100 Miles of Nowhere 2011

It's June, and today Kathleen and I did the 100 Miles of Nowhere "race" which benefits Livestrong, and is the brainchild of the Fat Cyclist. The idea is that people all over the world do a 100 mile ride on a trainer, rollers, or a short circuit, and since you get to define your own "class" you are pretty much guaranteed a win. I had won my class last year, and intended to defend my title this year. Well intent is good, but the reality is that I have been getting my butt kicked at work for about a month and a half, and leading into the event had suffered through two weeks of 20 hour days, so not a lot of "training" going on for me lately as evidenced by the lack of entries here in my blog. Also worth noting, the actual day of the "race" I was busy working, but in a related way. For those who don't know what I do, I am an account manager, and former engineer, for one of the largest sound companies on the east coast. So at any rate, 6/4 (race day for most people doing the 100 MON) I was down on the National Mall providing audio support for the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure, 60K people, and I believe they raised 4.5M for the cause that day.
For me this meant that I was managing 2 Tractor Trailers and 4 24' Straight Trucks of audio equipment, and a team of 10 very talented engineers to provide audio support for the start line system (above) covering about 6 city blocks, the finish line (below), and a half dozen small systems in the various tents. The day of show started at 4:00AM for us, and ended about 7:00PM that evening. I had gotten to bed at the reasonable hour of 11:30PM the night before, and also was checking in on my other events around the city during the afternoon, so I was primed for race day.
Race morning dawned on Sunday for us, our plan was to get up about 6:00AM and get started at about 7:00AM, but when the alarm clock went off, I pleaded for another half hour of sleep, which turned into getting up about 9:45 and starting at 11:00AM. We loaded up the car and drove up to Lake Montebello, where the race was being held again this year. Here we are arriving at the lake and parked in our designated parking spot (shady).
The bikes of course have the number plates on, wouldn't want to not get counted.
We got it together and got rolling, here is Kathleen following me on the first lap.
About 10 miles in we stopped for a snack, and lost the number plates, the positioning was driving us both crazy. Luckily I know the score keeper (my Garmin) so I was pretty sure we would have all of our distance counted.
It really was a nice day at the lake high 70's not to humid, and a little overcast. If I knew what I was doing I would stitch these photos together to make a groovy panoramic shot, but since I don't you all will have to use your imagination.
We continued on, and about mile 30 Kathleen had to use the facilities, but since there aren't any at the lake, she ditched me and the bikes and took the team car to the Y a few blocks away where she swims.
Once she returned, we continued on our quest racking up the miles around the lake. It is interesting being there for that long, we saw people jogging, using the fitness equipment that is positioned all around the lake, washing their cars, other bicyclists doing laps, little kids learning how to ride bikes and rollerskate, people walking their dogs, and making music.
A lot of folks came out and brought lawn chairs and enjoyed the paper.
About mile 50 we stopped for lunch. Here is Kathleen enjoying a freshly made PBJ.
And here I am, washing down my PBJ with a little coke.
Then contemplating my fate at the reality that we are only halfway done.
At this point, I was already starting to feel the cumulative effect of lack of sleep, stress, and questionable food intake for the prior two weeks. I was starting to get a cramp in my calf, and my quads were getting a little sore. But we pressed on, the sun had come out, the winds had died down (the lake is at the top of the hill, it is always breezy here), and the lake became a big mirror for a little while.
We did a few more laps, and I realized there was no way I was going to make it to the end, so we decided that 75 miles would be good, and would be farther than either of us had ridden to date (as adults). At about mile 68 the race organizer for my class (me) decided that it was time to stop, so the Sound Engineer class was shortened to 70 miles. Kathleen kept rolling towards 75, here she is telling me that her Garmin battery died (it had been saying low battery for a while).
I started to keep track of her laps so I could let her know when her bell lap was starting. The local geese were not particularly impressed, but seemed to be enjoying the day.
Finally Kathleen came around for the big sprint finish and won her class :). Here she is crossing the line in a proper victory salute.
Then we packed up our stuff, and headed for the homestead. On our way out of the park one of the folks hanging out at the lake raised his glass as if in a toast to us as we went by, I had wondered if anybody noticed that we were at it for several hours. Driving home my legs were so blown out and my calves cramping that shifting the team car became a real chore. We got home, got cleaned up, and headed across the street to Salt for a victory dinner.

Once again this proved to be a valuable lesson for me, first, drink more water. I only drank about 2 and 1/2 bottles of water over the course of the day, which was probably about half of what I should have drank. Second, eat more. I ate a couple of Honey Stinger waffles, a couple of packets of Jelly Belly Sport Beans, and a PBJ which probably wasn't nearly enough food for the amount of effort. Third, and probably the most important, don't assume that because you can do a metric century without any special training in the fall after getting in quite a bit of riding all summer, that come spring you can do a full century without any training or sleep. But it was fun, and set a new personal distance record for me, hopefully I can do it again next year (and go 100 miles this time). I would like to thank Fatty, and all of the sponsors he roped into providing stuff for the goody bag. I appreciated being a part of it again, and proud to help the cause.

Memorial Day

It was hot as hell today in Baltimore, 95 degrees when I went out for a ride. As a result I opted to stick with the flat routes, and rode out to Fort McHenry. It was truly hot, and with the Inner Harbor being mostly hardscape, there were a lot of very wilted looking tourists about.
I passed by the Lacrosse Tournament Vendor Village on Light Street, lots of folks checking out the latest lacrosse stuff.
On my way out Key Highway I spotted this bus, I am assuming it belongs to the AVAM.
Once I got out to Fort McHenry I was greeted with this.
I am not sure what Sarah Palin was doing at Fort McHenry on Memorial Day, but I am sure it was for self-aggrandizing purposes. On my way back home I spotted this groovy VW Bus, you just don't see a lot of these on the east coast.
Then it was a quick stop for a soda then head for home for a cool shower.

