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Counter was up this morning when I whizzed by. No idea bout the bar since that is on the other side and I was trying to make the light.

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Old Dominion & Williamsburg, on Williamsburg, does NOT detect bicycles (neither does Williamsburg and Glebe, but that is not on your list. In fact, several others that I find do not detect bicycles are not on your list). The other intersections that I use which are on your list, seem to always have cars there when I am, or I have few issues in crossing otherwise.

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1. All this year I have noticed that ALL the vegetation anywhere near the power lines has been cut back, not just tree limbs or nearby trees. Shrubbery, scrub-like brush and everything. I understand the trees (but not how they actually trim them, so cruel when other shaping techniques can be used), but why everything else? Anyone know why? Just easier access to the wires? removing invasive plants? Just because they can?

2. Yesterday, Sunday 3 April, anyone know why there was a car crash on the W&OD in Vienna near the old train station? Nothing was there on the way out (8:30am-ish), but later (10:30am-ish, I think), there was a tow truck pulling out a car. The cop stopping people from entering the trail only knew that they had to pull the car off, but not what happened. I suppose someone was driving on the trail or somehow doing doughnuts and missed in the closed section of the neighboring parking lot. If anyone knows, I would be curious to find out. I cannot yet find through a web search.

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You, teenaged rabbit on a dare (I presume )
Me, riding home in the dark on Custis (with my lights)
You: leap out of the low plants on the left race along side and then cross in front of me with inches to spare.
Me: what the.. and I slow a bit.
You: cross back in front of me back to the left side of the trail even closer than last time despite my slowing down.
Me: stupid rabbit! As I try to regain composure after thinking I was going to run over you and likely fall. I wasn’t chasing you a d did not desire to catch you. What were you thinking? !

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This winter had a few bouts of cold
‘tho biking in it was kind of bold
I rode til I dropped
yet my team was topped
a neon band would seem like I won gold

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I plan to attend, and give it an 80% chance that I will actually make the happy hour (the week is still young – by boss can still schedule a 5pm 2hr long meeting).

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As someone who used the manual entries, I probably would not do Freezing Saddles if manual entry was banned. Why? Called me paranoid, if need be, but I really try hard to have as little of my information out in the internet as possible. I purposely do not have accounts on facebook, linked in, etc. because if I want someone to know about me, I will tell them. I joined this forum mostly for the road and trail conditions – I was getting so much information from it, I felt I needed to provide information back. I joined Strava only for Freezing Saddles and was thrilled to find I could put so little information there. Even if your settings are pretty private, hacking occurs. I do not want to make it easier for folks to know where I started a ride and ended one since it makes it that much easier to figure out who I am and what I do and when I am in one place versus another. Sure, given some of the recent major hacks (e.g., UMD, Target, Anthem, OPM, other stores), my information is likely in one or more hands, but that doesn’t mean I want to provide yet another piece to their puzzles.

Also, I have no reason to track my rides otherwise. If I want to know how far I went, Google pedometer can be used to figure it out. I don’t usually care to that level – I am going to work or I am having fun – not racing, not training, just getting some exercise.

Freezing Saddles was fun – I definitely biked more than I would have and tried to make the top three on my team in some of the categories on Strava each week as well as tried to make it pretty high in the overall leaderboards. I added to my commute to try to make up some of the mileage for a fallen teammate (I no longer have to go that extra mile to get to work. ). My schedule this year didn’t allow me to do too many social things, nor were there that many to do that I noted and was interested in. I would like to do more next year, but not if the manual entry isn’t allowed. Am I required to play? No. But it would be fun to do it again (I may have convinced an officemate to try it next year).

As to all the different values calculated that cannot occur for manual entries, some of them require a few more checks when pulling in the data – check for elapsed time, if zero, ignore, if not, then add in. I know that this all takes time (I have done quite a bit of data analysis over the years), but it can be done. I do realize the folks who are doing it are doing it for fun and not profit, so it might not occur, but it can be technically be handled and calculated.

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So, I am looking at the elevation, speed, distance plot. I understand that manual entries have no elevation, but we should have distance and, sort of, speed. I’ve gone over 1,000 miles (as has a teammate who also uses manual entry), but I do not see anything at zero elevation at anything other than zero (or so it might be, hard to tell when all bunched up). Are manual entries not being counted at all or is the zero elevation not actually showing on the plot?

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Much wetter than expected and like something was gunning for me, sort of.

