Yeah, it’s been a while.
I went out of town.
Saw the Mets beat the Phillies on a final trip to Shea.
Rode a wonderful century through the Berkshires in three states.
And enjoyed a lot of music, the company of friends, and lots of mud at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
More on all of that soon. Right now, I need some sleep.
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Alice Swanson was killed while riding her bike in my neighborhood on Tuesday, July 8. She was run over by a garbage truck, and very likely died instantly.
As long as the investigation of the incident is open and inconclusive, a ghost bike will stand at the intersection where her life was cut short.
It’s a sobering reminder that cyclists don’t always have it easy riding amongst the cars and trucks that clog the roadways. It’s certainly opened my eyes just a little bit more.
Wanna see more? Hillary, sprite, Sarah, and MsP are all photo-happy and willing to share their unique DC-based views.
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183 miles.
That was my total mileage on the bike for this past weekend.
Two rides contributed to the total: a century I led from here in DC, and a more rural ride that originated about 20 miles from home. The riding was quality stuff: not particularly fast, but good mileage to prepare for the big rides coming up in New York and California.
Sure, some cyclists ride further over a weekend, but this worked so well: on day two, with 110 miles out of the way the previous day, my legs felt just fine. It’s a sign that my fitness is where I need it to be, that I’m not overtrainng - but that I need to be mindful of doing a bit too much to prepare.
Quality over quantity - and somehow I got both this past weekend.
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Memo to self: keep the graphic descriptions inside my head.
That’s the thing I need to remember when discussing disturbing subjects with folks who would rather not hear of these things. It’s a filter that I don’t naturally have, having grown up in a household where few gory subjects were off-limits to discussion at the dinner table (it helps having parents whose incomes were based on medicine and forensic science).
That said, The Dark Knight is an incredible film: dark, tense, well-paced, executed almost to perfection. It’s possibly the best superhero movie ever made, and all of the buzz about Heath Ledger’s performance was most correct. But Christian Bale holds his own against such a psychotic tour-de-force, as do the others in the cast.
The cup runneth over this summer: first Iron Man, now The Dark Knight. It’s a summer full of quality action films that are more than just vehicles for special effects.
I just need to remember to hold off on discussion of the graphic parts until I’m with the folks who are sympatico with the subject matter.
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My long Fourth of July weekend is over. During the weekend I went on to great rides, saw some great fireworks, and otherwise woke up early all three days (what was I thinking?) to check the weather.
Friday’s ride was a lovely, 68 mile loop out of Damascus, MD. The weather looked ominous, with low, dark clouds and wet roads from the previous night’s rain. The ride leader even backed out of riding the course, though she signed us in and handed out cue sheets.
She missed out on a heck of a ride! The wet roads weren’t much to speak of, and they dried by mile 10. From there, it was a lot of rolling terrain through the hills of Maryland. I ended up riding with a few guys from ABRT, and we set a fast pace throughout the ride. The predicted rain ended up being 50-or-so drops over the course of a 15 minute period - trivial, at best.
The fireworks were fun to watch down at Kennedy Center. While security initially nagged sprite and me about our bikes (we kept them with us and didn’t get harassed after the initial encounter with the rent-a-cops), we enjoyed the view (and the rain). You could feel the explosions, and the reflection of the sound off the marble walls of the Kennedy Center was really cool to experience.
Saturday’s radar looked a bit wet, and the plan for a ride in the Blue Ridge Mountains fell apart. Jonathan and Chris ended up riding Mt. Weather….
…. in partly cloudy skies! Bugger! But that’s OK, as I needed the rest, and got to see not only the Wimbledon ladies’ final (Williams beat Williams) and the first stage of the Tour de France. Oddly enough, both the tennis and the cycling finished within 60 seconds of each other, which was odd synchronicity. And in the afternoon, sprite and I went to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (best part: the temple from Bhutan; otherwise, a bit of a letdown compared to previous years).
Sunday’s weather looked dreary, but not very wet, so I headed up to Laytonsville to ride a fast, rolling 67 mile loop with a bunch of the PPTC gang. The ride leader hadn’t expected such turnout, so he was caught short of cue sheets. So for the first 22 miles, we rode as a pack and called out directions - what a blast! After the first rest stop, we all had cues (thank you, photocopier!).
We continued, with me helping pace the front group with Joyce, Ira and Hugo. We were having a blast, and I wasn’t pushing too high an effort.
But at mile 36, on Ijamsville Road, I rode through some nasty glass and PFFFFFFFfffffff……
Falt tire, due to a clean, 11 millimeter cut from the center of the tire to the left flank.
Bugger!
So I pulled off the road, with friends there to help. Thanks to teamwork, we managed to get my tire booted with two self-adhesive patches and a dollar bill from my wallet. We put in a new tube, pumped gently up to 70-ish PSI (any more and the hole bulged precariously), and got back on the road.
And lemme tell ‘ya: a tire that’s built to ride with 120 PSI is a challenge to ride at 70 PSI! I had to keep an eye on my line to avoid any big bumps, dips or rocks. I couldn’t rock the bike too much, back and forth, so standing to climb or sprint was out of the question. I had to take it easy on the downhills and not hammer the uphills. I had to be very careful on left turns, given the cut wasn’t mended, so much as temporarily covered from the inside, and the tire’s structure was mortally compromised. This combination of factors led to two things:
1. I rode really smoothly for the rest of the ride (including the longest climbs of the ride); and
2. Because I couldn’t stand, my back was really, really sore by the end of the ride.
I think part of the latter was due to the fact that those of us who performed tire surgery skipped the second rest stop, though I did keep nourished and hydrated throughout the ride.
So my tire repair cost me a dollar bill from my wallet - plus material fees of approximately $42 (new tire and tube, plus tube patches used to help seal the cut in the old tire).
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On a ride last weekend, I decided to do a little exploring around the areas adjacent to Rock Creek Park, and I wandered toward the ruins of the National Park Seminary. While technically not in DC (it’s part of Forest Glen, a part of silver spgin, Maryland), it’s so close to the DC border it’s a “guilt by association” place.
Originally a finishing school for DC women, it was eventually turned into a rehabilitation and retraining facility for wounded soldiers, part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The architecture was all over the map: Asian, Mission style, Tudor, and mixes of many others. It was an international-style oasis close to DC, where veterans could escape reality and recuperate: bowling, swimming, ballroom dancing and other activities ruled the roost.
In the early 1970s, the Army abandoned the facility, and while it was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1972, it fell into decay very quickly. There were calls to demolish the place until recently.
But now, there’s hope: a new condo development (something I typically frown upon) is incorporating all of the still-extant buildings, integrating as many original features as possible. New houses have been built in sympathetic styles, as well.
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