SWAMP Club Urban Assault and Social at New World Brewery

Tonight I rode with the SWAMP Mountain bike club on their bimonthly urban assault and social. The meeting spot was the New World Brewery down in Ybor City. We left at 6:30 and headed toward downtown Tampa. Now, it should be said it was starting to rain a little (it has been raining nearly nonstop the last 3 days), so we took out knowing we may have to abandon bike and head back. At any rate, we headed down some of Ybor City's back streets, down Channelside Dr to where there was a Navy Ship docked. We headed back down Channelside, through the Channel district (it was quite fun to see nearly 30 mountain bikers riding down the sidewalk). From Channelside we went over the bridge and into Harbor Island, did a quick run through there, back over the Florida Avenue bridge, back behind the Convention Center (and watched a couple of the more advanced riders go up and down the staircases), back up to Platt Street, over the Platt street bridge (the wet metal grates of the drawbridge coupled with mountain bike tires makes it feel like you are riding on moss!), around the little dock where the Gasparilla pirate ship is docked. Next we rode over the David Island bridge, around Tampa General Hospital and through Davis Island. We pretty much rode the reverse back, except when we came back we took the new Riverwalk all the way back to Channelside. The riverwalk is pretty nice, albeit a little slick on off road tires.

Back to the Brewery...
Knowing that I am not a beer drinker, one of my coworkers suggested the Lindeman's Framboise Lambic a raspberry beer. I ordered a beer and a cheese pizza, and they were both fantastic. The beer was really smooth (it really didn't taste like beer!) and the stone seared pizza was unbelievable. I relaxed and chilled out with the rest of the crew, until it was time to head home and it started pouring rain again anyway...

Ride Stats:
Started: Aug 25, 2010 6:24:47 PM
Ride Time: 1:21:42
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 9.93 miles
Average: 7.29 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 12.80 miles/h
Climb: 245 feet
Calories: 401


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Today exercise

Today was a dreary rainy tuesday, I got in 20 minutes on the tread mill and 15 minutes on a stationary bike...Not much else to post ;)

Back on the treadmill

Since my birthday I have had a pathetic start to getting back into running shape. Today was one of my best efforts, thanks in part to Juno Reactor's 1997 album "Bible of Dreams". Definitely helps me forget the pain of running those first few weeks. You'd think with the amount of biking I do, that I wouldn't notice it, but that isn't the case at all. What it does help with is endurance (the same could be said as to why I can out distance most of my riding buddies).

Today's workout consisted of the following sets of leg press (weight x reps)
60x10
120x12
160x10
200x7

I also busted out a miserable 3 pull ups, then I stretched for a minute and ran.

Did a 5 minute warm up, varied speeds from 4.5-5.5 mph, cooled off at the end having put in 2.75 miles.

At least we're back on track!

Fording the river

Well, sort of.

Today started out like any other Sunday, waking early to go biking. Ryan and I had already agreed to ride the Wilderness trails (Morris Bridge to Flatwoods to Trout Creek and then back to the parking lot). I almost thought we wouldn't be biking today as I was awoken by the sounds of thunder and rain against the patio. A quick look at the weather and it looks like the rain had escaped the Wilderness trails. I texted Ryan to be sure he was still up for it and he confirmed. Jason and his crew headed over to Alafia today, so we wouldn't be seeing them. At some point I'll convince them to give these trails a run.

At any rate, we were just finishing up Heartbreak Ridge when the deluge came. The weather to this point had been terrific - nice and cool, and surprisingly dry. Now we were riding in an all out downpour, not my favorite thing to do, but alas, no lightning and it looked like it was going to be short lived, so on we continued.

Depends?
I suspect that if I were to guess what depends must feel like to wear, a soaking wet biking short chamois must be really close in comparison. As we were doing the road section between Morris Bridge and Flatwoods, I ran through a 2" deep puddle that the tires decided to deposit down my back and my ass. Fun times. At this point we are about 1/2 way through the distance we plan on covering.

