[GuyContinental]

Part of the reason that I ramped up my training this year was to support a close friend that has entered the 2013 RAAM- Originally, I was on his team but the reality of what the training and the ride itself would actually mean for my family forced me into a support role. I like riding. I might not after doing that sort of thing. Decided to do a MTB epic in Copper Canyon instead.

[GuyContinental]

@JeffC 22273 wrote:

5) Still I am perplexed, what is so fun about walking/jogging on Custis and W&OD?

I dunno, Custis is reasonably pretty for 90% of it’s length, especially the canopy of tress on the off-66 sections. My wife jogs there all the time (admonished to be careful, stay right and not wear earbuds lest her husband mow her down . Without driving there aren’t a whole lot of great options if you aren’t cool with jogging in the street at rush hour. Sure, there’s a retaining wall with a hidden freeway but it’s better than most of the urban areas in the vicinity. What truly baffles me (even more than running in general) are the runners that insist on cruising up the crowded sidewalks through the heart of Clarendon when Key blvd is a block away.

[GuyContinental]

@KLizotte 22278 wrote:

Since NPS is looking into posting signs on the MVT, perhaps we should ask them to post signs that say “no headphones” – that goes for peds and cyclists alike?

Might be reaching 50% too far- when I have the ear bud conversation with someone I usually say something along the lines of “keep your left ear in the clear.” In this self-absorbed world it’s a big ask to ask people to totally disconnect, whereas they at least sort of “get” the one ear clear thing, particularly if they hadn’t heard my multiple calls of “On your left” or my freewheel.

[GuyContinental]

@PotomacCyclist 22125 wrote:

Looks like they are fighting an uphill battle in Loudoun: http://www.bikeloudoun.org/content/about-us

Yeah, having the “pleasure” of a rush hour commute on a Loudoun County Parkway (not “the”) mixed with Arlington I gotta say, we have it good in Arlington. I’m a pretty experienced rider and I get scared witless multiple times a week on these roads (which are plenty wide for a bike lane). “Inattentive” and “aggressive” doesn’t begin to describe the locals out there.

[GuyContinental]

@JeffC 22008 wrote:

If anybody has a Skuut type bike suitable for a 6 year old (that I could also use by the time my younger daughter turns 3 or so) let me know.

Clearly I’m no expert- but if you want to try the balance bike thing why not just pull the pedals/crank/BB from her current bike?

[GuyContinental]

I’ll speak up for the be-kidded- this is a super hard topic for me in my life and definitely an on-going learning process. As of late I’ve really ramped up the riding and may be pushing the balance too far in the other direction. Last night I extended my commute by 10 miles (MVT vs Custis) and ended up causing a legitimate problem at home- dad wasn’t home to cook, dinner was late, baby got pissed, wife got mad. 30 minutes these days is literally enough to muff up equilibrium. Understand that my wife is super-duper cool (and a rider/outdoorswoman) but the fact is that my job schedule and location (7am in Sterling) automatically wrecks havoc on morning kid prep. It’s a rare day that I see the kids before heading to work when driving and when riding I’m out the door before 5:30. So, she has 100% of morning duty with 2 kids and then has to haul them downtown, do a full day as an appellate attorney and then haul them both back. If all goes well at work I get home at 5:45 hit the ground running (and sweaty) and scramble to get dinner ready and deal with bed for the older kid (still 70% of the burden on her). If things go poorly, I don’t get home until 7 and she now has 100% of kid duty. That’s not so good and definitely not so fair.

Thing is we had the same problem when I was driving every day except I wasn’t getting “walked” and was out of shape and generally miserable. With the bike commuting I’m a much better human. What I give up is leisure riding- the Espresso ride, NCVC Hill Climbs, w/e MTB (outside of the occasional WF ride) just don’t happen. What does happen are family rides and spending saddle time with my kids in tow and as of last weekend my wife as well (after a 3 year hiatus). Frankly, I’m cool with that- I love my family and I love love riding with them. However, I also really miss mountain biking and biking with others. By planning waaay in advance I’ll swing W@W and a handful of other races this year- it’ll be enough.

What else do I give up?
Sleep!
TV (don’t even have cable)
Work performance- 4:30 comes around and I really have to go. Problem is that I’m in a visible leadership role… every now and again I have to choose and sometimes work loses.
Volunteer time
Cooking (I love to cook… now I reheat)

Where will ultimate balance be found? I’d say that a shorter commute would help- car or bike a 140-200 minute daily commute sucks (but better by bike) and represents a lot of life that I’d rather be spending with my family. I’d ride less but the balance would be more equitable. Also, as a family we are looking at some ways that we can spend more time away from the city and out of doors. That might mean a cabin in WV where dad or mom can sneak off for a 1-2 hour-long fix instead of a Gambril epic that eats up 5-6 hours of a Saturday. The last approach is outsourcing- we are fortunate in this regard- but spending the cash to have some light housekeeping, lawn care and semi-prepared meals (Dinner Done) effectively frees up 5-8 hours a week for riding/family stuff. It’s worth every penny. We need to take it one step farther and start carving out “us” biking time, probably with a set babysitter during the day on weekends. We already have a date-night but not being “going out” sort of people it’s kind of wasted on us. Probably better to take the time and get beck to the things that brought us together.

