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I’m planning on being there.

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Why do I think they’ll just cut down the tree?

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@PotomacCyclist 27326 wrote:

A good way to increase intensity for bodyweight exercises is to transition toward one-leg/one-arm exercises. Of course you have to be careful about increasing the intensity too quickly. Plus one-leg/one-arm exercises can be very difficult, too difficult for most beginners and even intermediates.

For push-ups, you can go from standard push-ups to staggered push-ups. One hand placed about 12 inches ahead of the other. This shifts more of the stress to one side. Do sets for each side. If you really want to go farther, you can work on core strength and staggered push-ups until you are able to do one-handed push-ups. This is a very advanced move, one that I haven’t mastered yet.

This is not a plug for it, but the book “Convict Conditioning,” which is a body weight exercise book, has a good, detailed, progression to increase intensity of the exercises. For pushups, to go from zero to one-arm:

Wall pushups (standing, leaning against a wall)
Incline pushups (feet on the floor, hands on something half your height)
Kneeling pushups
Half pushups
Full pushups
Close pushups
Uneven pushups
1/2 One-Arm pushups
Lever pushups
One-Arm pushups

The approach to squats is rather interesting, since it starts with shoulderstand squats.

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@KelOnWheels 27308 wrote:

D’oh! Yeah, I left about 8:15 – was a few minutes late to work Fortunately they think it’s really cool that I’m riding and don’t mind if I roll in a little bit late every so often.

They think it’s “cool”? I need to work there. Where I work, they just think I’m nuts.

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@maverick 27188 wrote:

besides getting to ride my bike, i love riding through the woods on the w&od, and sometimes seeing deer along the path, and seeing the “viva vienna” mural in downtown vienna, and smelling the wonderful smells coming from the whole foods in the morning!

why would anyone traveling this route not want to commute by bike?

Because not all of us get to smell ” the wonderful smells coming from the whole foods in the morning”? The trash center at the fish market is 1000% better than it used to be, but it’s still not “wonderful.” On the other hand, riding along the Potomac in the dark, with no one around, is worth it.

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@KelOnWheels 27180 wrote:

Is there a way to get to the MVT from the Long Bridge Drive side of 395, or do you have to go NW up and around the marina?

You’ve got to take Boundary Channel Drive and head under 395 and around the marina. The alternative would be cutting over to the MVT from Crystal City, around 18th Street (?)

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@DismalScientist 27170 wrote:

Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t you the guy on Washcycle that claimed you wanted to lay down some pain on that old braggart claiming that he would stomp poseurs with their plastic bikes and lycra up the Rosslyn hill. The old braggart claimed to ride an old steel touring bike and wore street clothes. I believe that you were going to inflict that pain on a hardtail mountain bike.:rolleyes:

You mean the ” I don’t wear Lycra to go fast, I wear it because I sweat like a pig — actually probably worse than a pig” post?

I was talking about a different kind of “pain”

The aforementioned “middle aged schlub” was commenting how he did not need to wear any “special clothing,” said he was going to ” lurk at the bottom of Custis hill” so he could ” dish out some pain.” My bike’s heavy, I’m fat, and the momentum I can build up by the bottom of the hill will inflict a lot of pain upon impact –not the pain he had in mind

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@Greenbelt 26912 wrote:

I’ve used both and prefer the Schwalbes. The ride quality and road grip seems better, and flat resistance is great, and the (lack of) wear is outstanding. Mine have nearly 5,000k pretty rough commuting miles and I just switched back to front — I think they have another 2 or 3k left in them. I’m using the 700×35 model that has a nice center roll, but knobby sort of patterns on the sides that grip in when you go off road. Seems like the best of both worlds.

Thanks! (And thanks to bluerider and jrenaut, too) I was leaning towards the Schwalbes, so I think that’s the way I’ll go.

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@vvill 27044 wrote:

I don’t think I recognize anyone on my commutes, other than people from here I run into occasionally. I think my timing/route choices are too irregular.

That was my initial reaction, too, because my morning commute is too early for almost everyone. Five or so years ago, when my afternoon commute took me to the Custis Trail, there would have been a few.

Yesterday, however, on the way home, I heard, “You must have left early today.” I knew a cyclist was coming up behind me, as I headed over the Boundary Channel, but had not checked to see who it was. In the last six to eight months, he’s passed me two (maybe three) other times. We’ve exchanged greetings and I know he works somewhere in the Capitol Hill area. As we both said, yesterday, he’s usually ahead of me.

Usually I see him at a distance, which is why I didn’t think of him. Most often, I’m heading north on the MVT and starting up the Humpback Bridge, as he is approaching the north tunnel under it. (Like most people, he’s faster than I am and gets to the Jefferson Memorial, where our routes intersect, ahead of me.)

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@Terpfan 27070 wrote:

We all do dumb things and someone who claims they haven’t is lying.

But some of us no longer do dumb things — once you hit 50, you graduate to stupid things. Thsese days when I do what would be a “dumb thing,” I am all too often reminded by someone who is only 40, that “you stoopid!”

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@baiskeli 27066 wrote:

Maybe it’s that pumpkin on your head.

Or the fact that someone got a picture of him with a pimpkin on his head.

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@rcannon100 27005 wrote:

And according to the Wholly Land of London, 7 things you should give up to be a happy cyclist

If I substitute “runner” for “Brompton,” I’ve given up six of the seven.

#4 bothers me more now than it did ten years ago.

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@Jason 26884 wrote:

Sorry to be blunt: Nobody likes panniers and backpacks. Nobody.

Backpacks? No, not on the bike. Panniers? I don’t even notice them, so I can’t say I hate ’em.

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@KLizotte 26744 wrote:

There is a well known cycling cafe/bike shop/repair shop called “Look Ma, No Hands” in central London. I visited it for the first time in June:

Hopefully, the “No Hands” does not apply to eating in the cafe.

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@KLizotte 26714 wrote:

Anybody know what the ladies do or do they not have such long races?

As I write this, the women’s road race is starting (live). It’s shorter than the men’s road race, as it’s only 140 km.

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