No bike ride today. I’m just hanging out on the couch and nursing my cold. I thought I was over it last week, but on Thursday my throat started to hurt again, and now I’ve got a lot of congestion in my chest. I’m thinking that until I’m actually over this thing I won’t be getting much riding in.

But hey, at least it’s a chance to catch up on some reading.

Technorati Tags: Cycling, illness, reading

Marcella and I went back to work this past week after having had the previous week off. The time off seems to have done the trick. There’s some sense of returning refreshed and with a fresh attitude.

We took a short trip up to DC and stayed overnight one night. We stayed in this kind of quirky hotel called the Helix near Dupont Circle. It had cool retro styling, and was sort of fun. Our main objective while in DC was to visit the National Gallery. We felt like a nice dose of art would be good for our souls.

Because we didn’t have a whole lot of time we did the “one hour” tour to focus on some of the most notable works in the gallery. But then we went to an exhibition called Medieval to Modern: Recent Acquisitions of Drawings, Prints, and Illustrated Books and spent our remaining time there, basically until the gallery closed. This is an exhibition I could go back to and spend much more time. It’s a fairly large show, spanning a good half-dozen rooms. I could probably spend an hour per room to absorb more of the fascinating work. The engravings and etchings, in particular, are engrossing in their detail, and then I always become enthralled with simple line drawings combined with watercolor washes. Click this link to see a Winslow Homer called Four Boys on a Beach. It is both incredibly simple and endlessly detailed. This is the kind of thing I love to just stand right up close to and pick out the little details and then go step back and absorb the whole, and then repeat. And there were many many instances of this kind of thing in the exhibition.

So, the exhibition was very good. We also went out to dinner at a local popular grill, and had a very nice meal. In the morning we had breakfast at Kramerbooks and Afterwards Cafe (please note this link opens a page that starts playing a really annoying video/audio file), and browsed the books for a while. Seems like a pretty great place, and I often wonder why similar places don’t seem to exist in other towns I’ve lived. I guess it takes a city of a sufficient magnitude to really support the business model, but I can imagine Marcella and I getting up to go to a such a place pretty regularly.

We also visited Alexandria and I showed Marcella a couple landmarks from my childhood. We saw a couple of schools I attended and a couple of the houses I lived in. It seemed like there were generally more cars parked on the street in the rosemont neighborhood than I remembered. There were always some, but now every block seemed full of cars. Maybe it’s just my memory is faulty.

The only drawback about the whole trip is that I came down with a cold and sore throat just as we were going, so that probably put a small damper on my enjoyment, but it was still a really nice get out of town trip.

Technorati Tags: office, weekend, work

The Tour to Tanglewood went off successfully this morning. We arrived at the start point at around 7 AM; met with other members of Team Polo who were also riding and had a group picture made. When I get a copy of that I’ll try and post it. The ride actually started at about 8 AM, and there were tons of people.

Marcella rode the 25 mile ride, and I think was pleased to find that 25 miles was in her reach.

I rode the 50 mile route. The actual mileage was only just over 46 miles. I was simply relieved that I was able to do the ride after being sick for the second half of the week. I honestly don’t know if I could have done the ride on Saturday if it hadn’t been cancelled. As it was I did finish with an average speed of 17.5.

It was a fairly hilly ride, and I don’t know that I was at my strongest, but it was a perfect day for riding. Bright, and sunshiny, but not too hot too early. Everything went smoothly for me. The only issue I had was in the last half mile I suddenly started to develop a cramp, but at that point I was able to simply coast in to the finish.

Both Marcella and I were pretty tired for the afternoon. They served lunch after the ride, which we did, and then we just came back to the house and rested for a couple of hours.

Thanks again to everyone who made a donation in support of my ride.

Technorati Tags: charity, Cycling, ride, tanglewood

It seems that the Tour to Tanglewood is going to be disrupted by tropical storm Hanna which is currently forecast to be passing across NC on Saturday. As of right now we’ve been told that Saturday’s bike ride has been cancelled. At this time there are plans for a newly designed Sunday ride of 25, 50 or 75 mile lengths.

The Saturday cancellation is certainly disappointing, but this isn’t an ordinary Saturday rain shower we are talking about. If there are high winds it would certainly impact the safety of the bicyclists as well as traffic on the planned route. So, I think the decision is understandable. Hopefully we’ll have a beautiful post Hanna Sunday and still have a terrific ride. I will most likely do the 50 mile ride on Sunday in that event.

By the way, I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed their support for my ride. To date I have raised $376.40. I hope you will be satisfied that the Sunday ride remains scheduled.

On a personal note, the cancellation may be somewhat beneficial to me from a health standpoint. About mid-week I suddenly started experiencing a sore throat, cough, with mild congestion. I think it is passing, and that I’m already past the worst, but it was still alarming to be coming down with something right before the ride, and I’ve been worried that it would hamper my performance.

I’ll provide further updates as I learn more, and please check back after Sunday to learn how the ride actually went.

Technorati Tags: bicycle, charity, Cycling, ride, tanglewood

The two previous weeks I’ve had rides that went easier than expected, so I guess it was about time I had one that made me suffer a little. Basically I did the same route I did two weeks ago, but I did it in reverse. Turns out the ride is more demanding when ridden in that direction.

I rode 49.09 miles with an average speed of 16.9 mph and I ascended 1964 feet. It is the ascending/descending that I think makes riding in the direction I did this morning a little harder. It seems like there was more ascending overall and what descending there was didn’t always set me up with momentum for a subsequent climb. Instead there would be a low percentage upward grade, maybe one or two percent, that would sap my speed before finally hitting the real hill.

It was a good ride, don’t get me wrong, but I am tired now. I felt this one.

Technorati Tags: bicycling, Cycling, ride, route