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My raw numbers say I’m riding about 80 miles/week in 2014, but that number has increased since the dark, cold days of winter. Interestingly, 78 miles/week was pretty much right on my FS estimated mileage. If all I did was commute I’d be up around 133, but that seems crazy. I think I’d eat a large pizza for dinner every night if I did that. On average I probably only commute about 1.5x/week, though my goal is 2x. My commute is 26.6 miles round trip usually but with the 4MR detour it was over 28.

The rest of the miles are weekend rides and groceries.

Compared to some of you guys 78 miles/week seems pretty lame, but I’m ahead of my >4,000 miles goal though, so…. 100 miles/week would be a nice round number to attempt though. Hmmm….

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@Geoff 89712 wrote:

Great! Glad to hear someone else plans to take part.

I’m planning to ride with my brother, who still lives in Michigan, but I’m not sure he’ll really be ready. He did it once before, so he knows what is involved, but he doesn’t seem to be training very hard. Hope he surprises me, I would like us to ride together.

Is he doing intense strength training or kettle bell workouts?

Last summer I did a 125 mile ride with a friend who had never ridden more than 50 miles 2 weeks before the event, and 80 miles 1 week before the event. Despite the fact that I had done a 188 miler 2 months prior, he kicked my ass. Especially on the headwind bits, and on the last 20 miles where I struggled to keep up. The only thing I can attribute it to was he did lots of intense weight lifting/kettle-bell style workouts and I was WEAK.

Hey, thanks for the heads up on a new ride. I like traveling to do these types of things to see other parts of the country. I’ll try to keep this in my mind for the future. It’s not expensive either… unlike a big charity ride like PanMass.

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@consularrider 90531 wrote:

There are two narrow places, the tunnel under the GW Parkway which while wide enough for two cyclists, has poor sight lines at either end with a climb up to Crystal Dr. Going either way I slow to a brisk walking/slow jogging pace and ride through. The other is the the narrower section under the on ramp flyover. That is marginally wide enough for two cyclist to pass in opposite directions (at least slightly better than the Memorial Bridge underpass). I will generally wait until the cyclist/runner/pedestrian coming the other direction has cleared, especially when there is water/mud along the streetside divider.

I’m not sure where you are describing. Do you mean the tunnel under the train tracks? With the steep little climb up to Crystal Dr.? What you mean by the on-ramp flyover? There’s an off-ramp flyover nearby, but that’s not narrow, it’s near a sharp turn going up to the MVT that makes that difficult.

For the most part the train tunnel isn’t too narrow for two-way traffic but the sight lines are so bad, it’s not a good idea to pass anyone in the tunnel. The tunnel under the GWP is a pain. I usually do what PotomacCyclist does. Now that the 4MR section is open again I don’t need to ride this section very much again.

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@cyclingfool 90711 wrote:

Missed connection #1 (negative)

You: The cyclist heading south on Crystal Avenue in the northbound bike lane headed right at me.
Me: Seriously?! There’s a southbound bike lane across the street. At least you pulled over the curb, stopped, and I think muttered “sorry” as I passed. I would have given you what for, but you wouldn’t have heard it through the earbuds you were wearing.

Does anyone even use those bike lanes? I always take the lane going through there. The lanes are too narrow northbound and you often have to deal with buses (city and commuter), and southbound they’re littered with parked cars, open doors, and pedestrians trying to jaywalk.

@cyclingfool 90711 wrote:

Missed connection #2 (positive)

You: A family of three (two adults and a young teenage child) all riding Surly LHTs completely loaded up for touring – we’re talking full-on Ortliebs (2 rear, 2 front, and a handlebar bag) – south on the MVT this AM past the airport.
Me: I like your style. I thought it was cool when I saw the mom, and then I saw the kid and the dad bringing up the rear, and I had a “holy $#!T that’s super awesome” moment. That’s what my life 10-12 years from now is like in my wildest dreams, and you all were actually doing it.

That’s awesome. I see heavy tourers sometimes and I want to get up the nerve to talk to them a little bit, but never do. I know if I was touring I wouldn’t mind some friendly conversation from locals, especially if they were going on my direction.

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Of course to get the humid crap out of here and the cooler/drier air in here we need a front to do it.

Because of that front the whole area is now have a severe t-storm watch (valid 1:25 – 8pm). Lately it seems like most of the rain and storms have occurred later in the evening, so very much after rush hour. Today they’re more likely to come through right at rush hour, so keep an eye on the radar today! There’s a line beginning to form now along the Appalachians and will move east quickly.

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This morning on my drive into work I was surprised/not surprised and saddened to see a guy riding the wrong way on Oxon Hill Road where it passes underneath the beltway. I see people doing crazy shit in SE/PG county a lot, but this may take the cake.

As I exited the eastbound 495 to get on Oxon Hill/St. Barnabas Rd to get to Suitland I saw him coming toward me. If this streetview pic works this is about where I was when I noticed this crazy dude. https://www.google.com/maps/@38.808091,-76.970899,3a,75y,20.94h,79.92t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sx9-dy3mYJf3Mzlx0-o89dQ!2e0

WTF?! Ok, I dislike riding on sidewalks but there was a sidewalk right next to where he was riding. And despite the fact that St. Barnabas is signed as a bike route, it is a busy highway and in terrible condition. That “bike route” is just a cruel joke. That doesn’t even take into account that worst part that he was riding the wrong direction down a weave lane where drivers are busy trying to exit/merge/enter 495.

