Touristica 16

After the century ride on Friday, it was time to clean up the pad and prepare for my parents to arrive painfully early Saturday morning.  I spent the weekend (and today – Monday) running around doing all sorts of interesting things.  They’ve been here at least once a year over the past few years, so they’ve seen all the ‘major’ DC stuff.  So we did other random things instead… starting with:

Checking out a new Coast Guard ship:

This new cutter was up in the Baltimore Inner Harbor, so we took the chance to check it out.  Given I’m a wee bit familiar with the Coast Guard – it was interesting to see the latest generation of cutters.  This one just came out of the docks about 4 months ago.  VERY roomy inside.  The CGC Bertholf:

After that, we zipped down to Annapolis to wander around a bit.  We walked over to the US Naval Academy and checked out the grounds some.  My parents had last been there 10 years ago this week when I was looking into going there as a college/career.  One place we went in and checked out was the pool.  OMG it’s incredible.  While technically it’s no different than the 50M pool I have at my rec center – this place just looks impressive.  The stands, the awards hanging, the impeccable cleanliness.  Very cool. Here’s a panoramic photo I stitched together.

After that I hit up my own pool to knock out a 4,200 yard swim.  A swim of two pools really.  Because my main pool closed down about 1,500 yards into my workout due to filter issues – so I had to switch to the Old Town Alexandria pool (outdoors).  I simply threw a shirt on, and bailed out of the building still in my swimsuit and with goggles on head.  A 10 minute drive, and 2 minutes of misc time and I was in the pool again.

(The outdoor pool, from a few weeks ago)

I really like swimming outside at this pool.  First I get to enjoy the nice outdoors.  And then I get to enjoy all of the pool deck area scenery.  It’s really rather pleasant.  Plus, both times I’ve been there now I’ve had the privilege of sharing my lane with rather attractive (and fast) female swimmers. I’m thinking more of my swims will be there from now on.

Post pool it was off to the ball game.  Nationals vs. Baltimore at Nationals (new) Stadium.  Great game…well up until the 6th inning when it decided to dump.  Actually dump wouldn’t quite be the right word.  Perhaps ‘the sky is flooding’.  Much water came from above.  See a before/during shot:

But we still had a great time.

On Sunday we headed back to Skyline drive.  While I bike there every weekend – I rarely drive it (ok, never drive it).  It was kinda cool to check it out from the car.  At which point I decided to things.

A) It’s a much more civilized way to see the park (driving instead of biking)
B) Holy *@(*#U$# I biked a long way and up a lot of hills.

And I did get to see a deer with baby deer.  They both stuck their tongues out at me when I took the photo.

On the way home – we saw the following moving trucks.  Seriously – two road bikes, and a mountain bike are in that mess.

(Just remember – they’re the “Careful Movers”)

Monday was set aside to do downtown things.  While I’m very familiar with the monuments, I’m not so familiar with the museums.  Just never had the time.  So we checked out a few of them.  The National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian and finally the new exhibit at the Air and Space Museum.  After which we swung by the United States Botanical Gardens – I love that place – sooooo peaceful, one of my favorite hidden gems in DC. And sandwiched in between it all was Fogo de Chao for lunch.  But I’ve got a COMPLETE, IN DEPTH carnivorous write-up on that coming tomorrow (vegetarians will want to skip tomorrow…just sayin’).

(Above: Halls at the National Gallery of Art)

(The main ‘lobby’ at the Museum of Natural History)

(The new exhibit at the Air and Space museum)

(Women’s wear at the Native American Museum)

(Finally…flowers within the Botanical Gardens)

And at the end of the day – I got my July training schedule from the coach.  Looks like a rockin’ month.  Tons of awesome stuff planned.  Got one last race left (Rhode Island 70.3 in mid-July) before the big game (Ironman Canada in late August). 

I’m really looking forward to Rhode Island now that so many of the pieces are starting to come together.  I’m at the point where we’re really ramping up a lot of the sessions.  Swims are no less than 4,000 yards now, and all of the long rides are 100+ miles, we’ve got the usual Tuesday Twenty Milers (run), plus the rockin’ track and trainer workouts (ok, I do hate trainer workout #2 each week, it’s up to nearly 2 hours of semi-painful-though-amazingly-beneficial intensity – but besides that…I do love the track), and then all of the other workouts that makeup a typical 18+ hour training week.  Woohoo!

