Winter Cross Training

Shoveling is cross training for a cyclist, right?

Several weeks ago we had a bit of a thaw with temperatures even hitting 60F.  The thaw is always rough on our 600 foot long driveway, even though we have put over 300 tons of crushed limestone on it since we built it in 2003.  I managed to get the topper off my truck and hauled three loads of stone (two loads of 304's and one load of 8's).  All in, I shoveled about 11,500 pounds of stone in under a week.

Fast forward a couple weeks and we have hit record lows and multiple snow falls (and a week worth of no school snow days).  The first couple of snows were fairly low on the moisture content and I push broomed the driveway clear.  This seems to work well for up to 4 or 5 inches, as long as the driveway is frozen and the snow is light and powdery.  The most recent event dumped around 8 inches of wetter snow on top of the 5 inches already on the ground.  This one took about 5 hours with a shovel to get two tire paths down the full length.

So you may be asking, why not use the tractor?  The thawing helped make tire ruts on the driveway, lower than the middle and the sides.  The tractor does a great job of removing the snow from the middle and then packing it tight in the tire tracks.  After sliding down (and even getting stuck) in the past years I have learned it is better to try it by hand.  Besides, I need the winter core workout.

Intense game of mini pool on a snow day.

Where I spent 5 hours of my Sunday.  Guess which path got sun during the afternoon?

A snowy 20th

20 Years.  Yes, 20, married to my best friend.  We never got to do a honeymoon after we got married.  We were both full time students and I had an exam on the Monday after our wedding.  Soon after, we started our family.  We still haven't had a honeymoon or any other significant "just the two of us" vacation in those 20 years.  This year, we actually left town though after my folks offered to keep the boys, get them too/from school.  Mom didn't have to twist my arm and I made a reservation at the Cooper House (a bed and cocktail in Thomas, WV).  When you get married in February, you expect winter weather, so we went to where the is a solid winter, Thomas, just minutes away from Canaan Valley.  We have been there before to take Brock camping or to ride mountain bikes, but this would be our first trip during the winter.

We left Athens after grabbing a quick breakfast at the Fluff and drove across the double lane covered bridge in Phillipi, WV on our way to Thomas. Thomas is a hip little town with a main street lined with Tip-Top (coffee/cocktail shop), art and antique galleries, the Purple Fiddle (restaurant, band venue, hostel), and the Cooper House.  Our first stop is always Tip-Top for a good cup of coffee.  Much to our surprise, they are closed on Wednesday.  In fact, half of the town is closed.  Instead, we grabbed a sandwich and cup of coffee at the Purple Fiddle before checking in to our guest room.

We were greeted by Joy and her dog Scruffy at the Cooper House, who will instantly make you feel like you are visiting a friends home rather than staying in a hotel.  She showed us to our room, we settled in, and headed over to Blackwater Falls to see the frozen falls.  The lower set of stairs was closed (due to them being covered in ice and snow) but we still got a view of them with a little hike through some snow.

Back at the Cooper House, we enjoyed chatting with Joy beside a fire while locals trickled in to visit.  We were invited to grab dinner next door at Salud, where the owners were preparing tacos.  (I never turn down good tacos).  It really felt like we were crashing the locals hangout.  Everyone was super friendly though and we enjoyed the food before heading over to the Tip-Top who had opened for a couple musical acts that would perform.  (I got my cup of coffee after all).

We woke the next morning to cold.  Highs were single digits with windchill in the negatives.  It had also snowed about 3-4 inches over night.  We tried to get breakfast at the Flying Pigs, but we were surprised to find them closed.  Luckily Tip Top had bagels and we had coffee and a light breakfast.  From there we made the drive out a snowy route 32 to Whitgrass with every intention to rent XC ski gear and spend some play time in the snow.  When we got there, the wind chill was -4.  We headed in to the lodge only hear about how dangerous and cold it was out, and that was from folks in proper cold weather ski gear.  We just had layers on, not proper snow clothes, it hurt your face to be outside.  Instead of skiing, we hung out a bit, had some soup from the cafe and watched the hard core folks head out.