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@DismalScientist 89950 wrote:

Ah… The continued “sidewalkization” of bicycle infrastructure.:rolleyes:

Yeah, it was weird to see that in Helsinki most of the bike lanes were just sidewalks split in half and painted with a bike lane. Wherever a bike lane was present, no cyclists rode on the roads.

To non-cyclists there is no difference between ‘sidewalk’ and ‘protected bike lane’.

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@83(b) 89772 wrote:

Unpopular opinion: I love this article.

Every bitter word betrays his feelings of impotence. Of inevitable irrelevance. I finished reading and thought only, “I’m winning.”

I felt the same way reading Ann Coulter’s rant about the World Cup. All she did was expose her ignorance and stupidity to even more people.

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@Greenbelt 89762 wrote:

Basically, if you do the opposite of what the Washington Post’s opinion writers recommend, you’ll be on the right side of history. I mean, come on — Courtland Milloy, George Will, Charles Krautwhatever? These guys have been demonstrably wrong about pretty much everything.

His name is Charles Klingonface. Also, you forgot Jennifer Rubin who is often a cariacature(sp) of a conservative columnist who is just downright confused as to what she is supposed to believe with all this new tea-party stuff and people being more and more and more and more ridiculously right wing.

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@Geoff 89668 wrote:

Me: riding slowly behind another rider, who was riding slowly behind a big knot of joggers, on Custis, just before a bend that completely blocked the view of oncoming traffic.

You: woman cyclist who blew past the lot of us, cheerily calling “on your left!” as you went by.

Wow! If anyone at all had been in that oncoming lane, it would have been ugly. And your hair is as gray as mine; you should have known better.

We all do bone-headed things sometimes so I hate to judge, but there are too many threads on this forum about people getting hurt.

The “lance-wannabees” get called out a lot for bad behavior, but often the people doing the dumbest things are middle-aged and older, who like you said, should know better. Why the hell did she think you were queuing behind the joggers? For fun?!

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@PotomacCyclist 89574 wrote:

Cavendish is out because of the shoulder injury. He also placed the blame on himself for causing yesterday’s crash. It was an aggressive move. Is it just part of sprint finishes? Or was he over-amped because he was racing in his mother’s hometown and wanted to win not just the stage but also the right to wear the yellow jersey (for at least one day)?

As wild as he can be, Cavendish certainly makes those sprint finishes exciting to watch. Too bad he won’t be in the rest of this year’s Tour.

I didn’t see the crash, but don’t Cav and Renshaw especially, have a history of being bullies in the sprint finishes? Last year there was at least one instance where Renshaw was going to be DQed because he cut someone else off. I just don’t like how those guys race. At least because he caused the crash he, himself is the reason why he’s out of the tour.

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@vvill 89485 wrote:

(I love it because it has cricket too, and I cut cable last year. Stuff stays up for watching on-demand about a week before it’s unavailable. You can skip all ad breaks unless you’re watching live. The labeling of cycling and cricket programming sucks though, everything is just titled “Cycling”, for example.)

So you obviously know who Sachin Tendulkar is then…

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/03/who-is-maria-sharapova-sachin-tendulkar

Thanks for the tip. I’ll look into that for future stuff. I’m also looking into how I can get the BigTenNetwork without cable. So far it looks like the best I can do is write an angry letter.

EDIT: Looks like BTN offers streaming now for $15/mo. No angry letters needed! Well, except for – Michigan sucks!

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@Subby 89480 wrote:

Can anyone point me to a good on-line preview of this year’s TdF? I loved watching it last year, but have absolutely no depth of understanding.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11261185.Spoof_Tour_de_France_video_proves_big_hit_online/

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Any other contenders worth watching? I don’t know why, but I hate Froome. Disappointing Quintana won’t be riding. I was rooting for him last year.

Also, I’m not even sure I can watch since we ditched cable. I don’t know if I want to pay for the streaming feed.

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At the beginning of June I was ahead of my goal in trying to reach 4,000 miles for 2014, but right now I’m about 60 miles behind where I need to be for the year. Freezing Saddles helped me get ahead of the game, but June has been a problem – my trip to Finland wasted 1 week and 2 weekends where I couldn’t ride. And since that trip I’m a “single dad” to a very active dog due to my wife helping out her family for 2 weeks and I can’t commute to work. It’s been tiring and frustrating but it’s temporary.

My 200K brevet and permanent plans are still in place for the fall. I do think Daisy would be a good running buddy, but I don’t really run. Office move is NOT happening so it’s the old commute into SE and up the hills of Anacostia for the foreseeable future.

All in all, despite a hiccup this month, I’m still in good shape.

BONUS – I just picked up a mechanic stand so I plan to spend more time cleaning and lubing things so everything runs more smoothly.
Not so BONUS – after a ride last night on my Surly, I think it’s time I get it professionally fitted to me. The feel is awkward and I’ve had some knee pain lately.

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