Touristica 0

After the century ride on Friday, it was time to clean up the pad and prepare for my parents to arrive painfully early Saturday morning.  I spent the weekend (and today – Monday) running around doing all sorts of interesting things.  They’ve been here at least once a year over the past few years, so they’ve seen all the ‘major’ DC stuff.  So we did other random things instead… starting with:

Checking out a new Coast Guard ship:

This new cutter was up in the Baltimore Inner Harbor, so we took the chance to check it out.  Given I’m a wee bit familiar with the Coast Guard – it was interesting to see the latest generation of cutters.  This one just came out of the docks about 4 months ago.  VERY roomy inside.  The CGC Bertholf:

After that, we zipped down to Annapolis to wander around a bit.  We walked over to the US Naval Academy and checked out the grounds some.  My parents had last been there 10 years ago this week when I was looking into going there as a college/career.  One place we went in and checked out was the pool.  OMG it’s incredible.  While technically it’s no different than the 50M pool I have at my rec center – this place just looks impressive.  The stands, the awards hanging, the impeccable cleanliness.  Very cool. Here’s a panoramic photo I stitched together.

After that I hit up my own pool to knock out a 4,200 yard swim.  A swim of two pools really.  Because my main pool closed down about 1,500 yards into my workout due to filter issues – so I had to switch to the Old Town Alexandria pool (outdoors).  I simply threw a shirt on, and bailed out of the building still in my swimsuit and with goggles on head.  A 10 minute drive, and 2 minutes of misc time and I was in the pool again.

(The outdoor pool, from a few weeks ago)

I really like swimming outside at this pool.  First I get to enjoy the nice outdoors.  And then I get to enjoy all of the pool deck area scenery.  It’s really rather pleasant.  Plus, both times I’ve been there now I’ve had the privilege of sharing my lane with rather attractive (and fast) female swimmers. I’m thinking more of my swims will be there from now on.

Post pool it was off to the ball game.  Nationals vs. Baltimore at Nationals (new) Stadium.  Great game…well up until the 6th inning when it decided to dump.  Actually dump wouldn’t quite be the right word.  Perhaps ‘the sky is flooding’.  Much water came from above.  See a before/during shot:

But we still had a great time.

On Sunday we headed back to Skyline drive.  While I bike there every weekend – I rarely drive it (ok, never drive it).  It was kinda cool to check it out from the car.  At which point I decided to things.

A) It’s a much more civilized way to see the park (driving instead of biking)
B) Holy *@(*#U$# I biked a long way and up a lot of hills.

And I did get to see a deer with baby deer.  They both stuck their tongues out at me when I took the photo.

On the way home – we saw the following moving trucks.  Seriously – two road bikes, and a mountain bike are in that mess.

(Just remember – they’re the “Careful Movers”)

Monday was set aside to do downtown things.  While I’m very familiar with the monuments, I’m not so familiar with the museums.  Just never had the time.  So we checked out a few of them.  The National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian and finally the new exhibit at the Air and Space Museum.  After which we swung by the United States Botanical Gardens – I love that place – sooooo peaceful, one of my favorite hidden gems in DC. And sandwiched in between it all was Fogo de Chao for lunch.  But I’ve got a COMPLETE, IN DEPTH carnivorous write-up on that coming tomorrow (vegetarians will want to skip tomorrow…just sayin’).

(Above: Halls at the National Gallery of Art)

(The main ‘lobby’ at the Museum of Natural History)

(The new exhibit at the Air and Space museum)

(Women’s wear at the Native American Museum)

(Finally…flowers within the Botanical Gardens)

And at the end of the day – I got my July training schedule from the coach.  Looks like a rockin’ month.  Tons of awesome stuff planned.  Got one last race left (Rhode Island 70.3 in mid-July) before the big game (Ironman Canada in late August). 