By the time we made it to the paved loop at Flatwoods, the rain had stopped and the sun returned. The interior trails on the loop were pretty muddy but the clay gully was no worse that normal (bottom of the pedals touched the water).

Fording the river...
At this point we were already fairly soaked, but I wasn't really prepared for this. I wish I had taken a picture, but Ryan and I were trying to figure out the driest way around a section of trail that had turned into a small lake. Lord knows we couldn't back track 40 yards to the paved trail, and then walked our bikes through the brush on the other side.

This is where the "Oregon Trail" approach kicked in.
You have 3 choices 1) ford the lake, 2) ride around the lake, or 3) wait for conditions to improve.

We decided to do a combination of 1 and 2. We geared down (too far) so that when we were pedaling, sometimes the rear tire would just throw mud up on our backs. After some major pedaling (and eventually putting my feet straight down into the water when I sunk) we made it to the other side. It was about that time I noticed the paved loop was only 30 feet to our left.

At this point the trail really straightens out as it approaches Trout Creek. I dropped the hammers and blasted through the rest of the trails until we got to the parking lot, never happier to see a towel in all my life.

We did avoid the "going to die feeling" but still had a great time.

Ride Stats:
Ride Time: 1:58:40
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 12.62 miles
Average: 6.38 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 16.39 miles/h
Climb: 315 feet
Calories: 685


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Boyette Scrub Park

Its Florida, in mid August. For those not in the know, that means the dew point is in the 80s, and its in the mid 80s to 90s before noon. Today was no exception.

I really like Boyette, it is easily my favorite park as the trails here have so much variety and there really is something for everyone. It was sad to see the amount that burned about two weeks ago (apparantly due to a lightning strike). If I had to guess, we rode past at least a mile of burned trees. The SST trail which used to run through this section was pretty much destroyed from what we could tell.

At any rate, our journey took us through Lock Ness, to Spider Berm, to Upper Spider Berm, onto Golf Cart, Mt. Boyette, Canyon, Pandemonium, Sidewinder, Swamp Thing, West Forest, East Meadow, back through Spider Berm and out. Everything felt so good today, not sure why! It was all going well until the heat began to take its toll on us and it just wasn't fun anymore.

I will say the new rear tire (Maxxis Ignitor) is leagues better on the back then the Kenda Nevegal was!

Started: Aug 15, 2010 8:30:34 AM
Ride Time: 2:00:19
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 11.36 miles
Average: 5.67 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 14.71 miles/h
Climb: 102 feet
Calories: 628


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Saturday Pinellas Trail Ride

As is our usual Saturday custom, we dropped the angel off at Ana's parents house and headed out to the Pinellas trail. Today we did a little more than 15 fast miles and went up a little further than we had previously. It seems like the further north we go, the prettier the trail gets. On the way back, we did our usualy stop at Cafe Alfresco and rechareged.

Ride Stats:
Ride Time: 1:35:18
Stopped Time: 6:09
Distance: 15.23 miles
Average: 9.59 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 19.45 miles/h
Climb: 213 feet
Calories: 787


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Fast ride with wagon wheels

So I decided a week or two back that I wanted to get a road wheels and tires for my mountain bike since I end up putting way more miles on my bike on the road than I do on the trails. Combine the expense of replacing mountain bike tires which wear out quick on the pavement with their inherent slowness and it makes sense to swap wheels unless you want to buy another bike. I already had an extra front wheel that I ran the stock tire on for the streets (which was still really slow), so I just needed to get the back end and another tire.

I ended up getting the Kenda Kwest tires in the 700x35 size (since I bought a 29er, I can swap road wheels all day) which have enough tread not to be a slick, have a liner to prevent flats, and at $16, are a freaking bargain. I mounted everything up last night, and finally got a chance to take it out. Man what a difference. So very quiet untill you get up to speed (where the wind noise gets very loud). It makes handling a snap (you could never turn as fast on the MTB tires).

