2013 Civil War Century

The Civil War Century is a must ride just because of its name.  I rode last year but this year was easier, perhaps I trained a little?  It starts out in Thurmont VA and rolls up, down and all-around through Maryland and into Pennsylvania.  It is kinda cool to ride through Antietam National Park and the Gettysburg battlefields.  Although by the time I got to Gettysburg I wasn't so interested in sight-seeing.

A 5:00am wake-up alarm got me moving and 30 minutes later I was in the car and heading north.  Surprising how many people are on the beltway at 5:30am on a Saturday?  Where are they all going?  It was an easy drive up and the weather was a chilly 58 degrees.  I'm wondering why I didn't bring a jacket.  No worries, because the start of the ride goes straight up for 5 miles.  You're sweating inside of 10 minutes.

Total elevation for this ride is ~6,100'.  Total ride length was 102.7. See that big hill at mile 60, ugh.  That's a decent climb that tears you down.  Good stuff knowing that if you can make it to mile 62 you've pretty much got the ride made.  Although all that rolling stuff later does take little nibbles out of you.  

We were still in pretty energetic moods arriving at the first rest stop about 26 miles in.  Best food on this ride was the peaches.  OMG, those were sooooo good and I'm not really a peach lover.  I ate my share and then some.  Reminds me of the Presidents of the USA - peaches for me, peaches for free.

Here's a quick clip at mile 73.  All cylinders still firing well.  Not sure what little town we're in as we've gone through so many at this point.

I had to get a quick shot of some cannons in Gettysburg.  It's good times to tour around here and see the area.  Been there a couple times with the Cub Scouts.  There was a fleet of people-movers that we blew by.  Who sight-see's on people-movers?

This is how a lot of rides end. I am worn out.  The last 10 miles was really hard because my stomach starting hurting and that throw up feeling wouldn't go away.  I don't think it was from the ride, as I had that feeling at the first rest stop.  I blame Jordan because she had a really bad stomach ache Friday morning.   I did get a great ham/turkey sandwich at the end of the ride and started feeling a heckuva lot better.

Riding time was ~6 hrs 40 mins.  So add 1 hour for total time.

Garmin statistics

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2012 Gran Fondo Garrett County

The Garrett County Savage Century is truly a no-joke, no-frills, bad ass ride through the mountain sides of western Maryland.  This was by far my hardest road ride I've tackled at 8hours 32mins.  102 miles with exhilarating downhills of up to 51 miles per hour, miles and miles up very difficult climbing, and a little bit of rolling countryside along Savage Creek and Deep Creek Lake.  If the elevation profile below doesn't scare you, then layoff the liquid courage.

Mom has become a frequent participant, camper, sherpa, cook and volunteer on these weekend extravaganza's.  We set off Friday afternoon and had camp set by early evening.  Crab cakes were the meal of choice for my pre-ride meal from Springfield Butcher.  This was the first trip where we really did the camping right.  

 

Wake up call was at 5:30am.  A cream cheese muffin, banana, and OJ served as the "Breakfast of Champions".  A 10 minute drive over to Adventure Sports for packet pickup, then a drive up Wisp Mountain to reach the starting point.  We saw two crazies riding up Wisp mountain, and I can only guess their car must have broken down.

There were around 1300 riders combined for all riding options.  The craziest is the Diabolical Double (125 miles) of pure pain.  We'll have to wait until next year before tackling that.  At the starting line, I ran into Dan Wolfe, my frequent riding buddy on centuries.

The beginning of the ride is a few miles of downhill.  Couldn't go all out due to volume of riders, but after the first few climbs the pack thinned out and then the training wheels came off.  I'm not sure which downhill I reached 51 miles/hour, but I'm guessing I was pretty close to that speed on plenty of them ... pure exhilaration.  

Where's Dan Wolfe?  Lost him at the first decent climb.  Turns out he just needed a jump start to get the blood flowing.  He did fine for the remainder of the ride.

