Archive: July, 2007

workout log: 31 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 31/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Potomac/Great Falls, MD > Dupont Circle
Distance: 37.7 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 2:05
Weather: sunny and hot, 90 degrees
Avg HR: 140 (max 168)
Type: aerobic

PPTC “Downtown Breakaway” ride, Pleasant Hills & Great Falls route. Good turnout today despite the heat, as Nick (the founder of the Tuesday night club rides) was in town to see how the ride has carried on without him. Wolfgang and Darren were there to help push the pace, and there was some good, sporing sparring on the hills. The whole group rode an incredible paceline back to DC along MacArthur Boulevard – one of the best of the year – and I won the town line sprint, edging out Glen at the end. After the ride, six of us enjoyed dinner at Nooshi Noodles, sitting outside and catching up on all sorts of things.

I finished the month of July with 731 miles for the 31-day period – a good haul, likely to be eclipsed in August with all of the various century rides upcoming. This weekend, there’s the Mountain Mama Road Bike Challenge, and subsequent weekends will feature other century rides in the area.

For the year, I’m just shy of 2,500 miles – 5,000 miles should be an attainable goal, for sure.

categories cycling, outdoors, random, workout

workout log: 29 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 30/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Activity: road cycling
Location: Millerton, NY > Wassaic, NY > Kent, CT > Amenia, NY > Sheffield, MA > Copake, NY > Ancramdale, NY > Millerton
Distance: 103.2 miles (very hilly)
Duration: 5:36
Weather: partly to mostly cloudy, 73-84 degrees
Avg HR: 138 (max 170)
Type: aerobic

The Harlem Valley Rail Ride century, a wonderful, three-state route, was the object of today’s ride. The day dawned foggy, which made for a somewhat surreal start to the ride. Fortunately, the rain that wreaked havoc in NYC stayed south of the ride route.

I formed a small paceline with two guys from Brooklyn, Jay and Steve, who were with me for the first 13 miles until I dropped them on the first semi-hilly section, just south of the Wassaic rail station.

The climb out of Kent was brutal: Skiff Mountain Road is a long, 1,000-foot climb with a 3/4 mile section that’s over 12 percent grade – a tough, tough climb on any kind of bike, let alone a heavier steel one like my LeMond. But I made it up in a spin without problems, passing quite a few other riders in the process. The ride’s other climbs weren’t quite as bad, and I really flew up Mt. Washington Road (which started around mile 71), passing some local racers in the process – I was much stronger on this hill than was the case two days prior.

The uphill time trial came at mile 97, and I did okay, finishing less than three minutes behind a local CAT-1 racer who only rode 45 miles prior to the time trial.

This ride has a lot of great scenery and wonderful support. The only gripe is that I was bitten by a tick at one of the aid stations (fortunately, no signs of Lyme Disease). And the corn they served at the end-of-ride festival was from Rudy’s Corn Farm – sure, it’s not spelled quite right, but it was pretty darn good.

I can’t think of a better way to have a vacation day: great ride in the morning, and wonderful music afterward.

categories cycling, outdoors, travel, workout

workout log: 27 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 27/07/2007 | categories 2 Comments

Activity: road cycling
Location: North Hillsdale, NY > Great Barrington, MA > Amenia, MA > Copake Falls, NY > North Hillsdale
Distance: 51.0 miles (hilly)
Duration: 3:21
Weather: mostly sunny, 77-89 degrees
Avg HR: 140 (max 172)
Type: aerobic

A ride from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival to Great Barrington, MA, then over Mt. Washington to Bash Bish Falls, Copake Falls, then back to the festival grounds in North Hillsdale. I didn’t feel great going into the ride, and had just established a nice clip when I experienced a rear tire blowout just outside of Great Barrington. Two fellow festival goers gave my rear wheel and me a ride back to G.B. so that I could purchase a new tire (I stashed the bike along the side of the road). Once back on the road (after a 45-minute break), I took it easy. I passed the site of the last battle of Shays’ Rebellion, and found that my planned route had some really loose dirt roads in its path. I diverted around said roads. The climb up Mt. Washington Road was good – my legs are in better shape this year. The heat became quite fierce by the end of the ride.

categories cycling, outdoors, travel, workout

heading to the fest

author randomduck | timestamp 25/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

In an hour or so, we’re heading north to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival – a real vacation, much needed. So my posting will be pretty much non-existent until next week. But I’ll be riding quite a bit in the Harlem River Valley, so I’ll have lots to report when I get back.