Back in Thomas, we warmed up at the Cooper House and then went out for a short, easy hike on the Blackwater Canyon Trail to see the beehive coke ovens and Douglas falls.  The sun was out, the temps had risen to the low teens but the valley trail was largely protected from the wind.

From there it was time to get ready to see the Black Lillies.  They were in town to play at the Purple Fiddle.  Luckily Joy had recommended we get our tickets in advance as the show was sold out.  The show also filled the guest house with others, in town specifically to see them perform.  We had some drinks and lovely bread/sausage/peppers and visited with the other guests before heading next door to a crowded show.  The show started a bit late, but they really made up for it.  These folks have a lot of fun playing and the energy is shared with the crowd.  They ended up playing for about 3-1/2 hours after playing one more song about seven times.  It has been a while since I have watched some good live music and even longer that I was out past midnight, and except for having to move away from the hip-hop, honky-tonk young couple dancing without a care in the world, I'd do it again.

Friday, we got up early since we needed to be back to get the kids from school.  Again, we found the Flying Pigs closed, so we grabbed a cup of coffee, loaded up the car and head out to Elkins for some eggs and toast on our way home.

If you are looking for a fun place to stay in the Canaan Valley area, I would highly recommend you give Joy at the Cooper House a call.

20 years isn't enough and neither was 2-1/2 days alone with my wife.

The year for Gravel biking?

Growing up, we all rode our bikes on gravel roads.  That is what we had.  I can't even count how many times I got a flat tire after getting a real road bike and still putting miles of back roads on those skinny, sketchy tires.  Little has changed really.  I still have to drive unpaved roads to get anywhere and still those skinny tires are sketchy.  However, I really like riding around on those back roads.  Aside from a occasional dog (or even coyote), there is little to worry about besides the road.  I had been putting miles on my old Redline d440, truly my first ever real mountain bike, rigid and steel 29er.  After switching to a Redline Monocog Flight 29 years ago, the geared d440 was dropped as my mountain bike and just used for those back roads.  It is slow as the bike weighs 27 lbs and has 2.3" wide tires, but it is very stable on any kind of road I hit, which sometimes can be mud, freshly graded 57's, loose 8's, or chip and seal.  Over last fall I changed the bike up a bit to be a more dedicated back road tourer, bikepacker, gravel rouser.

It is now setup with tubeless wheels (Sun Ringle Black Flag Expert), dirt drop bars (Origin 8 Gary bars), 1x10 Shimano drivetrain (SLX 11-36 cassette, SLX 9 speed rear der).  For shifting, I am using Retroshift CX1V (now Gevenalle).  I like this setup a lot.  Shifting is easy and I have 5 hand positions.  I could still use a good set of mechanical brakes.  These are low end stuff and they squeal, a lot.  I also want to narrow the tires down.  2.3 is super comfy, but a 1.9 or even 2.0 tire could drop a pound and perhaps be faster.

Since gravel biking is suddenly "in", it means there are some good events to be had for this style riding.  Athens Bicycle hosts the Grvael Rouser each year, set for March, it is an early event to burn the legs after a long winter.  After that, there are a couple of Roubaixs within a couple hours drive, the Amish Country Roubaix and the Hilly Billy Roubaix.  The Hilly Billy has replaced the Wayne Ultra on my list of try to get to events this year (since the Ultra was also dropped from the schedule).

I managed a few miles over the weekend of some frozen, some thawing back roads after the temps got above freezing and we even saw the sunshine.

Photos from the Garmin Virb, mounted on my bars.  Fun little camera to play with.  #getoutside

Birthdays, holidays, the year past, and the one ahead.

I realize I haven't posted for a considerable time.  Various factors I suppose.  A little bit of lack of motivation, a lack of time, and the thought that maybe I shouldn't share everything I think on the Internet.  To quote U2's Bono from  LITTLE BOOK OF A BIG YEAR: Bono's A to Z of 2014:

"B IS FOR BLOGOSPHERE It's enough to put a fella off free speech... the problem about finding out what people think is...you find out what they think." 

A funny thing my father-in-law said also comes to mind.  After mentioning that a mutual friend had posted something on Facebook, he commented that he had gone to Lake Hope Lodge for dinner and didn't even text anyone about it.  All that said, I thought it good to write down a few things about 2014 and start planning for the next year.

