Felt Q520

I am in training this week which means I get to wake up 3 hours later than normal, but I have to travel to Columbia, MD for Cisco training (ICND1). I went to the mall two days ago, but they didn't really have much going on there, so I went to Race Pace Bicycles yesterday. I got to test drive two bikes, a Felt Q520 and a Trek 4600D. They both were good bikes, the Trek the clear winner in lightness and structure, but with a pricde tag of 150% of the Felt, I think the Felt would be a clear winner. For a $400 bike, it had everything. Disc Brakes are key for real mountain biking. Because when you go through streams or get mud on your rims, the V-brakes don't really grip very well and if you get any small rocks or grit caught you end up rubbing your rims down.

I asked the wife about getting one and she simply said "I don't care... just get rid of your old one first." Sounds like a pretty solid answer. Considering the wet season here, a mountain bike might be a good commuter bike.

So I'm going to ask some coworkers what they think about it, but I might be purchasing one in the next week!

I present to you the hard tail Disc Break Felt Q520:

Been awhile...

It has been awhile since I have visited this site. Truth be told, it is more because I just haven't been riding much. Ever since I did the metric century back in August I haven't had much motivation to go out and ride. Combine lack of motivation with the turning of fall and my own wedding, the bike has gotten a back seat to life.

And to make matters worse, when I finally mustered up the leg muscles to take the bike out last week during a cold wet day I rode over a storm drain and popped my back tire. Didn't realize it until I attempted to bike to work for an event sponsored by Bike2Work Central Maryland, at which point I just tossed the bike back on my car and drove to work slightly annoyed.

But there is a reason for this post. One is to attempt to get myself motivated to go out biking again. The other is to whore out a few new blogs I am following...

KungFooSausage is a new blog by a good pal of mine from a gaming site I participate in. His description is "A blog about my life, thoughts, computer gaming, anything inane and pointless I can think of that amuses me and lets not forget my recipe's." While so far his posts have been mostly about his biking (which is great!) I am sure he will be a good one to follow. His humor is hysterical and always makes us crack up! And he is from the UK, I am hoping he will eventually (hint hint) post some pictures of his beautiful country!

Gobo's World is a webcomic just started up by another pal of mine. While mostly focused on World of Warcraft, it is a great and funny read for any gamer familiar with RPG style games. I don't think he has a set-in-stone release schedule for comics, so check there often to see if anything new is up!

And finally, one of my best friends' girlfriends has had a blog running about being a female gamer. Great lengthy posts regarding all things gaming, it is a wondrous read and can be found at Ms. Slowski.

I urge any and all to check out these blogs and leave a quick (or not quick) comment for them! We all know how great it feels to see some responses to our work!

And since posts are always better with pictures... this is how happy each of the people would be if you read what they are writing and respond!

(Obligatory: That's what she said)

First event, done!

This past weekend I went out on my very first official bike ride, the Eat a Peach Bike Challenge, taking place in Westminster, MD. I went up there with my fiancee's friend's boyfriend.

Having never done a bike event before, I was very nervous. I had signed up for the 67 mile course, basically so I could claim I had done a metric century. My longest ride to date has been about 35 miles or so, but I had done that easily. One thing that I would soon realize was that 35 miles of flat terrain is nothing compared to 10 miles of non-stop hills.

I asked a good number of people about how to prepare for the event, and the most numerous advice I got was to carb load and hydrate. I went ahead and bought myself a pair of cycling shoes and clips. No cycling shorts.

We got to the event early, at about 6:30am. We walked around and stretched as the parking lot got filled with cars loaded with some very very impressive looking bikes. We got in line to register and talked with some people who sounded like they had done it before. They wished us luck as we grabbed our forms and off we took.

The first couple of miles we knew were going to be hilly. We had to drive them to come in. But, we both expected the hills to come to a stop and we would be able to set a relaxing 15mph pace. By mile 10 we gave up all hope of this being a flat course and we quit pedaling down the hills to save energy to go up. The first rest stop at mile 20 was a godsend. We refilled our water bottles with Gatorade, ate a PB&J and kept trucking along. By mile 30 we were in a lot of pain. Not our legs but our necks and back. We decided at the mile 40 rest stop we would take a lengthy break and get some energy back.

