Wet

Yep this is how I felt on Saturday. I planned a long cross country ride on the mountain bike to amuse myself whilst Helen was away. Even though I set out later than planned I figured I had plenty of time for the ride even if I pootled. What I hadn't figured on was the number of trees, and not small ones) that had fallen across the trail, the two sections of the trail that were being renovated (seriously check out the photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/11463478@N00/sets/72157600700972181/). What got me the most was the variation of the trail from sidewalk/road, asphalt, cinder trail, dirt trail and very technical sections. There were a couple of lovely streams to cross, but a lot more that even if I could have ridden the bike in without going over the bars there was no way I would have been able to ride out.

I realised I wouldn't be able to make the halfway point of this out and back ride and decided to turn around. I had been pretty good and had been drinking fluids and stopping every so often for a snack, but the heat and the sheer time in the saddle got to me and I ended up with heat exhaustion. I'm fine now, but luckily I caught it in time and came of the trail before it got worse.

Helen missed her flight home last night, which had been delayed twice already, I think they must have found a plane just standing around and boarded it while she was grabbing a bite to eat. The upshot is she stayed in Kentucky last night, but didn't see any chickens or colonels let alone and secret herbs and spices. As I was getting a taxi to Baltimore Washington Airport at 0400 this morning we didn't even pass like ships in the night and Helen arrived home about the time I arrived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Oh well, plane schedules allowing I should be home with Helen on Thursday evening.

End of the line!

End of the line!
Originally uploaded by d_j_critchley

I'm going for a record and posting four times in one month.

The end of last week was steamy hot and as a storm was forecast for Saturday I decided to potter around the house and garden. OK, so maybe I did check out the hammock for a bit and there was possibly some rugby on the TV, but my intentions were good. I thought that England did well fielding a young team against New Zealand and although the All Blacks were dominant for twenty minutes they did not get the rest of the match their own way. The storm did arrive in the early evening with strong winds, thunder and lightning but not a huge downpour.

On Sunday I managed to get out of the house and drive out to Ashburn to finish the W&OD ride that Helen and I have been doing. Annoyingly it was a bit of a drive, which is ironic when you think about it, but I was hoping for a rural ride with little traffic and to log a decent few miles. The day was still pretty steamy and I didn't get on the bike until 1100 due to my poor planning and I was a little bit worried as this was to be a forty mile plus ride with a reasonable climb. This final part of the trail had a lot less road crossings, less crossingful as we say hereabouts, than the rest and I was surprised when I got to the end of the trail and see that nearly an hour had gone. Now this is not too shabby when you consider this is an average speed of over eighteen miles an hour on a single-speed with a few road crossings, a bit of twisty turny and a climb. I checked out the aptly named Trail's End bike store and then headed back with the intention of taking a six mile detour to the see the mighty Potomac at White's ferry, so imagine my surprise when I arrive back at the start in less time than it took to get out! I was pleased with the speed but annoyed I had missed the turning for the detour.

I saw this quote from a H.G.Wells story and I think it sums up my riding style, "I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it.".

When I got home I was slightly disappointed, but not surprised, to see that the pool elves had not paid a visit so I had a bath and turned up the AC to cool off.

Today (Monday) it was cooler but still very steamy this morning and then, oddly enough, there was a thunderstorm on the way home. Rain I don't mind, wind I can live with, downpours and storm force winds are not good, thunder and lightning on a bike, a steel bike, I'd like to say bad, really really bad. I managed to outrun the storm front until I hit Alexandria when it went from a few drops to gusting swirling winds and a deluge which made it difficult to see and stay on-course. Although the wind and rain did ease up the thunder announced it's arrival with a flash and crash in short time so I detoured to the tunnel to sit the worst out. Oddly enough there were a couple of other riders there before me so I had some company.

Shortly after I arrived a river started flowing through the tunnel and threatened to drown a chick that had fallen out of it's nest so I felt I had no choice to quickly pick it up and place it on a broad ledge above the water.

About twenty minutes later the wind subsided, the rain eased and the main storm headed off into the distance grumbling to itself like a teenager who has lost an argument and slamming a door now and then. It was amazing that, even though it hadn't been cold during the height of the storm, the temperature seemed to shoot up as the rain eased; and I'm sure there was more water vapour coming up off the tarmac than was coming down as rain. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of branches that had come down, seriously considering the amount of storms we've had here I didn't realise there was anything left up there. I did ease up slightly so that I could go around the worst of the branches although there was a nervous moment or two as I rolled over some of the bigger ones; I think the mountain biking is paying off. My clothes were wet when I got home but not much more than they get with normal weather here (hurrah for technical clothing) although my socs were sodden. You might think I got a bad deal, but I was glad I hadn't driven as there was a huge branch down on the GW Parkway blocking three lanes and causing big tailbacks in both directions. I hate to think how many fender benders there were during the heavy rain and, as always when there is a "non-normal" event, I heard a considerable number of emergency vehicles plying their trade back and forth.

It is obviously idiot day today in North Virginia, first of all somebody pulls out in front of me after stopping at a stop sign and looking at me.
This evening I had to fight my way through twenty cyclists bimbling away on the trail chatting away and not hearing me ring my bell and shout on your left; oh yes, apart from the one who did hear me and just stopped in front of me instead of pulling over.
Oh, and the landlord, once again, has failed to turn up as promised.
Dave, home alone and watching rugby.