Mile 25 up to Morgan Town Road was long and what exactly were those girls implying by passing me on the way up?

Mile 36 and still climbing.  The combined totals of one hill after another makes one cry for one's Mommy.  Unfortunately, mine was resting at the campsite about now.

I stopped for a panoramic shot of the country side and a good view of an upcoming hill.  I did zoom down that hill, went through the woods, and slogged it up what you can see in the video.  Perhaps I was overcome with delirium, but I could swear a 70 year old lady passed me on the climb.  For the record, I did pass her at the top and never saw her again.  Perhaps she was just a big fan of tanning booths, remember this lady?

Bowman Hill is more sinister than Silent Hill in many ways, minus the demons.  This road doesn't seem to  have been built by educated engineers.  Someone far more sadistic created this ridiculous climb.

Nice of this farmer to let us ride through his property ... NOT!  That climb is longer and steeper than it appears.

Mile 55 is called "Killer Miller" and guess what, "It's hard, really really hard."  There's another little bump to get to the Eastern Continental Divide.  The bonus side is there is a really long descent to Savage Creek after the divide.  

This rolling terrain is the first part of the ride you could truly relax and enjoy the ride.  100 miles of this kind of riding would really be a popular event.  

And here we are at the finishing line, 8 hours and 53 minutes later.  The last hill up Wisp Mountain is cruel.  I was gearing up for a tougher climb, but in the end it was just another bump along the way.  Riding up the hill after 101 miles is an accomplishment that should be shared by all .. who's with me for 2013?

And here comes Dan Wolfe slugging it up the finish line in 9hrs 51mins 36secs.  I agree Dan, this ride really was ridiculously hard.

Back at the campground, here's a post-meal recap.  Rib-eye steak's from the "Springfield Butcher" were incredible over the open fire.  Good thing for GroupOn's, we got a two-for-one for purchasing the steaks and crab cakes.

The best part of this adventure was easily the camping, as usual.  The weather was beautiful, very few bugs, nice facilities, almost makes me think about tackling this ride again next year.  I asked once already, but who's with me for 2013?


Garmin statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192635790

2012 Garrett County Savage Century - Check!

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2012 Mohican MTB 100

The Mohican mountain bike race is a 100 mile loop consisting of 11,000+ feet of climbing along mostly singletrack, doubletrack or dirt roads, spanning 4 counties through some of the most remote and scenic areas in the rolling hills of Mohican Country, Ohio. Climbs of nearly a mile, with elevation gains of 300+ feet, rock gardens, streams, and more!

That's the description of the race from the official website's perspective.  My description of this ride is a brutal, technically challenging, bruising, difficult and crazy hard 100 miles through Bigfoot country.  My hopes in entering this race was to improve upon my finish time from the Wilderness 101 last year.  And I barely did, with a time of 12 hours 44 minutes.  Hey, that's an improvement of 19 minutes!

It's a long day in the saddle.  This ride I felt was much more of a mental challenge than a physical one.  I've been riding a lot leading into this race so physically I wasn't ever hurting.  However, after the first 42 miles of this course I was not sure I wanted to sign up for another 60 miles.  Fortunately, the real demanding riding was behind me, mostly road, gravel and little single-track was ahead.

As is customary on these rides, my mom came along for shotgun.  We had an easy 7+ hour drive out to the Mohican Adventures campground.  We had a good Friday night dinner at the local Sojourner Cafe on Main Street. Here's a couple shots of our campsite.

Race day started with a wake up call around 5;45am.  We had a "Breakfast of Champions" at McDonald's that provided all the calories one needs for a 100 mile bike ride.  Bikes were streaming in from all over the place toward the starting line in Loudonville.  Here's a few shots of the starting line.

 

The riders in front are the ones trying to win the race.  I'm more of a "completer" than a "competitor".  So I took my spot near the tail-end.

Here's the good news as heard in this video.  There will always be someone behind me.  

Around 600 riders started this race, not all of them finished.  One guy had a dislocated shoulder, others just couldn't make it.  I saw numerous people stopping with cramps and this was within the first 32 miles.  

