Tuesday road ride

Went for one of my top 5 favortie road rides on tuesday. It is a brutal addition to the mountain road classic loop that was thought up many years ago. The route follows the mt road classic loop to rt 72 and st george but then crosses the cheat river and climbs up location and across stemple ridge to aurora. Then take a left on route 50 and you get the gnarliest road bike downhill I have found so far in WV off of cheat mountain. Then cruise along the cheat river back to join up with the mt classic loop by cool springs and over laurel mt to the end of the ride. ~65ish miles and 3 mt climbs.

Gardening

Garden #1Garden #21st Harvest

~40 tomato plants

30 pepper plants (bell, banana, jalapeno)

~45 broccoli plants
10 hills of cucumbers
5 hills of squash

5 rows of green beans

Wow...It's Been Awhile

Anyone else ever saw this?LB put those back when you are done with them


Lunch TimeRollout


Seneca Rocks looks so smallNew Whip
Chuck ready for North Fork

The days have defenitely flown by since my last post. I kinda expected them to. Finished up with school and finally graduated after 8 years of college. Yeah its official I'm Dr. David now. I still have to take my boards before I'm a bonafide pharmacist but they are coming up in June.
Riding has been hit or miss lately. After waiting almost 3 weeks for my replacement bike in April I really went downhill on my fitness. Did a big ride with Chuck up at big bear on the big hit during the wvmba race. Ended up pushing the 45 pound tank around for 25 miles and ended up with more miles on cooler trails than what the race went on.
May brought the Massanutten DH weekend. This was the 3rd year that I've went down to this race and every year i never do well. This year was no exception as i finished 19th in the cat 1 (expert) field. No wrecks no major bobbles just really didn't feel fast. The race was on Saturday so Chuck and I drove back to seneca on saturday night and rode north fork trail on sunday. This was the first time I have rode this trail with a shuttle. Normally it is ablut a 70 mile loop but with the shuttle it only ended up being 25 miles. The special part about the ride was that it was my new top fuels first ride in the woods. It was awesome. I really like it, it rides smooth, climbs well, decends well, and just feels fast on the trail.
This past week I was able to get some more rides in with a couple road rides, then an epic weekend. Friday was a 50 mile road ride around fairmont, Saturday met up with juan martenilli down at snowshoe for some DH riding, Sunday was the 45 mile spruce ride with the night clubbers and mike boyes, and monday was a 70 mile road ride with the fairmont flyers.
Snowshoe was awesome and riding fast. Hit all of the regular rock hucks but skipped out on the road gap for this trip. It's still a little early for me. Spruce was rocking literally. Rolled out of seneca creek unknowing that the next regrouping would be nearly at the top of spruce. A huge group of hardtail singlespeeders then there's mike and i rolling with gears and full suspension rigs. Headed out the usual lower timber and up to spruce. Lunch then rocking down huckleberry down to the falls. Hike a bike back to the top, then some more ridge line and bomber downhill back to the finish. I am totally digging my new bike now. It was awesome on this ride. It felt great through all of the huckleberry rock gardens and i rode a couple steeps that I have never rode before. So the 3 mtb rides on the new bike so far have been North fork mtn, Big bear, and huckleberry and its still holding together!
I'm down at Panama City Fl now hanging out with Amber and my brother and his family. It is a much needed weeks vacation, but its back to fairmont on monday.

The Seneca 100

I'm blogging from school today so sorry no pictures. Just taking a break during lunch to update.
A couple weeks ago I rode down to Seneca Rocks from Fairmont. It was a really awesome ride. I had done it last summer, but this would be a real test early in the season. Prior to the ride I had 800 miles on the odometer on the road bike for the year. Pretty stellar for me. Set out form fmt and headed out to grafton, caught some back roads over to kasson and 92. Across 38 and down 72 into parsons where i met amber for lunch. Im glad I rested at Parsons because the next leg of the ride is EPIC. It follows rt 72 over to canaan valley. It is basically a 1 lane road that just goes straight up and back down alot and has alot of kick ass turns in it. Still felt good once i reached 32 and down into harman. Then across allegheny mountain on 33 and done. I bonked somewhere out of harman pretty hard but was able to make it up that final climb and was rewarded with an awesome downhill into the finish. 91 miles, 6hrs . epic.
Training was really going good last week. rested on mon and did ~35 on tue and wed. then wednesday night i got slammed with a stomach virus. A week later i'm finally starting to feel better. I rode on tuesday night for 25 miles but couldn't really push it. I plan on going out today and riding since the weather has finally gotten better. I really wanted to orace big bear this weekend but it looks like i'm not going to get to due to the fact that I don't have my MTB back yet and I haven't rode in a week. Bummer. I still looking forward to middle mt mama the 1st weekend of May and Massnutten the following weekend then its graduation, snowshoe opening weekend and then Panama City the last week of may. What an awesome month!!
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WVU weekend recap and some other stuff