Birthdays

As an adult, your birthday becomes less and less of a thing.  Perhaps an excuse to go out for a nice dinner, coffee, or some other self indulgence.  We are still young enough that the kids aren't going to do anything special but yet we are old enough that our parents don't make much to do about it either.  Shelly's birthday was nestled in between high school soccer and my mountain biking trip to WVa.  We tried out best to do Casa for dinner with some friends, but Brock was crawling on the floor and I had to leave early to pick up Ethan from a soccer event.

Between birthdays we filled the time with the high school soccer tournament, a wedding, OU homecoming, and a severely sprained right ankle from lunch time soccer at work. 

Four weeks later, it was my turn.  However, this was the big 40 for me.  I planned to take a few days off of work and spend some time on two wheels.  While I did get to ride both my bike and motorcycle, it was a cool, rainy few days that ended with a viral respiratory infection as a final gift.  No grand, mid-life crisis adventure, just a ride on my motorcycle to Grayson lake and back, plus a bit of a road bike ride the day after.  No parties, no gifts, just one day I was 39 and the next I was 40.  Even my mom, aside from a birthday card, seemed like it was a forgotten day.  We had just a couple years before celebrated what would have been Eric's 40th with a party, cake, and 40 helium filled balloons that we released while singing happy birthday.  Shelly would ask me days after my birthday if I would like to have a surprise party and who I would like to invite.  I guess the one mid-life crisis thing I did do was get another tattoo.  I had been thinking about it for years but more worried about getting a bad one than anything.  I got a cog on my right forearm, specifically, a Chris King single speed cog.  I did a play on words with it and had the artist (though Aaron would call himself more of a craftsman than an artist) change the words to read CHRIST KING.  I can see it while riding.  It is my subtle reminder to keep things in perspective.

Holidays

From there, it was a race through the holidays.  First up would be Veteran's day. This happens to also be the anniversary of Eric's death.  A tough day.  I took the afternoon off work and took the KTM out around the unpaved roads to St. John's cemetery.  It was good to ride for the afternoon and be in my own thoughts.  Ended up running in to my mom and dad at the cemetery and we chatted a bit.

November was also tough as a good friend was dealing with an unexpected relationship problem.  What can a guy that has been married for 20 years offer a guy that is dating and dealing with what seems like high school drama? Not much but a supportive shoulder and a listening ear.  We did some riding, some drinking coffee, and he did lots of talking.

One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving.  Something about the idea that we look around and feel grateful for where we are and what/who we have.  The food and afternoon of shooting shotguns isn't bad either.

Thanksgiving Clays from DougM1 on Vimeo.

Then it is a mad rush to Christmas.  We just finished thinking about all we have only to about face and want everything we don't have.  Our families are getting better about trimming down the materialism of Christmas, but we still do multiple parties, over short a amount of time.  While Brock wants to play with his new toy, we have to tell him to put it away for now, we have another house to go to.  By the end Christmas day, Brock lost it when my mom gave him a yellow spoon rather than a purple one.  Dad was surprised.  I had to remind dad what Christmas must be like for Brock after 4 parties in less than 24 hours.  On top of that, I started to get sick on Christmas eve.  By the end of Christmas day, I was losing my voice and feeling pretty worn down.  Friday brought on the fever and a sinus headache with lots of coughing.  I finally got in to my doctor on the following Tuesday where I received antibiotics and the diagnosis of a sinus infection.  No wonder it felt like I had been punched in the face.  After 4 days of fevers and so much coughing my muscles were sore, I was glad to finally get on the mend.  Not much of a Christmas break though.  I spent a lot of time on the couch, reading or watching soccer on TV.  While that sounds great, it isn't me, I like to be out!  No riding except for a couple of trainer sessions over the whole break.  No cutting firewood which I had also planned to do.  Brock and I did take a couple of hikes in the woods.  Something about boys and creeks.

2014
Not a lot to report on the bicycling front for the year.  I only competed in one race.  I did earn a Wolfman award at the Gravel Rouser though. According to my records, I only did 1596 miles for the year (combined road and trail riding) and climbed over 96,000 feet.