Watch the video and to the left you can see where we had dinner the night before.  The last building on the right is Kim's Bike Store.  I talked with these guys about the ride, and met up with them at the aid station at mile 80.  

Just like the morning commute in DC, here we were all standing around to merge.  The initial road segment is not very long before going into single-track.  As every second passed, it was getting harder and harder to catch the leaders.  I'm sure this is where I lost the bulk of my time :-)

At Aid Station 1 (mile 20) I was feeling pretty good.  Not a lot to report here, just smooth sailing.

Here's a shot of a particularly nasty part of the trail.  I walked less of this course than the Wilderness ride and pretty much only walked where everyone else was walking too.  

One of the nice portions of the trail.  Unfortunately it didn't last too long.   I did like riding in small packs through the first ~40 miles of this ride.  It was later in the ride that I was out there in the woods on my own.  Which is very peaceful.

Aid Station 2 is 32 miles in, and took 4 hours and change to reach.  It was at this point that I was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  Any one read "Fablehaven"?  If so, check out this video.  I'll never look at a butterfly the same again.

This was a crazy ominous sight of a hill around the bend.  For the record, I did ride up the hill that many weren't.  And check out the video below for what I found at the top!

This was the sight of my biggest wipe-out.  When one gets tired, everything gets more difficult.  I was coming down this little hill negotiating the rocks when all of a sudden this log jumped out of the woods at me.  I hit it dead-on and flipped right over the handlebars.  Fortunately it was a soft landing.

Debate time.  I stayed at Aid Station 3 for almost 25 minutes. All the smart people were going left, very few of us nuts were going right.  Check out the video to see what the big debate was about.

Bigfoot Country if there ever was one.  This is 78 miles in, extremely remote, and I hope there's no one out here but me and fellow riders.

The finish line never looked so sweet!  Catered BBQ ribs, chicken and all the extras were waiting for me.  I was glad the other riders left me some.  And of course Mom was waiting right there for me (she must be very patient).

Mohican ride - Check!!!

Official Results: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-mohican-100-2012/results

Garmin results: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185549213

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CASA River Century

Saturday May 20 was a perfect day with perfect weather to ride a perfectly wooded and rolling route through the hills of Shepardstown West Virginia and beyond.  From the results of this ride, I'm thinking I have a shot at riding the Mohican 100 in 2 weeks time in under 12 hours!  But this day myself and my buddy Dan Wolfe got up early and drove to Shepardstown University to join 400 other riders on the tour.

This had pretty consistent rolling hills on roads that weren't too frequently traveled.  The rest stops were stocked well (except missing gatorade) and we took full advantage of each and every one.  So Dan, you haven't been riding much but how's your pre-ride feel?  Check the video below.

I'm thinking that all this commuting on the bike and once/week 70 mile trips out to Purcellville are really paying off.  This was my strongest century thus far.  At the 85 mile mark came the biggest hills of the ride.  Attack - Attack - Attack these hills by standing and sprinting up them. This repeated for about a 5 mile stretch.  I felt pretty darn good on these hills and was ready for more.  Check another video!

Here's a few other videos if you're interested in different parts of the ride.

First video - a few miles in.

First Rest Stop

Typical riding scene .. very beautiful.

Infamous Butler Chapel

50 Down, 50 to go

72 Miles

Mile 93 - Home Stretch

Garmin statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180099387

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Middleburg Mountains x 2

Middleburg Mountains x 2

Awesome weather and time to kill got me off the couch and out west to Middleburg for another training ride in preparation for the Mohican 100 mile mountain bike race on June 2.  Packed up my things and off I went.  I was a little nervous because this was to be the first time I tackled two mountains instead of just the one up Blue Ridge Mountain Road.

20 miles I reached my first nemesis in Blue Ridge Mountain Road.  This road has crushed me in the past.  It's long, steep, and just seems to keep going up up and up.  Today would be a different outcome, as I motored up it with not a significant amount of effort.  I did have a little trouble with the video recap as you can see below.

