make it all better! Oh and don't forget about this Friday the 13th and the roller races.
-matt
Friday, March 6, 2009
Overcooked!
The weather forecast was looking great for the Camp Hilbert enduro near Richmond, VA. Unfortunately they got 5-7" of snow still on the trail, and with the concern for a bunch of racers on a muddy course - the promoter postponed the race until early April. Bummer!
Today I met up with a bunch of people in Emmaus for our long ride Friday. The plan was for 3-4 hours out to Lake Ontelaunee. As usual I was a few minutes late and was told by Bill "that bike is not nice enough for this ride" Apparently the Bicycling magazine editors are testing a bunch of new bikes - some pretty pimpy stuff compared to my Cadd9.
So after being late I had to run into the shop for a gel and Clif Bar, gathered up Laroo to play chase to the group. They headed out towards Sauerkraut and it to till the Emmau High School for us to catch them. Apparently this would set the pace for the ride. F A S T
A few flats (not mine) later we rolled back to SMC for some after ride refreshments. 3 hours 50 minutes total time 68.75 miles. So it was in fact a pretty quick ride. I'm definitely pretty tired, but had some good chinese food as a reward for the hard ride - though I probably consumed more calories than expended. Oh well, there's always Sunday. I hope to hit up Jim Thorpe for a few hours.
-matt
Today I met up with a bunch of people in Emmaus for our long ride Friday. The plan was for 3-4 hours out to Lake Ontelaunee. As usual I was a few minutes late and was told by Bill "that bike is not nice enough for this ride" Apparently the Bicycling magazine editors are testing a bunch of new bikes - some pretty pimpy stuff compared to my Cadd9.
So after being late I had to run into the shop for a gel and Clif Bar, gathered up Laroo to play chase to the group. They headed out towards Sauerkraut and it to till the Emmau High School for us to catch them. Apparently this would set the pace for the ride. F A S T
A few flats (not mine) later we rolled back to SMC for some after ride refreshments. 3 hours 50 minutes total time 68.75 miles. So it was in fact a pretty quick ride. I'm definitely pretty tired, but had some good chinese food as a reward for the hard ride - though I probably consumed more calories than expended. Oh well, there's always Sunday. I hope to hit up Jim Thorpe for a few hours.
-matt
Monday, March 2, 2009
B.E.L.S minus B...
B.E.L.S is a ride that a few guys have down, which includes riding from Emmaus to Bear Creek for an XC loop, back to Emmaus for that loop, over to Lehigh for a loop, to Salisbury for that loop and finally back to Emmaus. That's a pretty ambitious day of riding!
Sunday I was all set to ride the Emmaus, Lehigh, Salisbury portion. I met Vegan Rob at SMC and we rode over to Alpine St to meet Bowman for the Emmaus tour. There was quite a bit more trails than I recall over there - I think we ended up with about 10.5 miles of just Emmaus.
We headed over towards Lehigh, stopping at a convenience store for some water. We started at the top and decended down to Stinger, out through Crazy Bones and up Ono and Superman - where Rob split off to ride back home to Nazareth. Once we got back to the top we headed down through campus out towards St Lukes for our Salisbury lap.
We kinda cut this one short and Mark and I were both kinda tired by this point. We cruised out Constitution towards Allentown, and picked up the parkway back to Emmaus. Pretty fun ride with only one issue - I tried to roll over a rock/boulder that I probably shouldn't have tried to roll, and I faceplanted into a pile of rocks at Emmaus only about an hour into the ride.
Stats for the ride:
5.5 hours, 38 miles, almost 5000 ft of vertical gain. I think if you do the full B.E.L.S. loop its around 70 miles. Though I don't know if I'm in for the whole loop, we'll see.
-matt
Sunday I was all set to ride the Emmaus, Lehigh, Salisbury portion. I met Vegan Rob at SMC and we rode over to Alpine St to meet Bowman for the Emmaus tour. There was quite a bit more trails than I recall over there - I think we ended up with about 10.5 miles of just Emmaus.
We headed over towards Lehigh, stopping at a convenience store for some water. We started at the top and decended down to Stinger, out through Crazy Bones and up Ono and Superman - where Rob split off to ride back home to Nazareth. Once we got back to the top we headed down through campus out towards St Lukes for our Salisbury lap.
We kinda cut this one short and Mark and I were both kinda tired by this point. We cruised out Constitution towards Allentown, and picked up the parkway back to Emmaus. Pretty fun ride with only one issue - I tried to roll over a rock/boulder that I probably shouldn't have tried to roll, and I faceplanted into a pile of rocks at Emmaus only about an hour into the ride.
Stats for the ride:
5.5 hours, 38 miles, almost 5000 ft of vertical gain. I think if you do the full B.E.L.S. loop its around 70 miles. Though I don't know if I'm in for the whole loop, we'll see.
-matt
Friday, February 27, 2009
The wall...
Well today I woke up a little late, I was supposed to leave the house at 8:20ish for a Lehigh ride with Vegan Rob & Dakota. I didn't even wake up till 8:20, so as usual I was running late.I got there at 9:15 to see Rob with his feet up and Dakota chillin' in the parking lot. Moral of the story for this ride is two-fold - don't wake up late for a ride with anyone else, and don't skip breakfast when you're late for that ride with somebody.