Unfortunately, the mile 49 rest stop wasn't marked well and it was on a side street. We missed it and by the time we realized we missed it, we were an extra two miles away. So we just pulled off into somebody's yard and relaxed. The next rest stop was only 10 miles away, so we made our way to that and took a much needed break. At that point we knew, with only another 12 miles to go, we would make it. As we ascended the final hill, which was the largest and aptly named "The Bitch Kate Wagner" (Kate Wagner being the name of the street) we realized we had made it. Cruising down the final stretch we leaned back and listened to the country band playing at the finish line.

It took over 5 hours to do. We averaged just over 13 mph, a far cry from what we thought. Amazingly, our legs weren't sore and after a good night's sleep I could have got up and rode another 10 or 15 miles.

All in all, it made me realize I have no interest in doing the 75 mile course of the Civil War Century, but might try the metric century as that doesn't go across the mountains.

I've been keeping track of my mileage on a spreadsheet, but so far for August:

Biking: 133 miles

Metric Century

I just signed up for my first bike event! I will be riding the Eat A Peach Bike tour out of Westminster to support the Brain Injury Association of Maryland. The bike event features a 12, 33, 40, 67, and 100 mile bike ride. I might be biting off more than I can chew, but I really want to do the metric century (67 miles, 100 km). I won't be competing for a place, so I can definitely take it slowly. I am going to try and get out a lot over the next few weeks for logner rides. I want to go out and try a 50 miler this weekend to see how much I can actually do.

Also, a coworker sent me a pretty good article on the B&A trail that I've been riding a lot. You can read (and see some cool pictures) HERE. (It is a pdf file)

Riding in to work

I really enjoy the ride to work. There are very few people on the B&A trail; the few that are on it are also commuting to work. After the end of the B&A, you ride along a few roads until you get to the Naval Academy Bridge. Not sure if thats the actual name, but since it overlooks the Naval Academy, thats what we call it. On the hill before the bridge is a World War 2 Memorial very similar to the one on the Nation's Capital. I thought I took a picture of the memorial without my head in the way...but I guess I didn't.

From Biking the Bay

You can see the start of the bridge there on the right hand side. The view on top of the bridge is great. You overlook the entire Naval Academy and the few rivers surrounding Annapolis.

From Biking the Bay

From Biking the Bay

From Biking the Bay

Once you get down the bridge, you have an option. To get to work in the quickest way, you bypass downtown Annapolis and ride along the Naval Academy's Stadium. I don't like that way. With how early it is, there are so few cars on the main street (West Street) and I really enjoy seeing a completely unpopulated small town.

That store with the white sign makes a wonderful cup of coffee!

From Biking the Bay

This is overlooking the Harbor... which you can't really see. Bad cameraman is bad.

From Biking the Bay

This is the church in the middle of one of the circles,looking up from the harbor.

From Biking the Bay

This is the state capital, also looking up from the harbor.

From Biking the Bay

Good ride in. On the ride home I don't go this way. Much too busy.

I haven't been keeping track of my miles, and it is something I really wanted to do. So for a recap of the past few days:

Friday: 26
Saturday: 24
Sunday: 17
Monday: 10
Total: 77

BWI Loop with coworkers

This past Saturday, a coworker set up a bike trip to tackle the 11 mile BWI loop. I had never ridden with a few of the riders and I was excited to get out and ride with them. My fiance's friend's boyfriend tagged along with his Cannondale Mountain Bike, which I thought would have been slow. But, it was a damn nice bike and he was easily able to keep pace for a majority of the ride. It might have been a hindrance if we were going full speed, but since it was a fun ride, there wasn't a problem. I got to ride it for about 3 miles and man, it was awesome. I forgot how nice it was to not have every little bump on the road get transferred directly to your ass.

Anyways, I did the loop again on Sunday solo and think it is a good training location. A coworker just invited me to do an organized bike ride, the Eat a Peach ride, so I think I am going to sign up to do the metric century there.

Either way, here is my coworkers and I at the end of the loop.

Biking along the B&A

I have mentioned and shown a few pictures of the Baltimore Annapolis Trail. It is a pleasant 13 mile trail going from the BWI Airport to just outside the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It follows Route 2 and has a few busy intersections, but mostly travels along right behind peoples houses or strip malls in nicely wooden areas.

Mike, my coworker who I ride the most often with, has an awesome camera mounted to his handlebars. He took the following video a few weeks ago, prior to me getting my new bike (and before I even knew he had a camera). It was during our ride home from work and the day after a terrible storm ran through the area and knocked out a lot of branches. Sorry for the audio... I am getting a bit tired of trying to put any music on a youtube video with their strict filtering process. Not too interesting, but it kinda makes me want a camera mount.