C&O is great, especially north of Great Falls where the crowds are smaller and you can safely do some intervals. Jealous that you were only a half mile away. Hopefully youâre not much further in your new location.
The longer version of the club TT tonight the Beardsall Cup. The winner was 1min 28s down on his PB so I donât mind being 1min 41s down on mine on a very blustery and occasionally showery night. I doubt anyone took photos as it was horrible at times and only 4 of us braved it. I didnât really get warmed up until the last lap.
Big group on the Wed ride, at least 30 people:
regroup:
and then 15 made it to the post-ride social in my backyard!
Sadly no pictures of the party. So a couple shopping pictures will have to doâŚ
and
Blender time!
I completed setting up the VIP Zone the night before:
Twas a school night, so we didnât light up the disco ball 
I have a slightly technical paved descent that goes for 7 miles; I have been riding it for 10 years. The first time I did it on my gravel bike, I PBâd it. I think it just naturally enters curves more slowly and allows you to pedal through.
This time last year I was riding Unbound and dealing with sticky Kansas mud and rain.
This year, I stayed close to home to enjoy blue skies and champagne gravel.
This loop is very remote. No cell phone service for much of it. And no supply points, so brought a water filter to pump water from a creek.
Beautiful loop. The SBT courses havenât been released yet, but rumor has it some of these roads will be in the route.
The Chelada while soaking in the hot tub after was bliss.
Bonus pic of 3 moose from yesterday evenings MTB ride. Hanging out on a downhill trail. I came within 6-7 yards of them before I stopped and they bolted.
Casper the Ghost of Nokesville
Prince William and Faquier Counties, VA
Nice Z2 ride this morning. Took an hour to wake up and start getting into the groove, which you can definitely see in the 30s power graph. I may have accidentally switched my caffeinated and non-caffeinated bottles. I also should have consumed more drink mix earlier in the ride.
Had a nice chat with an older gentleman at the gas station while I refilled my bottle with more carbs. While simple, it really made my morning and the rest of the ride easier. I guess itâs the little things that really matter.
In a complete change to yesterday (which was grey cold and windy) today was 7 deg warmer, sunny and winds were lighter. My gravel ride wasnât happening so I joined a local road group which was heading into Rutland, My power meter for some reason disappeared at the cafe and I mistakenly paired to some one elses.
Had a beautiful early morning ride in Central VT this weekend. Iâve been trying to add more pavement to my rides to help manage fatigue instead of the constant up and down of the dirt roads here, and itâs allowing me to push out farther from home so I get to do some exploring.
And exploring will get you some fun surprises. RWGPS doesnât differentiate between dirt roads and Class IV roads here and I wasnât paying enough attention, so I mapped myself 6 miles of Class iV without realizing it (Karma is swift and merciless, @The_Conductor ! - I didnât realize I gave you a route with some in April!). Also, a freaking brick wall of a climb.
One last note: Iâve been riding 700x48c Tufo Thunderos for a few weeks now, and these things are awesome. I swapped out some 700x50c Maxxis Ramblers for them, and was a tiny bit worried that they had less volume, but theyâre noticeably (and empirically) faster, ride significantly better, and donât give anything at all up in terms of traction. Just awesome tires.
Some numbers:
Oy, this one hurt.
And some pics:
Worcester (Not that one. Or the other one.)
Lake Elmore:
Still some flood damage offroad:
Class IV Fun:
Awesome picsâŚVT is amazing 
Glad the 700x48 Thunderos are working out too! Iâve really been liking them.
I think itâs amazing people would ride those âroadsâ on anything smaller 
Yeah, your posts about them is one of the reasons I went ahead and ordered a set. At 700x48c, theyâre basically 90âs mountain bike tires (1.9" wide), so they worked out really well. That said, I was thinking a lot about the 29x2.1 Thunder Burts that seem to be all the rage, too. My next gravel bike will definitely have to take 29x2.2s at least, although Iâm super happy with my Revolt and will probably wait at least another generation before I N+1 it for gravel bikes.
Probably smartâŚUHD will be standard and 700x50 will be considered narrow clearance in a few years!
Iâd like to think I was a trendsetter with fat tires on a Cutthroat 
, but in reality there were limited options during COVID and I needed MTB gearing to get my butt up those steep climbs 
I did VT Overland last year on 38 Ramblers 
@FergusYL you gotta consult your Town Highway maps! Or do what I do: send it, carry your bike for miles, then call your wife and tell her you wonât be home for dinner because youâre an idiot.
Haha, that was Saturday morning! I was like 40 minutes late while my 5 year old was home outraged about not getting to run out for a pastry and a book first thing. The family was not happy.
But consulting town maps takes all the fun out of it, so weâve all gotta take risks sometimes. 
)
Getting hot!!!
Today is forecast to be 102F / 39C
Last night both strength and cycling were done outside.
Just to keep things real around here (and confusing LOL), this is HR from my power-based strength workout
Been using step loading, and this week Iâve increased weight on deadlifts and swings. Starting out with 20 sets of 5 swings on-the-minute, followed by 10 sets of 5 explosive push-ups (designed to keep shoulder happy).
Not Q&D style every 90 seconds, but anti-glycolytic for @AJS914 (sorry, I had to post that, LOL)
âbut burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes âAwww!ââ From On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Lately it seems like every time I stand up on the bike and stomp down, without really trying, my legs magically pump out 1150 watts for a couple seconds 
All from working with some pretty low kettlebell weights (16kg, 20kg, and 24kg).
I give Pavel props for inventing a great sound term!
Is that the basic workout - two exercises? Iâve been playing around with a couple of kettlebells but havenât gotten around yet to incorporating it regularly. I need something super simple.
and thus it was written
starts with Simple & Sinister, and then other minimalist programs that you can review here How to Navigate the Strong Endurance Universe | StrongFirst - check out Super Slow 2.0 section and search for the how to row across the Atlantic blog post 
