Today we actually worked on our trail system instead of riding. It's nice to be able to help maintain something we love so much, since so many people take it for granted. Out of all the folks on bikes who passed us, only a handful offered their thanks for what we were doing. Most people seem to think that the state or county maintains the trails - they would be wrong.
Ryan started out working on the section of reeds on SWAMP thing that are just North of the enterance to Ridgeline that always seems to be overgrown (he had machinery) while Garry (the trail system boss) and I cleaned up the rest of SWAMP Thing and Garry's loop by hand. We returned to the trail tool shed and grabbed some pic axes and shovels and rebuilt the drop in and the sharp switchback drop on the far side. Additionally we removed some roots that were rather obnoxious or in very inopportune places.
After cleaning up this section we dropped Ryan off at the front of the park and returned to Inner Loch Ness. Garry trimmed by hand and I used the power tool to cut back the overgrowth.
All in all a great day, 5.5 hours of ass busting for everyone to enjoy!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Post Sickness and Vacation Ride
Last weekend I didn't end up riding since I was sick, and couldn't ride all week since I was in NYC. Finally I was able to redeem myself! There were only two downsides to the activities today, for one it was almost 88F again. Two, I am still taking antibiotics for my ear infection, and one of the side effects says to stay out of the sun...I found that as long as I smothered myself in sunscreen, I didn't feel the burn.
While today started out as status quo since we rode most of the same trails - Loch Ness, Randy's Trail, Spider Berm, (Shawn and Jason rode Gator Pit), Golf Cart, Pandemonium, Sidewinder, SWAMP Thing. From here it changes...
RIDGELINE....This trail has been closed since mid-May when the rains in this part of the state began to put the lower lying sections underwater. The trail is too new to me to describe turn by turn, but I can give some pretty good impressions.
Climbs: The climbs are no joke, you really have to ride clean and not use your brakes. If you use them on the downhill, you'll walk your bike up the next hill. I consider myself pretty fit, and unfortunately due to both acclimating back into 85F+ temps and getting over a cold, I felt pretty bad on some of the climbs. I saw my heart rate regularly in the upper 180s to 196ish (these are the kinds of numbers I see when running 5Ks....
Drops: The drops on this trail can damn near make you want to crap your pants. Some of the drops you literally cannot see over, you just have to go over. There are several series where you really dont have to pedal up the next hill - you carry enough speed to keep yourself going.
Overall: Freaking amazing. One of the drops I did today called "Max G's" was very aptly named. After getting a rolling start and taking a slight right turn, down the 75-85% grade you really get the momentum going...and then you feel it - the downward force being applied to you and your bike as you begin to go up the next hill of nearly equal grade makes you and the bike feel like you're 100lbs heavier. About this time you are really trying to pedal hard to get the rest of the speed you need to get to the summit...which, I thought I had...I did have about 95% of it, and unfortunately it is all sand, so trying keep from falling off backwards with the bike was a real challenge. That being said, when I got to the top, I found myself confronted with another steep drop but without any run up, one basically has to push off and get your feet on the pedals ASAP. Happilly I did this and was rewarded with a rush of a ride over 2-3 more hills without having to pedal once.
A video taken of Ridgeline, by another member of the club.
Ride Stats and Maps:
Started: Oct 24, 2010 9:03:01 AM
Ride Time: 1:08:17
Stopped Time: 1:38:37
Distance: 12.10 miles
Average: 10.63 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 19.42 miles/h
Climb: 147 feet
Stats from Heart Rate Monitor:
159 Average Heart Rate
195 Maximum Heart Rate
2671 Calories Burned
View Larger Map
While today started out as status quo since we rode most of the same trails - Loch Ness, Randy's Trail, Spider Berm, (Shawn and Jason rode Gator Pit), Golf Cart, Pandemonium, Sidewinder, SWAMP Thing. From here it changes...
RIDGELINE....This trail has been closed since mid-May when the rains in this part of the state began to put the lower lying sections underwater. The trail is too new to me to describe turn by turn, but I can give some pretty good impressions.
Climbs: The climbs are no joke, you really have to ride clean and not use your brakes. If you use them on the downhill, you'll walk your bike up the next hill. I consider myself pretty fit, and unfortunately due to both acclimating back into 85F+ temps and getting over a cold, I felt pretty bad on some of the climbs. I saw my heart rate regularly in the upper 180s to 196ish (these are the kinds of numbers I see when running 5Ks....