categories cycling, random, travel

workout log: 24 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 25/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Potomac/Great Falls, MD > Dupont Circle
Distance: 41.6 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 2:10
Weather: mostly cloudy, 78 degrees
Avg HR: 152 (max 173)
Type: aerobic

PPTC “Downtown Breakaway” ride. This is how I celebrated Pioneer Day: by leading a post-rain ride at a decent pace. The first third of the ride was done at a mostly leisurely pace, and was further slowed when one of our group had a mechanical problem (we all stopped to help). The rest was done at a good clip, with four of us pushing the pace up front. I did well on the climb out of Great Falls, which was very cool. We just beat the dark coming back into Dupont.

If anything, this ride got rid of the bad feelings associated with Vino’s scandal at the Tour.

categories cycling, workout

what fucking bullshit

author randomduck | timestamp 24/07/2007 | categories 1 Comment

The much-anticipated bombshell from this year’s Tour de France has exploded: double stage winner Alexandre Vinokourov, once the favorite to win before a spectacular crash in the foothills of the Alps, tested positive for homologous blood doping in his incredible time trial win on Saturday, July 21.

All I can say is: he’s a fucking jerk, and I’m glad that he and his Astana team are out of the race. And while I feel sorry for some of the other riders on said team (particularly Klöden), it serves ‘em right to get out of town before the door hits their needle-marked behinds.

One of the best reactions from a fellow cyclist comes from David Millar, a Brit racing for Saunier Duval-Prodir, who himself doped a few years back but fessed up to it, and is now a major advocate for drug-free racing:

“Jesus Christ – there you go, that’s my quote,” he blurted out. “What timing, huh? This is just fucking great. It makes me very sad because Vino is one of my favorite riders. He’s one of the most elegant riders in the peloton… If a guy of his stature and class is doing that in what’s cycling living right now, we can just all pack our bags and go home.”

I hope that the rest of the Tour is run clean. There is already controversy surrounding the current leader, Michael Rasmussen, and his failure to report for four spot-check anti-doping tests leading up to the tour (such truancy usually leads to a guilty charge for doping by the UCI). And all the other riders who perform well seem to be riding with bullseyes on their backsides.

This shit has got to end – now.

categories cycling

workout log: 22 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 23/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Rockville, MD > Dupont Circle
Distance: 33.6 miles (lightly hilly)
Duration: 2:22
Weather: partly cloudy to overcast, 80-82 degrees
Avg HR: 126 (max 153)
Type: aerobic

A wonderful ride in Rock Creek Park with two friends. The pace was slower than my usual, but it was a great tune-down ride from Saturday’s up-and-down hill fest. Again, the weather was ideal for cycling. sprite and I had dinner with these friends later that day, a lovely meal of grilled salmon and fresh veggies (and a little bit of Italian vino, as well).

categories cycling, food, outdoors, random, workout

workout log: 21 july 2007

author randomduck | timestamp 21/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Travilah, MD > Bethesda, MD > Dupont Circle
Distance: 59.0 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 3:15
Weather: sunny, 72-82 degrees
Avg HR: 133 (max 165)
Type: aerobic

PPTC ” Summertime Real Ride From The Real City,” I was one of the co-leaders for the ride. T’was a small group, but a good group, and the roads and weather couldn’t have been more ideal. Tried a newly-cued route which made folks happy and featured some fun hills along the way.

categories cycling, outdoors, workout

book is in hand…

author randomduck | timestamp 20/07/2007 | categories 1 Comment

… and reading commences forthwith.

categories random

again, olbermann is spot-on

author randomduck | timestamp 20/07/2007 | categories Comments Off

Keith Olbermann is a rare entity in journalism these days: a man who knows no fear, and who is willing to speak things that the corporate shills who run the major media outlets dare not say for fear of offending the Bush propaganda machine.

And last night, as he has many times before, Olbermann said what needed to be said: rather than choose a scapegoat for his own failures in foreign policy, war and statecraft, Mr. Bush should:

Go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligations…. Go there and fight, your war…yourself.

It’s a great piece – read and see the whole thing at Crooks & Liars.

I’m very glad that the powers-that-be at NBC Universal are giving Olbermann a platform with which he can bring us his commentary, reporting and interviews.

categories dems, insecurity, mass media, politics, theocons

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