So, my ride stats were as follows:
Started: Aug 12, 2010 7:36:41 PM
Ride Time: 45:53
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 10.80 miles
Average: 14.12 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 20.57 miles/h
Climb: 78 feet
Calories: 624

Ridin' Dirtay!

As you can tell this isn't a song by Fidy Cent. Today's ride was actually fantastic. The threat of rain loomed all morning - in fact we felt a few drops from the trailhead to the start of Rock Garden. Today some new folks joined us, Donna and Eric, friends of Jason's from work and surprisingly, a lawyer from the State Attorney's office. No mixed company there! We started out with Rock Garden so that the newbs could get a feel for some of what Alafia had to offer. After a quick run through there we headed down Sand Pine. At the end of Sand Pine the Prosecutor challened us to a race back to the trailhead. Now this is where the entertaining part comes in. He was on a 26er but has been riding for 4 year. I am on a 29er and have been riding for 4 months. Now off the line he will be faster, but once I am rolling I can carry much more speed because of the larger wheels.

If we were rolling a straight section (takes his skill out of the loop) I highly suggest I'd have been faster, but since I don't have the skill to ride dirt curves nearly as fast as I can straights, he did come in first by a narrow margin. None the less that was fun!

After the mini race we headed back to the trailhead for a few minutes to rest. Since I am not one for the more difficult trails (I like fast and flowing, not crazy technical) I headed for SandPine and Rock Garden and told the rest of them I'd see them on the other side of North Creek.

This is where the dirty comes in. About the time I hit the middle of the section of Sand Pine that takes you from the trailhead to Rock Garden and Sand Pine, it began pouring rain. Not small drops, bucket sized drops. I had initially planned on riding Sand Pine into Rock Garden and then into River Loop to get to the other end of North Creek. Well, I recalled how much burned forest I had seen on the last path through (from lightning strikes!) so I decided just to hammer the pedals and go down to Rock Garden (thick forest). About 1/2 way through Rock Garden I had to stop and take off my riding glasses because they were just covered in water and I couldn't see a thing. It was about this time I saw another rider come up and he stopped and asked how to get back to the trail head. I gave him directions and got back on my way.

The trails as it seems becomes so peaceful but so alive at the same time during a downpour. The whole forest seems closer to you - and everything is moving. The percussive nature of rain drops crashing down on the leaves creates a form of white noise that soothes the ears.

While peaceful, it becomes unbelievably slippery and muddy. When I finished Rock Garden and headed to River Loop, I forgot how long the distance was to get to North Creek this way. Normally it isn't an issue, but due to the rains, most sections were muddy, and by muddy, my tires were sinking 2-3" inches into the ground (deep enough in some sections my pedals and feet were in the mud!).

By the time I hit North Creek the rain had subsided for the moment. I did the last drop on North Creek about 10 times while I was waiting for the rest of the group. After the group appeared we headed out and called it a day (albeit a damp and dirty one!)






Ride Stats:
Started: Aug 8, 2010 9:09:23 AM
Ride Time: 1:54:53
Stopped Time: 6:58
Distance: 6.19 miles
Average: 3.23 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 13.66 miles/h
Climb: 1818 feet
Calories: 392

Ride Map:

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Saturday Ride at Pinellas Trails

This weekend I was able to get two rides in, one on pavement, on on the trails.

On Saturday, Ana and I biked the Pinellas Trails, from Dunedin to Honeymoon Island and back. We did a little more than ten miles, and this was mostly due to the fact that we didn't want to push our luck with the rain that was looming. Combine this with a solid 15 MPH wind once we headed down the causeway, and it doesn't make for good times!

Ride Stats:
Started: Aug 7, 2010 11:27:09 AM
Ride Time: 1:13:03
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 10.52 miles
Average: 8.64 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 17.05 miles/h
Climb: 256 feet
Calories: 458

Google Map of the Ride:

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