Drops: The drops on this trail can damn near make you want to crap your pants. Some of the drops you literally cannot see over, you just have to go over. There are several series where you really dont have to pedal up the next hill - you carry enough speed to keep yourself going.
Overall: Freaking amazing. One of the drops I did today called "Max G's" was very aptly named. After getting a rolling start and taking a slight right turn, down the 75-85% grade you really get the momentum going...and then you feel it - the downward force being applied to you and your bike as you begin to go up the next hill of nearly equal grade makes you and the bike feel like you're 100lbs heavier. About this time you are really trying to pedal hard to get the rest of the speed you need to get to the summit...which, I thought I had...I did have about 95% of it, and unfortunately it is all sand, so trying keep from falling off backwards with the bike was a real challenge. That being said, when I got to the top, I found myself confronted with another steep drop but without any run up, one basically has to push off and get your feet on the pedals ASAP. Happilly I did this and was rewarded with a rush of a ride over 2-3 more hills without having to pedal once.
A video taken of Ridgeline, by another member of the club.
Ride Stats and Maps:
Started: Oct 24, 2010 9:03:01 AM
Ride Time: 1:08:17
Stopped Time: 1:38:37
Distance: 12.10 miles
Average: 10.63 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 19.42 miles/h
Climb: 147 feet
Stats from Heart Rate Monitor:
159 Average Heart Rate
195 Maximum Heart Rate
2671 Calories Burned
View Larger Map
Monday, October 11, 2010
Boyette Scrub Park
Today marked Shawn's return to a trail with some really difficult sections after his nearly 10 weeks of off time due to a fractured wrist. It was also Ryan's first trail ride on his new full suspension bike. We were also greated with 68F weather, albeit a bit humid, the cool air was a treat.
For the most part we kept our normal route as of late, but we added a few extra laps of Spider Berm and Golf Cart. The main difference today was finally conquering several drops on Pandemonium. As long as I don't actually look over the edge before I attempt the drops, I am typically OK. Today was no exeception. I started in the first drop (which seems to have been repaired since I saw the guy go OTB and put his bike on the sign), rolled up the second hill and down. When I crested the third hill I had to walk the bike up the last bit to the top as I did not have enough momentum. When I got to the 4th drop I felt like I was going to go off the trail, but a quick correction and a little braking corrected the course.
The section of the trail I rode starts at 1:29 (the portions before are too rough):
This represents a pretty significant increase for me, having not ridden these drops before. It felt great to finally conquer these few drops. I definitely see myself repeating these in the future.
At this point we finished Pandemonium and hit Sidewinder. We rode Sidewinder down to Swamp Thing. I really hate this trail so I rode the fire road around to the other side and met Shawn and Ryan on the other end.
All in all it was a great time as always!
Ride Stats and Map:
Started: Oct 10, 2010 8:36:49 AM
Ride Time: 1:34:50
Stopped Time: 1:20:21
Distance: 14.64 miles
Average: 9.26 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 16.90 miles/h
Climb: 114 feet
Heart Rate Monitor Stats:
Max Heart Rate: 195
Average Heart Rate: 155
Calories Burned: 2067
View Larger Map
For the most part we kept our normal route as of late, but we added a few extra laps of Spider Berm and Golf Cart. The main difference today was finally conquering several drops on Pandemonium. As long as I don't actually look over the edge before I attempt the drops, I am typically OK. Today was no exeception. I started in the first drop (which seems to have been repaired since I saw the guy go OTB and put his bike on the sign), rolled up the second hill and down. When I crested the third hill I had to walk the bike up the last bit to the top as I did not have enough momentum. When I got to the 4th drop I felt like I was going to go off the trail, but a quick correction and a little braking corrected the course.
The section of the trail I rode starts at 1:29 (the portions before are too rough):
This represents a pretty significant increase for me, having not ridden these drops before. It felt great to finally conquer these few drops. I definitely see myself repeating these in the future.
At this point we finished Pandemonium and hit Sidewinder. We rode Sidewinder down to Swamp Thing. I really hate this trail so I rode the fire road around to the other side and met Shawn and Ryan on the other end.
All in all it was a great time as always!
