[eminva]

@Dirt 49257 wrote:

We’re riding it April 28th if you want to give that a go. Anyone interested, please talk to me. I won’t try to talk you out of it, but I will give you a realistic view of what to expect.

Rock on!

Pete

Hey Pete —

Is it okay if I pass this along to a friend? He is in the final stages of training for some crazy Bike Tour of Colorado thing in June and is hitting every hill he can find. Thanks in advance.

Liz

[eminva]

@dcv 49201 wrote:

+1, my wife too. thanks for posting this.

The Bike Lane in Reston does a Sat morning women’s ride, eminva went last year. Have to check if they still do that ride.

According to the website, they do:

http://thebikelane.com/about/the-bike-lane-shop-rides-pg802.htm

but you might want to call to double check. I went once; it was a very nice ride. Not a breakneck pace but a very friendly group of women. If the pace or distance is too much, they will not drop anyone.

I also got an email from Fresh Bikes; they will be doing a beginner/moderate shop ride out of their Mosaic location on one Monday evening per month this summer. I can’t access it here so I can’t tell you which day they start. I believe Dirt had some role in planning that route.

Liz

[eminva]

Dear All Concerned:

I hereby give you permission to take the day off and not get struck by lightening.

Signed,
The Rule 9 Fairy

[eminva]

:confused: Which one to go to? (assuming I can get the kid going early enough to go to either)

Thanks for arranging this.

Liz

[eminva]

Make sure you distinguish between fatigue and injury — if the pain is from an injury, it’s not going to get better with more of the activity.

Sometimes I find pain to be an indicator of “too much, too soon” — if I was inactive for a period of time due to illness or any other reason, I usually have to ramp back up much more slowly than I would like.

Liz

[eminva]

@Dickie 48962 wrote:

Crossed paths and had a nice exchange, although brief with Eminva this morning at the top of Virginia Lane crossing 66. I was having a bad day on the bike but her smile got me the rest of the way in a much better mood!

Nice seeing you, too! We were both getting to the downhill part, so all the reason to smile.

I also saw culimerc a bit earlier, sporting a Bike Arlington jersey.

The dirty mustache is having a salutory effect — twice in the last 24 hours I found myself behind cyclists on the Roosevelt Bridge who were obviously new and wondering how the heck they ended up on a super narrow passageway between a river and an interstate. In both cases, they stopped abruptly without warning. In both cases I smiled and passed (gingerly) without any comment. Hopefully I’ll keep evolving and in the future be able to find some words that are encouraging and not condescending.

Liz

[eminva]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2678[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2679[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2680[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2681[/ATTACH]

[eminva]

@vvill 48742 wrote:

No local for me either. It seems the same as last year with some locales having local challenges.

I wonder if our local AOs like FABB and/or BikeArlington would be able to coordinate with NBC.

Yes, I will approach FABB about this. According to the website, this is exactly how you get a “Local” feature. Despite my best intentions of staying out of it, my company wants to participate so I have to figure all this stuff out anyway.

Liz

[eminva]

Just like last year, I do not get a “Local” to click on. But I’m killing it in Vienna! (The only one who has posted any miles so far).

So, you can join both a workplace team and another team? Last year, the cyclists at my company formed a team which I was on; I was waiting this year to see if we do it again. But if I can do both — ?

This is all very complicated . . . the fact that they even need webinars should tell them it’s getting out of hand.

Thanks, Rod, for trying to decipher this.

Liz

[eminva]

@vvill 48642 wrote:

26er, 29er or 27.5er?

26″. That way, the studded tires I already have will fit. 😮

Liz

[eminva]

Thanks again, everyone . . . the excellent advice continues to roll in.

So, the decision: I’m going to get a mountain bike. Although I don’t ride a lot of MTB trails, when I do, I’d really much prefer to be on a mountain bike. If I didn’t have a MTB, I’d be foreclosing a lot of places I might like to explore. There are other reasons, too (as dasgeh notes, it would be a bike with upright geometry, my current studded tires would fit it, obviating the expense to replace those, too and I have been known to ride a mountain bike on the W&OD, so it can also be a backup commuter).

I was on the CCT on Saturday (pausing at the ballfields just south of Little River Turnpike) and saw a guy up on the hill on the Wakefield trail system gingerly making his way through on a road or CX bike — he didn’t look like he was having fun and that kind of iced it for me.

I’ll keep checking the cushions for change so I can get a really nice CX/backup commuter bike one of these days. When that time comes around, I’ll heed to sound advice to evaluate what I plan to use it for an get the right bike for the job, without regard to label. No, there’s no space for it, but I’ll make some somewhere.

We’re probably going to order this online and complete assembly at home (my husband and me). Have no fear, he knows what he’s doing. We’ve been married almost 15 years; I’m sure we’re ready for the big step of working on a bike together.

Thanks again!

Liz

[eminva]

I had sightings of reverse commuters culimerc and crysb this morning. I thought I saw rcannon on the Custis, just before the Rosslyn hill. He had the pirate flag on his seatpost, a drawing of a cannon on the back of his jacket and a pink Bike Arlington VIP zipper pull on his pannier. When we got across Lee and behind the retaining wall, where it was quieter, I called out, “Bob, is that you?” But either he didn’t hear me or it wasn’t Bob. And then he dropped me on the downhill.

Liz

[eminva]

Congrats, Bilsko, are you riding this on the fleche? That choice would be, um, unexpected.

Liz

P.S. In all seriousness, best wishes with the fleche.

P.P.S. So funny that you changed the pedals! Wonder if anyone’s ever done that with a Mongoose before?

[eminva]

Thank you, everyone, this has been really, really helpful.

I understand jabberwocky’s point — referring to the CCT in my earlier message, I was thinking of the part between Thais Park and Lake Accotink, where I go almost every weekend. But I have ridden the CCT from the W&OD to Oakmarr on the kid’s erstwhile mountain bike and I suspect it would have been a major challenge for me on a CX bike. That’s probably just the challenge some of you want, but it might be out of my league — I don’t consider myself an accomplished MTBer.

Hence, the dilemma: I like getting out on the MTB every so often and I’d like to learn more, but I’m not sure I can justify having a mountain bike given space constraints and the limited time I seem to find for it.

The advice on CX and touring bikes is great. Kayakcyndi, I greatly covet your Viaje — I really need to scour the seat cushions for all the change I can find to aspire to that!

The NoVa Epic sounds like a great event, let me check the calendar. I could probably do the 40-mile version; I’ve already done most of that at one point or another. If nothing else, maybe they could use volunteers.

Wishing I could do one from Column A, one from Column B, etc . . .

Liz

[eminva]

Sorry, Jim, and best wishes for a speedy recovery. Amazing how quickly things can go wrong.

Dickie, do you want the dirty mustache back?

Liz

[Author]

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