Me at RaysJohnny at RaysChuck at RaysRed Balls Ride it

Start of the TT

Start of the 09 Garden

So the WVU home race weekend was a couple weekends ago. It was 27* when i woke up saturday morning and after making the short drive up to mt morris for the individual time trial it never really warmed up any. My start time was 9:11 am and it was freezing. I dressed in full cold weather gear with booties and baclava and headed out. The TT consisted of like 6 miles of flase flat uphill, a one mile climb then a downhill and 6 miles of false flat back to the start. I tried to take it easy on the first half out to the climb as i wanted to save some for the climb and return trip. Less than a 1/2 mile from the climb I get caught and passed by the VT rider whom started a minute behind me. WTF?? I stayed close going into the climb and passed him back at the bottom. By the time I had gotten to the top I caught the rider that had started 2 minutes before me and the VT dude was nowhere in sight. Sweet i'm ready to rock now. Rip the downhill and head back on the flat to the finish. I've got my head down going as fast as i can and here comes the VT dude and he passes me. I couldn't keep up with him. WTF? i just chrushed the dude on the hill and i can't keep up on the flats?? I don't get it. Anyway ended up finishing 7th in the TT. Had to skip out on the crit to go to work. Sunday Morning was a little warmer and the race started later. I warmed up with booties and a baclava but just before the race left the booties and switched to ear muffs. Rolled out with the neutral rollout into mt morris then it was go. I was racing D so i knew there were some june buggers in the race. A WVU dude took off as soon as the race started and everyone attacked to get back up to him. I sat in and tried to do the least amount of work possible. As we approached the turnoff to kirby and the start of some of the rollers heading into the first climb I worked up to the front. I had rode this section the previous weekend and knew that i wanted to be towards the front b/c of the rollers and tight turns so that i could carry some momentum and not get the slinky effect in the back. I was on the front going around the turn and up the first roller, maintaining a constant efort when all of a sudden it got quiet. Huh. I look back and i had a good gap on the pack. I just went ahead and rolled with it. Rocking the turns and rollers, and head into the first climb. The lead moto was an old team member and he told me i had 20 sec gap at the bottom. I kept the pace consistent never giving my max effort knowing there was a whole race left and not wanting to blow up. about 1/2 way up i had a 30 sec gap and i'd say it was pretty steady for the rest of the climb. What a feeling to be all alone leading a road race, even if it was the D field. TOp of the climb still got a gap rock the downhill, get on the flat at the bottom and suffer by myself for a few miles. I catch glimpses every once in a while of the field chasing. Finally they catch up. I jump in, grab some food and recover. Roll out to the second climb with the pack. By now they know me. I tried to stay 4th or 5th in line going up the climb. a couple pfeiffer dudes and another WVU guy were in front and I just tried to save some. I could tell the 1 pfeiffer dude was taking it easy also. Started to push it a little more at the top and got with wndrew the other WVU guy at the top. I told him to go since he won the TT yesterday but he said no. So i took off to rock the downhill at least. The strong pfeiffer dude followed me on the downhill. I still can't believe it but he stayed with me the while way down, it got a little scary. We had a solid gap on everyone. then a chas group of 4 riders caught up. So there were 6 of us heading into mt morris and back to the finish. Attacks were launched and caught. It came down to a sprint up the hill at the end. I knew that i had 5th place locked up heading up the hill then 2 riders get together and shoot over the hill. Not sure what happened really. So i ended up crossing the line third. My best finish ever in a road race.

Maybe i was the strongest rider out there. I definitely topped all of the climbs first, but on the flats and sprint at the end i was suffering. Maybe its me and my fitness or lack of it. Maybe its my 1996 steel road bike. Maybe its Amber's idea of the fact that i go out and ride hills everday. I dunno. I just wanted to do some races to get into shape. I don' t like road racing, but love just riding my road bike.

Been riding just about everyday otherwise. Finally got my mtountain bike back last week. Was really excited to go to Big Bear and get out on a real mtb ride on Tuesday on my day off. After about 2 hours and 20 miles out on the backside of the new pines trail my tire started rubbing my frame. I instantly knew what happened. This incident happened before over on the downhill about 4 years ago at big bear. Flash Back-At that time i was riding with Chuck and i said my wheel's rubbing my frame. WTF? It's like my whole wheel is out of dish. Chuck replied with how do you knock your whole wheel out of dish. What really happened was my carbon chainstay pulled apart where its bonded flexing my wheel over into my frame. Flash forward-So now i push my bike back up the climb out of the trail, do some bushwhacing across trail and come out on the road out by the airport where i can hop on and coast back to the parking lot and my car. I went to the bike shop and WEdnesday and got it warrantied-Thanks Gene!-for a brand new top fuel frame. I'm really stoked but have to wait a couple of weeks till it comes in.