[GuyContinental]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1182[/ATTACH]

But of course.

In all seriousness, we are many months away from ninja season (except for ccrew…) but improper lighting on all types of MUT users is one of the bigger safety issues IMO. I’ve been half-tempted to put up some gorilla signage showing the stark difference between a reasonably well lit runner and a ninja in black… of course it would be dark so my sign would be a ninja sign which might reduce the impact a bit…

[GuyContinental]

@KLizotte 21790 wrote:

Keep in mind that a lot of fair weather cyclists are out at this time of the year as well as a lot of out of town visitors. The NPS at the last meeting I attended did make mention that they are thinking of putting up signs that explain the rules of riding a MUT. Much needed!

The problem with “rules of the road” signs is they get crazy complicated and no one reads them- I’d be happy with a few very visual no headphones, no ninjas and stay right signs…

[GuyContinental]

I had such a good ride that I “forgot” to take a right at Sterling for my office… an hour or so later I was in Purcellville waaaay late for work with no food or water (I had no intention of riding 70 miles this morning after all). I may limp home this afternoon but Totally. Completely. Worth. It. Might have to make 2nd Monday Hooky a tradition.

Saw maybe 2 dozen folks of any type beyond Rt 28.

[GuyContinental]

I’m not exactly the paragon traffic law compliance (but I’m not bad, I promise!) but one place where I really try to toss/limit the scofflawry is with kids. I’m not actually that worried about hitting anyone (although they do pop out of no-where), what I am worried about is setting a bad example. Usually this happens at lights- if I see a kid patiently and dutifully waiting for the cross signal I feel that it’s bad form to run the light even on some that I’ll usually scoot through (Gallows). I figure that when I’m all kitted out to them I probably look like a “serious rider”or at the very least an adult… do what I do, not what I say and all that…

This is on the list of things that may not have occurred to me before I was a dad…

[GuyContinental]

@Certifried 21627 wrote:

I use strava, then just export it and import everywhere else. I tried this with Runkeeper initially, but RK seemed to like putting in an extra XML tag all over the place. This caused issues with importing anywhere else (probably using stricter settings). Strava seems to do a great job with the XML, and I’ve had no issues importing anywhere else.

I have my eyes on a Garmin, but have a question since we’re talking about it. Will it actually synchronize with multiple sites automagically? Or do I have to manually upload to runkeeper, strava, endomondo, etc.?

I use Cyclemeter and then (easily) export it to Strava (GPX or TCX)- I found the Strava app lacking in features and the hoarse whisper of my Cyclemeter demon in my ear is awesome for motivation (“You are 0:10 behind worst…”). Combined with the social pressure of Strava, it’s an evil training tool. I just popped for the Wahoo ANT+ sensor set, case and HR monitor (happy fathers day to me…). No doubt, Garmin has better data (my elevation data is completely useless) but I love love love the hands-off nature of Cyclemeter and the fact that all my data can be easily managed in one place. That said, not counting the phone (and risk to the phone), the full Wahoo setup ain’t cheap- nearly $275 if you pop for the extended battery.

[GuyContinental]

@americancyclo 21620 wrote:

funny, I was reading about the Clif 2 mile challenge this morning, thinking, there are SO many activity tracking apps! I might need to get a separate device just to store them all.

No joke…

Far better to take an app-agnostic approach and collect the data (a la Strava, Dailymile)

[GuyContinental]

@jrenaut 21586 wrote:

Towing a trailer makes things much more complicated. The bollards around the White House, for example, are just barelywider than a Burley 2 seater. And there are many trails I just can’t take because they have sections that are too narrow for the trailer and even oncoming traffic, not to mention if I might want to pass or someone might want to pass me.

That’s why I went with the iGo- the single wheel design is great and highly maneuverable. I also built a single wheel kid-hauler out of a Bob Ibyx + Burley frame + Co-pilot kid carrier + lots of time with a sewing machine and fabrication tools. That one has now passed to the younger one…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1167[/ATTACH]

The few times that I rode with a 2-wheel trailer they freaked me out, too wide and too prone to getting discombobulated on curbs and such.

[GuyContinental]

Sorry- you are correct, they are pinned.

[GuyContinental]

@creadinger 21578 wrote:

And how is it that it’s virtually impossible to go from the MVT to the CC trail without getting off your bike and walking it up/down stairs or across a dangerous highway? That’s just dumb.

This one (combined with the lack of connection between Chain bridge and the CC) blows my mind too- what is the most popular linkage on both? When I did a daily commute to Silver Spring I would:

On Chain bridge- ride the C&O to the CC bridge and hike up the side
At Key Bridge- walk the ped bridge and then the short stairs and onto Water St

This weekend I was confronted with the trail linkage at Key while towing a WeeHoo iGo kid trailer- I didn’t want to ride M st to Wisconsin with the little dude in weekend traffic and forgot about the sidewalk to tunnel route. I ended up walking the ped bridge and then riding the C&O to the CC ramp… both were interesting (walking) with the trailer- the kid loved it, I thought that the onlookers were going to report me to the ASPCA… errr Child protective Services.

[Author]

Posts