Recapping the end of Blue Ridge Mountain road below.  I never liked trying to slow down quickly on the road bike.  The Cannondale CAAD10 doesn't like to slow down.  After this video, I headed down 50 a little more to get to the second mountain.  Have I mentioned how much I hate dogs, especially when they chase me?  More on that later.

This was supposed to be just another training ride through Middleburg and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  For the most part it was, but it got ominous at the rest stop in Linden.  If I hadn't known better, I'd think I was in Northern Georgia (if you get the reference).  For a hint, check out this video.

A few ride statistics and elevation profile.  68 miles, 4 hours 55 minutes, Full Garmin ride statistics.

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New York 5 Boro Ride

I rode the New York Five Boro Bike ride on Saturday May 7.  It's the single largest bike ride in the world (or so they say) with around 33,000 riders.  Riders come in all shapes and sizes, some on rent-a-bikes and others on Cervello's.  It's quite a mix and a little scary in tight places.

I saw six crashes, one of them fairly serious.  It sounded like a car wreck with metal crunching and I looked back to see at least one guy and girl both flying through the air and crunching the pavement.  Similar to this crash from yesterday.  Well, enough with the roadkill.

The ride is around 42 miles of almost all flat roads.  The only inclines are the bridges, the last one being the Verrazono bridge.  It's quick to see the riders and the wanna-riders when the road starts to tilt.  Lots of people huffing and puffing, with a plenty walking.

Some of the most prominent takeaways from this ride are:

1. There are a lot of cops in New York.
2. I'll never get bored of the New York skyline.
3. Central Park is an incredible place to visit.
4. Don't go to New York if you enjoy elbow room.

Our Host Nicholas

Accommodations in New York can be hard to found if you're on a budget.  Thanks to www.AirBNB.com for helping me find a room on Staten Island.  Nicholas (on the left) rents a fine room for a "Few Dollars More" (love Clint) than 42 miles on this ride.  He's an exceptional host who enjoys the company.

Make sure to ask him for breakfast as his omelette special with ham, tomato's, apple juice, coffee and toast was fantastic.

It's about a 3 minute bike ride to the Staten Island ferry from his flat.  A 25 minute quick trip and we were among the most riders I have ever seen.

The ferry ride was not as packed as it has been in the past.  This was the first year for staggered starts.  Although, even with the staggers there were a ton of riders everywhere you looked.  The car bay was jammed with bikes from front to back.

There was tremendous excitement in the air as we were herded to the starting line.  I think "Herded" is appropriate as how else could you describe thousands of people funneling to a common location?  Moooooooooooo!

Right off the Ferry	Getting to the Start
Still Getting to the Start	Aerosmith, Live!

Eventually we got moving as we sailed down 12th avenue to start (I think) and on to Central Park.  The road started out pretty wide as there were no cars allowed, but got narrow at points and that's where the fun begins for those who don't know rider etiquette.  So if anyone is wondering, here's a few rider etiquette tips:

1. Hold your line. Not sure what that means, then go straight.
2. Don't look behind you when in congestion. Same rules when in a car dummy!
3. Swerving and weaving is not acceptable at any time.
4. Slow riders to the right, faster riders to the left.  Again, dummy!
5. Farting when riders are close behind is encouraged.

	By now you must be thinking "What is Kenny doing up there all alone in such a dangerous, smelly and hostile place?!?!?!"   Have no worries.  My buddy Michael was the only one to take me up on my offer (and I'm sure you were included) to attend the event.
	This is Charles's Bench

He's another avid rider who rides his bike to work every single day, rain or shine.

6th Street	Harlem Hospital
Bronx	East River Tunnel

One thing about this ride is there were riders everywhere.  33,000 riders over 42 miles is very congested.  The Seagull Century has 8k-10k riders over 100 miles and you constantly are among other cyclists.  I wonder if they all knew where they were?  I, for one, had absolutely no bearing on NSEW or any of the buildings around me.  Never had I seen any of these roads, nor will I ever remember them.