Steamy

Helen Exits Bridge
Originally uploaded by d_j_critchley

I was in Boston this week and I got pretty damp walking to my meeting because of the high humidity; then on the Wednesday it started drizzling with the temperature sill high. When I got to the airport my flight, along with loads of others were delayed so I got myself a coffee, sat down and tried to relax. I heard Falls Church (an area near our house) mentioned on the TV and then announcements from various gates that flights had been grounded at Dulles and JFK airports due to bad weather. Then as more people started rolling in I heard that there had been big storms in the DC area and that tornadoes had touched down in Falls Church and Loudon county. Eventually flying into Dulles I saw large areas were without electricity and then on the way home one side of the road was lit up and the other side blacked out, including our close. Luckily as I got out of the taxi our power came on; some people were out of power until Saturday! I was lucky as Helen had decided to go for a bike ride and got caught out in the storm and had to take refuge in a toilet block until the worst had passed over. After getting past all the fallen trees she couldn't get back into the garage as the power was out so she had to break into the house.

On Saturday we headed up to Pennsylvania for a bike ride and it was wonderful as there was very little traffic on the back roads and seeing the Amish working in the fields and driving their buggies was relaxing. It was very hot and humid, you can probably see the melted tar in the photograph, (seeing the pattern yet?) and unfortunately I only had my single speed back which made the hills damn hard. We went through quite a few litres of drink each and finished off the ride with some home made root beer and coke. I was wiped out by the ride and Helen drove us on to our hotel in Philadelphia for the Commerce Bank International bike race the next day. When we were checking in Team Type 1 walked past us into the lift and Rock Racing arrived to check in.

The next day was hot and humid again the air temp got up to 36°C and the the road temp was 49°C! We were sweating buckets just walking and the riders were going all out on in the races. Unfortunately we didn't see much of Vanderkitten in the race but we did see Liz Hatch and a couple of friends on their way back to the hotel.

Helen got some video of the Men's race and will edit it and post to flickr or facebook,. As she was filming a Slipstream Chipotle rider tossed his water bottle into the stands so she got a great souvenir. Later I was taking some photo's and saw Magnus Backstedt, another Slipstream rider, throw a bottle, I even got a blurry shot of it. I'd like to think he recognized me as the crazy ginger headed freak who pestered him in Arlington, but probably not ;o)

A lot of riders dropped out of the race but as the field went onto the last long lap and then the shorter end laps things went ballistic with breakaways and attacks left and right finally coming together on the start finish straight for a mass sprint where Tyler Farrar, Slipstream again, held on for sixth place.

As we were getting ready to leave we saw Steve Cozza, another Slipstream rider, cycling back to his hotel and shouted out to him and waved and bless him he waved back; yes we are bike nerds!

As I press the send button here there's another light show going on here, not as crazy as last week .. yet.

Summer's Here and the Time is Right

Watching men in lycra
Originally uploaded by d_j_critchley

... for cycling in the street!

Helen's back home in the USA and the weather has got much hotter; OK we've had a fair bit of rain too, but I think summer has arrived at last.

Last weekend was a holiday weekend so we had an extra day off to enjoy the sunny weather. On Saturday we drove up to Baltimore for the Bike Jam and as well as loads of bike races we saw an amazing trial bike show. We also saw our first member of Slipstream Chipotle (http://www.slipstreamsports.com/) Mike Friedman aka meatball, the team we are supporting this year; well one of the teams we are supporting as we also think Vanderkitten (http://www.vanderkitten.com/racing.html) rock too.
If that weren't enough we headed of to RFK stadium on the Sunday, or more rightly one of the car parks for the RFK Criterium where the main, and biggest prize, event was the ladies race and boy did those girls move.
Monday was a bit more laid back as after running a few errands we wend to the Alexandria Jazz festival for a chilled afternoon.

Those who are coming to visit will be pleased to know that work on the Pool started; the new pump is installed and now running. The pool has been drained so that the liner can be fixed so we're hoping that it should be up and running soon, which is good news as it is getting very hot.

Although is started hot and muggy this Saturday morning we had a few thunderstorms, torrential rain and a tornado watch in effect so our bike ride had to be canceled. Sunday dawned hot and sunny which was good news as the CSC invitational bike race was being held in Arlington. We got there in plenty of time to see the Cat 1/2 ladies race and the kids races; although there was no chance of getting past all the parents to see the younger ones. We strolled down to see the pro teams and I got very excited when we saw the Slipstream Chipotle van and even more when I shook Magnus Backstedt's hand and wished him well for the race; the guy is 6'4" and has got a fierce grip on him! Magnus, obviously motivated by my good wishes, attacked the race and broke away early on; unfortunately the breakaway grew too big and they lapped the main field (1k laps) which didn't play to his strengths, but he did get awarded most aggressive rider. We were really close to the action and you could stand on the kerb with the riders blasting past almost touching you; in the picture you can see Helen looking at Magnus and another slipstream rider on one corner, but if you click on the photo and check out some of the others you will see riders even closer to her!

After the race we drove out to the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad trail for a thirty mile pootle, although Helen is getting quicker and it can take an effort to keep up with her on my fixie; just need to work on the slow speed maneuvering!

Next weekend it's off to Philadelphia for a day cycling in the country and then see the guys, and girls as we'll be supporting Vanderkitten, race in the Commerce Bank International.