Just before I left the office, I checked Wunderground and NOAA. Rain was now out of the equation. The radar showed no rain. I packed my rain gear in the bottom of my bags and set off. About a mile into the commute, by the sewage treatment plant on 4MR, it started to drizzle. It drizzled or rained on me until I was on the Bluemont trail at the first crossing. I seemed to be at the edge of clouds for most of the trip, but some of the hardest rain fell when looking straight up revealed no clouds. Great. There was a rainbow going up Bluemont, but it was really pale. Then I hit Fairfax Drive and multiple drivers decided that driving in the bike lane was the way to go.

Luckily this leg of my commuted ended at the gym and I could work off my bike ride-related stress with weights.

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@bobco85 136741 wrote:

The best sense I can make of this situation is that someone complained about bikes being on the elevators (I happened to be taking an elevator with my bike when another bike commuter stepped on with his bike, a rare occurrence), but it would only be correlation as the building owner sent correspondence pretty quickly after that.

I use the freight elevator in my building with my bicycle. I figure it is harder for them to complain about me. I agree with your reasons to not park in the bike parking provided in the building (I am in Crystal City), which I had confirmed when a coworker had her deraileur bent one time down there. I just don’t trust really long term lock-up – the hour I am at the gym is about as long as I am willing to do (and their bike parking is horrible – but that would be a thread unto itself).

It might be worth asking the building why they forbid the bicycles in the office. If your office is okay with it, there should be a way to do it – your office pays them rent, so they might want to accomodate. There is likely a freight elevator that perhaps they would allow cyclists to use (ours is technically open to all – when the line for it is full of equipment, then I take the regular elevators, but that is rare).

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Beautiful morning.
I think I was smelling honeysuckle on the Custis trail this morning. Lovely, albeit a bit early for it.
Daffodils along the MVT made me smile.

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This is my first year with Freezing Saddles. Last year I had just discovered the forum while looking for trail conditions and lurked for months before posting. It has gotten me out cycling more than I would have in the past – before, with iffy conditions, my 40 mile Sunday ride would turn into a 3hr walk, this year I have done a 3hr walk and then a 20-40 mile ride. And I am riding errands on Saturdays. Sure, some of that is because my work travel schedule became insane and my commuting days and miles are not what they had been for the previous six months.

Am I being social? Not in the face-to-face sense. I check the forum and Strava, even while on travel (e.g., now) and reply on each. I couldn’t make the beginning happy hour and most other events are hard to make too given my schedule and their locations (I have yet to figure out what kinds of jobs the rest of you have that allow you to go to coffee clubs and pancake clubs before work and then meet at 5 for beer; I leave for the office on my bike at 7 am and often don’t get home until after 7pm), especially since it is work for me to be social. Are you going to punish the non-extroverts by removing them from Freezing Saddles? Well, that doesn’t seem to open.

Actually riding seems important – either number of days or miles and at least some level of sociability, like however the groups are communicating. Showing up to all the other events offered? Perhaps not. Maybe we need a “social” option on the sign in – like “I will attend as many events as humanly possible, and do some riding” “I will try really hard to attend at least one event and ride a lot,” and “I will comment on the forum and ride like crazy, but no promises on face-to-face interactions.” Then you can assign folks to more teams like themselves. Or decide to mix them all up so that perhaps the sociable non-riders will interact with the non-social riders and make several more social longer riders.

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elwbikes, as I responded on Strava, get better. That is the most important thing. I know you think about the team a lot with the kudos you hand out – that can keep us going. I will do my best to ride more miles to make up for your lost ones, although I know my travel schedule is making that tough (maybe I need to get a folding one to take on planes and ride through the airports).

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@notmarian 135360 wrote:

He was! I had no idea he had a bell–he sure didn’t employ it either time he passed me, nor did he seem to use it to warn anyone for the time I was behind him on Four Mile.

Hey, at least it wasn’t just me.

There was someone dressed like this that passed me and my friend twice between north of old town (where the two MVT trails merge) and the beginning of 4MR (he was fixing something on his bike when we passed him in between the two times, but he very quickly got on his bike as we passed so that he could pass us again). This was sometime between 10:30 and 11am yesterday. He didn’t announce his pass and seemed annoyed at everything, but that was a sense from him. I do not recall words from him, but something emanated from him (growls, grunts, psychic vibes) that was not happy – as well as the need to not be passed. Perhaps he was having an absolutely awful day and was taking it out on anyone and everyone?

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My lawn is STILL not a cyclocross trail. Yes, Arlington Co closed my road again (and likely will do it again) – with cones and signs at both ends so you had warning to take another route. I return from a walk to find a 1 inch deep rut from a bicycle tire deep into my yard.

Yards, especially damp ones are NOT for riding on.

I presume you are returning to fix the rut. Tomorrow morning would be a good time to do it, while I am out riding on a TRAIL, not someone’s lawn.

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