Astoria Park	21st Street

Staten Island Ferry Ride to Start

Overall this ride was a whole lotta fun.  It's 42 miles of almost all flat car-less roads. Only a few people had to walk on the bridges, especially when the headwind got to you.  Logistics worked great, weather was great, all was a good time.  I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to pedal around New York.  Don't let the distance intimidate you, it's easy.

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Capital Idea to Purcellville (200m shy)

I set out for a long bike ride last night after work.  Not sure why I thought this was such a "capital idea", but the thought of going 70 miles was appealing to me.  I thought I could make it so I set 2 hours as my limit for riding west.  I started about 5:30pm and wouldn't you know it, 2 hours later I found myself out in Purcellville 35 miles from the car.  At this point I ate some peanut butter and jelly crackers and decided to head east.

What I didn't know is that I was only 200 meters from the Trails End!  That's where the W&OD trail comes to an end at the Trails End Bike Store, go figure.

So heading east was getting a little chilly.  I was hoping for warmer weather but didn't have too many options.  However, one option I did opt for was heading into 7-11 off Dry Mill in Leesburg.  A kiobasa on a roll and hot chocolate for everybody!  Wow that really hit the spot.  Then heading east again I was wondering to myself why this was a good idea, along with not being able to get that "Over You" song by Miranda Lambert out of my head.

The further east I got, the warmer it was so the climate was just perfect for riding.  Wind was at a minimum, trail was all mine, and it was quite peaceful cruising in the dark with the only illumination the bike light and stars.  I did have to watch out for the Easter Bunnies who were making an early appearance, plus all the fox, deer, and other rodents scurrying around the trail.

Somewhere outside of Ashburn I decided that I'd try for my first lifeline.  Unfortunately, Michelle didn't answer and as it turned out she wasn't playing racquetball at Worldgate in Herndon, but was already home on the couch.  Great, capital idea and I was going to be seeing this through to the end.  The ride was pretty nice in hindsight, but all the long rides are somewhat mentally tough.  

4 hours and 20 minutes later I returned to the car while logging 71 miles.  Here's the Garmin trip data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/162955425

Surprisingly, I got up early today and feel just fine ... albeit a little hungry.

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5-0 on the W&OD

Obviously more training is required if I get a little weary from a slow 2 hr 40 min ride down the CCT with P Binning.  So to toughen up I set out Wednesday March 25 for a 5-0 ride out the W&OD trail.  Weather was great, trail wasn't too busy, and I was ready to go.

After work, I parked at the Gallows Road and W&OD intersection and rode 25 miles west, then turned around and rode 25.1 miles back.  You figure that one out.  I pushed it a bit on the way out trying to keep over >20 miles hour.  At the turn around, I was averaging almost that.  The ride back was a little slower but not much. In the end, 2 hours and 38 minutes for 5-0 miles with the final average of 18.9 miles/hour.

Just over 2 months from now will be another ridiculously hard 100 mile mountain bike race through the Mohican State Forest in Ohio.  There's got to be some harder riding between now and then.

Many miles ahead.

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Biking to Work

Many of you know that I recently joined Gannett as a web development manager for USAToday.com.  This facility, the people and the work are all a welcome change from the federal space.  But the biggest difference has been the commute.

I've been riding my Specialized FSR Comp 29'er to work on most days.  This includes when it's cold (which it has been since November) and when it rains/snows (only once so far).  The ride is almost 11 miles one way which takes me on a lot sidewalks, a little trail, lots of residential and few heavily traveled roads.  Here's the route.
Let me tell you something you already know, traffic in this area sucks.  On the few occasions I have driven, the commute takes about 40 minutes.  It has taken 2 hours.  Once it took 12 minutes but that was leaving the office at 3:30AM.

Biking to work takes about about 50 minutes, rain or shine, day or night.  There is never a traffic jam, road closure, accident, or other impediment.  A quick shower, change of clothes and 2 cups of free orange juice at the gym and I'm at my desk.