This past weekend i went down to Seneca to relax. It ahs been crazy lately and i had an empty weekend and headed out. The weather was mostly rainy but in between a shower on saturday afternoon i headed out for a ride up to the top of allegheny mountain. It's like a 10% grade for 4 miles or so. Just before i got back to camp i got passed by a pickup truck with a motorcycle that looked liked it was about to fall over onto a bike in the back. Then i realized i recognized the handlebars of the bike. It was jimmy and ryan heading to the jeff cup in Virginia. They stopped and talked for a minute, then went on.

I got started on the garden for 2009 last night. I planted about 50 tomato seeds. I hoping for a big crop this year.

I have 136 hours left separating me from graduation. I started my last rotation at Ruby in the ICU on wednesday. I can't wait to be done.

Got some sad news that Andy broke his collar bone and will require surgery. Get well soon!

Updates and pics of the new bike to follow soon.

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Navy weekend and other happenings

This past weekend was the navy race. or actually kinda 2 races-a crit and a tt. but the TT ended up being cancelled for 1/8 inch of snow. Arrived at the crit late as usual and hurried to get ready. head down to get in a few laps before the race but they are already lined up. guess no warmup. no problem i know the course from a few years ago. man says go and everyone takes off. decent start but not where i wanted to be in the very front. First tech turn and head up the hill my legs are feeling the warm up that didn't happen. Lost contact with the blown apart pack early and work with a VT guy at the end of the race. Results said I was 14 but know at least 1 person ahead should have been behind so at least 13th. Got to hang out the rest of the day and watch the other races and take some pics. Woke up to a light skiff of snow on sunday. In fact being from WV i wouldn't even call it that, but it was enough to cancel the tt :( Head out with some of the team for a ride in the morning in annapolis. It was short due to flat tires and everyone being cold. I really felt like a veteran going to the race because i have been to enough before that i knew to bring ALL of my cold weather gear. I was toasty with booties and vader gloves.
Other happenings recently include a skiing day at Whitegrass with amber. It was her 1st time XC skiing but she did great going uphill and back down. We headed over towards springer up to roundtop and on up to bald knob then down powderline and 3mile.
Went to tline with chuck 2 weekends ago. Conditions were marginal with a little snow on top of bullet-proof ice. Chuck said it was the worst conditions he has seen all year, but he's been spoiled. The highlight of the day was the 15-car pass going across 33 by glady. They were going anywhere from 5mph to stopped, saw the straight stretch perfect opportunity, nobody taking advantage, go for it.
Been getting in the miles on the bike too. Working on trying to get in some of the classic road rides in. itching to get out on the mtb soon.
that's all 4 now
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Review: Trek Darth Vader Gloves

From this:
To this:

So my old 99-cent ebay special winter cannondale gloves have seen their last days of riding. They were great gloves and really kept my hands warm for a long time but my fingers slowly started poking out the ends and they really weren't functional anymore. So time to find new ones and a trip to the bike shop to see what was available.

There were 2 options but these seemed the most extreme so I got them. I wanted something that would keep my hands warm on road rides to at least 25 *. Picked these out and then proceeded to take them out and test them the following day on a 5 hr road ride in 30* temps. Here's what I gathered:

Cons:

Cuff comes a long ways up the arm-couldn't really check watch

Kinda bulky-hard to feel the shifters on the road bike and distinguish between the levers

No terry cloth for the snot rockets, but the neoprene is kinda soft

Pros:

Kept my hands warm

Kept my hands warm

Kept my hands warm

I'd recommend these gloves to anyone who wants to ride outside in below freezing temps. They did great for being on a road ride and its nice to have the separate fingers instead of lobsters or mittens. I'm sure there may be others out there but these are what i'll be using till they fall apart.

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Snowy Times

Singlespeeds-walk early and walk often

Ok, so its been awhile. I’ve been at Camden-on-gauley, wv for the past month. Its been great, and the month has flown by.
Quick recap of December. Spent a lot of time working. The rest of the time was spent balancing riding and chores around home. It was great to have the month off school, but in a way it kinda felt like just another rotation month too.
Ok now to January. I’ve been down here outside of Summersville. There are a lot of great places and things to do in the area. The only problem is that I gotta work till 5 then its dark. Been riding my trainer at least 2 times a week while im down here. I have also been getting out to ride on the weekends. I went out with jon, chris, and a few guys from the Fairmont bike club a couple weeks ago. Went up to coops for a few hour ride. Last weekend I got some new part in for my bike, thanks to the gracious sponsors of the cycling club. I finally got a set of disc brakes. Went out to valley falls last Sunday and slugged around in like 5 inches of snow. This past weekend I had to work on Saturday, then went out to dinner with amber and the fam since it was my birthday. Sunday I went on a ride with chuck to waters smith state park. There is some awesome riding there, I just always seem to forget about it. I just can’t wait for longer days to ride more.
Got 3 and ½ days this week down here then back to Fairmont to work on Friday. Hopefully on Thursday afternoon I can get out and check out the area before I leave, possibly fish or do some riding or both.

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