Bike Jam!

Today was the Bike Jam in Patterson Park, pro road racing right here in Baltimore. I slept in this morning, the original get up at 8:30 plan didn't work out, but once I arose about 10:00 Kathleen and I went out for a ride. We rode up to Lake Montebello where lots of folks were out enjoying the day.
Passing through Charles Village, we passed this house with the flowers fully in bloom.
We continued up towards Hampden, it really was a nice day for a ride.
We looped back around to Patterson Park, and sat down to watch the racing go down. Here are the Pro Women just after the start.
A little later passing through the Start/Finish.
We rode down to the other side of the park, here they come down the hill to the bottom side of the course.
We hung around and watched some more racing, then headed back to the house to get cleaned up an run errands. On the way back to the house we passed the Ukranian Orthodox temple on Eastern Avenue.

Then the rest of the day beckoned.

Commute Day

After 2 weeks of getting my butt kicked at work, I finally got a chance to ride today. To make the most of it, I rode into work this morning. It was the usual route across town, although I did get onto some new streets. Passing through the west side, I spotted this pair of churches (suprise!).
Nothing much else of note on the ride in. The end of the day rolled around, and I got a call from Kathleen that she was getting out of DC and back to Baltimore early, so she decided to ride up and meet at work for the ride home. One thing led to another and she was late getting started, so it was determined we would meet on the Gwynns Falls trail somewhere in the middle. I got into my superhero outfit and headed on down the road towards home. Gorgeous summer day out, mid 80's and muggy. The path was nice and quiet, and shady in the late afternoon sun.
About 4 miles into my ride, Kathleen appeared from the other direction.
She turned around and we continued on towards home.
As we got down to the Stadium area, we spotted these busses parking at M & T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens normally play.
A little further along, the tent rental people were hard at work putting up tents in the parking lot on the other side.
Continuing on down the bike trail we passed through the last little park by the stadium, where a bunch of people were getting in a little late afternoon hoops.
We rode down through the Inner Harbor where we spotted some sort of event going on at the corner of Light & Pratt streets.
It turns out that the NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse tournament is in town this weekend. At the end of the red carpet was this guy, he must have been the opening act.
Then it was home, a shower, pizza, and stage 6 of the Tour of California. Big weekend this weekend, 3 days off with no shows, and the Bike Jam is tomorrow.

Dickeyville

After some suprise morning work hysteria, it turned out to be a nice day today. Kathleen opted to nap this afternoon, she did a brick yesterday (21 miles on the bike followed by a 3 mile run) to see what that would be like for her race. I took the opportunity to go and visit Dickeyville, the groovy little neighborhood where I work. I took the scenic route up Washington Street where I passed this neighborhood hardware store, unfortunately going out of business.
I continued up Washington Street to eventually arrive at Lake Montebello. Another nice day at the lake, people enjoying the sunny day.
Then I crossed town to Druid Lake, lots of people out and about here as well.
I rode from there up Gwynns Falls Parkway, and over to Dickeyville. Here is the road down to the mill, very park-like driving down here everyday for work.
And here is the mill, although it hasn't been a mill for a long time, Bob has owned the property for almost 40 years now. When he first moved in, Matt Polk started Polk Audio and was housed on the ground floor. Now we use all of that space, as well as the entire second floor of the main building.Dickeyville is a part of Baltimore now, but once upon a time this was the company town, everybody who lived here worked at the mill. The whole neighborhood is part of the Historic Register as a result.

Here is the town church, still in use.
After my little tour of Dickeyville it was time to head for home, I took the Gwynns Falls Trail home. I really like riding on the trail, it's very peaceful.

Down by the stadiums I spotted a group of BMX trick riding guys hanging out, unfortunately I am not quick enough on the trigger to catch them mid-trick, here is the end of one.
Then it was off to home and a shower, it was really humid today, first really humid day this year.

New Bike Bling

Busy week this week, only got out once in the morning with Kathleen to do hill repeats in Patterson Park. But this afternoon I had some time to myself, so I went out for a ride around the city. As you may recall from my last installment, I broke my bike last weekend (sort of, I lost a somewhat hard to find bolt from the cranks). As a result I was in need of an alternative. A little ebay hunting brought this to replace the previous crankset.
That's right a genuine, bonafide, Campagnolo Record 10 speed crankset, brand new from 2008 (the last year of 10 speed Record). A magazine review described Campagnolo as "Italian, Elegant, Expensive" and that is true here. I got a pretty killer deal, and as a bonus, the cranks are 180mm, which is 5mm longer than most and should be good for me and my long gangly legs. At any rate, I rode over to Race Pace in Federal Hill where the other Campagnoloistas work to show off, then a quick ride around the city. It was kind of a gray day in Baltimore today, not too cold, but overcast and occasionally misty and rainy.
Up on North Avenue I spotted this church.
Across the street from the church was this.
Pretty ironic, I thought. I continued on around and spotted this church a little further along.
But then it was time to head towards home, back down the hill, then the climb back up Butchers Hill. A block away from our house on Pratt Street is a little market, and on the side is this groovy graffiti, I snapped a picture while enjoying my post ride coke.
A few sips of soda then home for a shower, and a quick run to work to take care of a some last minute changes at a jobsite. Hopefully Kathleen & I will get out tomorrow for another ride, Kathleen wants to practice flat tires for her Triathalon next weekend, no neutral support in her race.