Top 10 Reasons I Love Biking to Work 1. I now love commuting. 2. When I fart I don't smell it. 3. I can spam my friends with commuting stories. 4. I enjoy looking at the RT66 parking lot. 5. I hang my sweaty stinky clothes in someone else's cube. 6. I'm always first at the traffic light, always. 7. Exercise exercise exercise. 8. I don't have to shower after getting out of bed. 9. Going green. 10. Increase the benefit-to-cost ratio of my mountain bike.

 So by now you've got to be thinking "Why am I not riding my bike to work?" My suggestion is to detour your way over to the bike store and either tune up that piece of rust from the basement or buy a new one.  Personally, I've lost 6-7 pounds and am flirting with losing my Clydesdale label (200+ lbs).  Riding heals all.

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C&O Canal Century

I'm not sure what got into me this year with all this biking.  Over 1,300 miles logged while sitting on the saddle for more than 116 hours.  Some of the riding was incredibly hard, like the Wilderness 101 and Mountains of Misery, while other rides weren't as difficult.  This C&O Canal ride was my 6th century ride of the year.  I had a target of 6 centuries this year so I'm happy with the effort.

The C&O Canal Towpath runs from DC to Cumberland Gap, ~183 miles.  The full length of the trail from Cumberland Gap is on my 2012 Spring list, but for now myself and Derrick limited the ride to a round-trip from Great Falls to Harper's Ferry.  Derrick is a fellow dad from Cub Scouts and I was lucky to have bridged the conversation with him about this ride.  He's wanted to do it for some time as well.  His longest previous ride was ~60 miles, so he was definitely about to be tested.

We got on the trail around 7am and it was darn cold, 34 degrees to be exact.  The first few miles were a chilly and foggy affair.  We had crystals forming on us for the first several miles.  Let's see how we were doing after 6.5 miles.

The trail itself was in fine shape.  It had rained a lot the previous few days so we did have to deal with a lot of mud.  Later in the ride it was getting somewhat demoralizing to get your speed up and then get slogged in a mud bath and lose all your momentum.  There was an over-abundance of sticks on the trail as well.  I got a flat around 20 miles in and changing the tube was a little difficult as I was frozen in the riding position.

Here are two videos of landmarks on the way up.  White's Ferry and Point of Rocks.  

Brunswick is 5.5 miles from Harper's Ferry.  At this point we were feeling good and much warmer.  The day warmed up nicely to the upper 60's, maybe 70.  We stopped for a quick bite, er, longer bite as both of us didn't mind the rest.

The trail itself is not the most scenic adventure.  The water keeps it interesting with the Potomac on one side and the canal on the other.  Not many people out on the canal at this time, but it started to get more populated with the warmer weather.  Neither of us wanted to feel the cold again and we had a long ways to go before nightfall.

We rolled into Harper's Ferry in about 4.5 hours (I think).  I've read on different blogs that although the canal is uphill going North, it's not real noticeable.  I'm here to tell you that's a bunch of garbage.  It's definitely uphill and much more effort than riding South.  The town hasn't changed much since I was canoeing there as a kid.  I still remember "Big Rock" where you could body surf down the river.  The first video has a shot of the rock cliffs that I highly recommend you hike up on the trail when visiting.  A great look at the town can be seen from up there.

Here's a scene that's getting to be more common.  Filming a clip laid out on my back.  At this point in the ride we were both pretty spent.  I think it was about 75 miles in with 20 miles to go.  I'm laying on the same bridge where I changed my flat tire on the way up.

Finishing is always sweet but it's always hard.  We rode about 30 minutes in the dark and it got cold again when the sun went down.  Slugging out those final miles was a chore and I kept focused on the leftover Thanksgiving hot meal that was waiting for me at home.  Funny how at the end of these big rides I'm always thinking about food. 

Ride stats: 8hrs 15 min's riding.  10.5 hours duration.  95 miles. 7,432 calories burned.

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