2015
I am starting to give up doing too much planning since as Alison Krauss sings, "the planes I had my plans in never got off the ground".  Shelly and I hit the 20 year mark this year.  We never got to go on a honeymoon, so we have been stashing money away to go on a real vacation, just the two of us.  I also hope to get away for a motorcycle camping trip.  Other than that, I have been putting together a list of races and other events I want to consider hitting:

• The Gravel Rouser - March 19-22
• OSRS #2 Lake Hope P/B Team Athens - March 29
• Amish Country Roubaix - April 19
• Middle Mountain Momma XXC - May 3
• Mohican 100 - May 30
• Hilly Billy Roubaix - June 27
• Race to the Hills XC - August 2
• Slatyfork Ultra XXC - August 22
• Revenge of the Rattlesnake XXC - September 19

I probably won't race the Revenge of the Rattlesnake, not on a rigid bike.  That course beats me up.  But we will likely ride it anyway.  The Mohican 100 is a long shot too.  OSRS #2 is a road race that is organized by Team Athens.  I am not much of a road racer, but will probably be there to drive SAG.

Happy new year all.

Getting high

Wow it has been a while since I have posted.  Work has picked up with some new projects.  High school soccer has consumed everything it can.  Brock started preschool.  Ethan and I rode the Buell to the Albany fair to see the tractor pulls.  I am almost done with staining the house, a process of brushing a penetrating oil on every square inch of log/soffit/fascia.  We rescued a couple of kittens.  I did however make it to Davis, WVa for what has become an annual trip to camp, ride mountain bikes, and eat.

John Deere 4030, turbo.  Impressive piece of farm equipment.

I won't say it is impossible to stain every part of the house from a ladder, but I will say it is not safe to do so.  This time around I rented a towable, articulating lift to do the most dangerous parts.

Home for the weekend.

View up the Blackwater river from camp.

Pano view up and down the Balckwater.

Hellbender!

Make sure you go to Thomas on Friday night for a fantastic hamburger at the Tip Top coffee bar.

Good morning.

Open area on the climb along the Canaan Wildlife Refuge area.

Pano view down in to the Canaan Wildlife Refuge.

Somewhere along the Plantation trail at Blackwater Falls State Park.

Pizza at Siriani's.

Pano view from Hoodoo Rocks.

On top of Hoodoo Rocks.

Yes, there are snakes in them rocks.

The Redline enjoying a little sun on Moon Rocks.

Did I mention the rocks?

Moon Rocks.

Two lane covered bridge in Philip WVa.  Happens to also be the scene of the first land battle in the Civil War.

My souvenir, a little dirt from Davis WVa.

Dual Sportin'

Thanks to the guys at Athens Sport Cycles for fixing my two pinched inner tubes from me replacing my tires on the KTM, I got the bike all ready, packed some camping gear, and loaded the GPS for a 1-1/2 day ride and camp trip planned with some friends.

We (Ryan, Bill, Sam, myself) met at Casa for breakfast before heading south east out of Athens.  Soon we were turning on to a Dry Weather Road.  That turned out to be the easy one.  We wound our way about some townships roads and turned past a farm.  The road quickly turned grass covered and them to mud, rocks, roots.  Oh yeh, and it rained over night and continued throughout the morning.  The mud got slick, quickly filling the less aggressive treads (I was glad to have the large knobs of the T63).  At one point we popped out of the woods into what appeared to be a hay field and were greeted with a stop sign, in the middle of the field.  Evidence that we were in fact on an old, non-maintained township road.

Between the workout of pushing 300+ pound dirt bikes through mud and the constant rain, we called the ride after the morning run.  Instead, we rode uptown Athens, still covered in a bit of mud, for coffee and then a late lunch before heading home for a shower (both me and the bike).  Great fun, would like to try it again in the dry!

Couple of things I learned: when doing such a ride, go with someone that is 6'6".  You never get so stuck that he can't get you out.  Second, I need a MX/DS helmet.  I love the Shoei RF-1100, but you don't get a lot of airflow when riding slow.  I roasted in it.

Just get out there.