Ride Stats and Map:
Started: Oct 10, 2010 8:36:49 AM
Ride Time: 1:34:50
Stopped Time: 1:20:21
Distance: 14.64 miles
Average: 9.26 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 16.90 miles/h
Climb: 114 feet
Heart Rate Monitor Stats:
Max Heart Rate: 195
Average Heart Rate: 155
Calories Burned: 2067
View Larger Map
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Tampa Police Department 5K
As you can see - it was a gorgeous morning for a run. Temperature at race time was about 75, but it was quite humid. I got there, picked up my t-shirt and number and then returned to the car to put the shirt away and drink my Gatorade G1. On my way back to the starting area, I thought I'd hit the restroom...till I saw the line was literally two blocks long. At this point I decided to become a patron of Indigo coffee a block up the road. I offered to pay for a coffee if I could use the bathroom and the friendly barista said not to worry about it and let me on it. Nice clean potty instead of port-o-hell. With that task completed a women accidentally bumped into me. It was Betty Castor, the chief of the Tampa Police. Cool lady.
They were getting her ready to run:
I also saw Tampa's mayor jogging the race, she was at the back of the people running, but at least she was out there.
At any rate, my self timed shows my run at 31:34, identical to last week's Breast Cancer 5K. I'll be interested to see what the official chip time shows...
Run Stats and Maps:
Started: Oct 9, 2010 8:07:51 AM
Run Time: 31:34
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 3.23 miles
Average: 9:46 /mile
Fastest Pace: 6:18 /mile
Climb: 20 feet
Splits:
1 Mi: 8:29 min/mile (whoops, went out a little too hot!)
2 Mi: 10:26 min/mile
3 Mi: 10:27 min/mile
Stats according to Heart Rate Monitor:
Average Heart Rate: 175
Max Heart: 195
Calories burned: 607
View Larger Map
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Trout Creek / Morris Bridge / Flatwoods Ride
Today Ryan, Shawn, and I headed out to the wilderness trails. My main intenion was to get a club jersey (SWAMP was doing their monthly ride out there and would have them for sale). The weather today was arguably the best it has been since April - low 70s, no humidity. This was also Shawn's first day back on his bike since he busted his wrist back in August. All I can say is that we had a fantastic ride and Shawn's wrist seems to have healed and we all had a great relaxing ride through the parks.
Ride Stats and Maps:
Started: Oct 3, 2010 8:47:30 AM
Ride Time: 1:24:57
Stopped Time: 38:51
Distance: 13.83 miles
Average: 9.76 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 17.26 miles/h
Climb: 255 feet
Calories:1337
Average Heart Rate: 137
Maximum Heart Rate: 171
View Larger Map
Ride Stats and Maps:
Started: Oct 3, 2010 8:47:30 AM
Ride Time: 1:24:57
Stopped Time: 38:51
Distance: 13.83 miles
Average: 9.76 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 17.26 miles/h
Climb: 255 feet
Calories:1337
Average Heart Rate: 137
Maximum Heart Rate: 171
View Larger Map
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Susan Komen Breast Cancer 5K
Today I ran the Susan Komen Breast Cancer 5K, a race I have ran the last 3 years. I started out the day thinking I was just going to jog it, to deciding I was going to run at about 85% effort to see how I would do and how I would feel.
This morning was cool and dry, the first time I have experienced that at this race (it is normally held in September and it is much warmer and humid). This is also the first race I run in the fall, so it usually is a pretty good predicter of how the fall will go. I did this in 31:34, which felt way better than last year, and was only 20 seconds or so slower...
I have decided this fall that instead of trying for a specific time, that I am just going to go out and run, and place where I place.
At any rate, the statistics and map:
Started: Oct 2, 2010 8:18:26 AM
Run Time: 32:48 (started almost 3 minutes after the buzzer)
Stopped Time: 0:12
Distance: 3.19 miles
Average: 10:18 /mile
Fastest Pace: 9:01 /mile
Calories:771
Average Heart Rate: 167
Maximum Heart Rate: 197
View Larger Map
This morning was cool and dry, the first time I have experienced that at this race (it is normally held in September and it is much warmer and humid). This is also the first race I run in the fall, so it usually is a pretty good predicter of how the fall will go. I did this in 31:34, which felt way better than last year, and was only 20 seconds or so slower...
I have decided this fall that instead of trying for a specific time, that I am just going to go out and run, and place where I place.
At any rate, the statistics and map:
Started: Oct 2, 2010 8:18:26 AM
Run Time: 32:48 (started almost 3 minutes after the buzzer)
Stopped Time: 0:12
Distance: 3.19 miles
Average: 10:18 /mile
Fastest Pace: 9:01 /mile
Calories:771
Average Heart Rate: 167
Maximum Heart Rate: 197
View Larger Map
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