I really hit the wall today, about an hour and a half in I totally bonked. I definitely don't want to experience that again. I guess I should have also tried to eat while I was riding, but failed at that too.
After my bonk, Rob and Dakota continued on to finish up a loop. I limped back to the car with just 10 miles and 2 hours of ride time. The other issue with the day was my lack of bike maintenance, apparently my middle ring and chain on the f29 were shot. I made the call to SMC for a Talum order, picked up some grub and headed to SMC to replace my ring / chain.
___________________________________________________________________
The Allentown Brew Works is holding some roller races on the 2nd floor on 2/27, 3/13, & 3/20. Last night was the first one - and this is a fun night. Olympic cyclist Bobby Lea busted out the fastest time trial of the night, beating his competition by approximately 9 seconds in a mile.
I didn't stay to see the finish but I've gotta guess that Bobby took the win for the night. Geronimo was another one that just seemed to toy with his competition, just as someone would catch him - he would put a 1/4 lap lead on them.
The bar has pitcher specials and good food, so come check it out! I think Flask is gonna do some racin' next time too. Rumor has it we should do a blood alcohol test on the racers and deduct 10 seconds for each .01 blood alcohol level - should give Flask a distinct advantage.
-matt
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Snowy lehigh...
The plan was to try to head down to Philly for some Wiss/Belmont riding. Unfortunately mother nature had different plans - as usual. It was supposed to rain/snow there, so that place would be wrecked from what I'm told.
John Eurio and I headed out for 2:45 at Lehigh, and hit every hill we could find there. It was definitely a challenging ride, with a steady effort the whole time. I was really working on recovering on the downhills, and keeping my effort in check.
The conditions were quite good, even considering the falling snow and rain at points. I'm really ready for some good weather, ie: not putting on soo many layers in order to just ride. We need some dry dirt to ride on really soon.
I'm gonna try to hit up the Camp Hilbert 5 hour Enduro in Richmond, VA if anyone wants to hitch a ride down and split some costs. It's on March 8th, and is about a 5 hour drive from the Lehigh Valley. So hit me up if your in.
-matt
John Eurio and I headed out for 2:45 at Lehigh, and hit every hill we could find there. It was definitely a challenging ride, with a steady effort the whole time. I was really working on recovering on the downhills, and keeping my effort in check.
The conditions were quite good, even considering the falling snow and rain at points. I'm really ready for some good weather, ie: not putting on soo many layers in order to just ride. We need some dry dirt to ride on really soon.
I'm gonna try to hit up the Camp Hilbert 5 hour Enduro in Richmond, VA if anyone wants to hitch a ride down and split some costs. It's on March 8th, and is about a 5 hour drive from the Lehigh Valley. So hit me up if your in.
-matt
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
double header
Sunday's plan was to meet up with Jay and ride with Dank and a few guys at Lehigh. Fortunately I wasn't the late one to the ride today, it was actually Dan showing up about 15 minutes late.
After the customary ball busting took place we were off for some Lehigh trail fun. Only a few minutes later there was a flat, and this would set the pace for the ride. Jay and I peeled off down the deer path and rode out the loop. Our plan was to hit a Lehigh loop, cruise down through campus and meet up with Talotta for a Sals loop.
After blasting through campus, which I've never actually rode through there (kinda cool). We showed up to St. Lukes just on time, expecting Chris to ready to ride. Apparently he thought we were meeting at Dodson, so he rode down and we rode in to meet him. Fun loop at Sals, though I was a bit tired.
I flatted late in the ride, just before the 3 bitches climbs. We cruised the rest of the lap, with Talotta riding up to the cars with us, and he hitched a ride back to his car with me. That was a pretty good loop which is just shy of 3 hours ride time. Bowman's did BELS (Bear Creek / Emmaus / Lehigh / Sals) all in the same day, which is damn ambitious. I think I'd be dead by Lehigh. Though I plan to at least try it soon.
Unfortunately I'm "working" today and not enjoying the sunshine and decent temps we have here today. I hope a lot of you got out for some miles today.
-matt
After the customary ball busting took place we were off for some Lehigh trail fun. Only a few minutes later there was a flat, and this would set the pace for the ride. Jay and I peeled off down the deer path and rode out the loop. Our plan was to hit a Lehigh loop, cruise down through campus and meet up with Talotta for a Sals loop.
After blasting through campus, which I've never actually rode through there (kinda cool). We showed up to St. Lukes just on time, expecting Chris to ready to ride. Apparently he thought we were meeting at Dodson, so he rode down and we rode in to meet him. Fun loop at Sals, though I was a bit tired.
I flatted late in the ride, just before the 3 bitches climbs. We cruised the rest of the lap, with Talotta riding up to the cars with us, and he hitched a ride back to his car with me. That was a pretty good loop which is just shy of 3 hours ride time. Bowman's did BELS (Bear Creek / Emmaus / Lehigh / Sals) all in the same day, which is damn ambitious. I think I'd be dead by Lehigh. Though I plan to at least try it soon.
Unfortunately I'm "working" today and not enjoying the sunshine and decent temps we have here today. I hope a lot of you got out for some miles today.
-matt
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