I’m really looking forward to Rhode Island now that so many of the pieces are starting to come together.  I’m at the point where we’re really ramping up a lot of the sessions.  Swims are no less than 4,000 yards now, and all of the long rides are 100+ miles, we’ve got the usual Tuesday Twenty Milers (run), plus the rockin’ track and trainer workouts (ok, I do hate trainer workout #2 each week, it’s up to nearly 2 hours of semi-painful-though-amazingly-beneficial intensity – but besides that…I do love the track), and then all of the other workouts that makeup a typical 18+ hour training week.  Woohoo!

Boo-Boo and Bambi 11

Today…well today was a long day. I knocked out my first century ride. Technically 101 miles. Except, this wasn’t no flat-ground century. Nope, this was back up on Skyline again (in case you haven’t noticed by now – every one of my long rides is up in the mountains on Skyline Drive). And yes, it’s a Friday. Normally I do them on Sunday, but I got family coming in early tomorrow morning – so I had to move things around a bit.

(The North Entrance to the Park)

Over the course of the 101 miles I had the ‘privilege’ of pedaling my ass up 9,811 feet of climbing. That…that’s a fair bit of climbing. In addition to going up and down a gazillion times, I got to see quite a bit of wildlife today. And I’m not just talking the 48 or so caterpillars I think I killed. Or the one squirrel that tried to play chicken on an ascent (I won, I held my ground, I was only going 8MPH – it was my way or the highway – he ran away at the last second), or the hedgehog looking thingy, or the two snakes, or the one vulture (holy crap that was big), or the other eagle-ish birds.

Holy cow the deer were out in full force today! Revenge of the deer apparently. I saw probably 30-40 deer today, rather impressive. Some of them were pretty darn stubborn. I had to stop quite a few times. I probably could have fed Bambi if I had the patience. It really had no desire to go anywhere but look at me.

In addition to Bambi, I saw both Boo-Boo and Yogi. First I saw Boo-Boo just a few feet away – maybe 10’. he was munching on stuff in the grass. So I stopped and watched for a few minutes. He was REALLY into the grass (and really close). I could have put on a tutu and done an Irish jig and he still wouldn’t have blinked. But I got a ton of photos, none of which are very good because his head was munching bush the entire time.

He looks bigger than he was. He was smaller than my bike. Like a big teddy bear from the fare!

My ultimate goal on this ride was to get to Big Meadows – at mile marker 51, and then turn around and go back. So here’s the welcome sign to Big Meadows…it’s named after…well…a big meadow behind it.

The weather was a mixed bag today. Sun, rain, thunderstorms, wind, clouds, sun. All while maintaining 90*+ out and some less than pleasant humidity. The wind and rain didn’t make for fast descending.

There’s a little country store and campgrounds and gas station at Big Meadows (in the middle of the national park). I was starting to feel somewhat tired after all the climbing, so I tried to refill the tank. But I couldn’t decide where to put the pump. Speaking of which, I went through 11 bottles of liquid today (24-28oz) during the ride.

Oh, while I was descending I was thinking about what would be worse: Hitting a squirrel (again), or hitting a deer. I decided that if I had to hit an animal again above 25MPH, I’d rather hit a deer. See with a squirrel, when I hit it I will likely fly off the bike and direclty into the concrete (I got lucky once, but I’m not going to get lucky again). There’s no getting around it – once I leave the bike and become airborne the only place I’m going to go is onto the concrete…at 25-40MPH.

But a deer – if I broadside it, will act kinda like a big airbag. My bike will crumple (but I'll lose energy in the process), and then my body will likely hit the deer. Now assuming I don’t go over the top of the deer, I’d stop fairly quickly (but at a lower velocity). If I go over the top – then I’m no worse off than the squirrel situation, except maybe a few MPH slower because of the initial airbag.

Now, it should be clarified that if I rear-end the deer and end up impaling myself up the deer’s ass – that would be less than ideal. Just sayin’.

Also, I haven’t come to a conclusion on whether hitting a bear would be better or worse than the deer. It’s a fairly low to the ground animal – so my chance of going over the top are higher. Btw, I saw another bear a few hours later. Yogi was MUCH bigger than Boo-boo, so I just kept on going and only took a quick photo.

I also learned some interesting things about descending and wind gusts. I found that even when the cross-winds pickup and your brain says “Sit up, apply brakes and slow down”, that if you get into the most aero position possible and really squeeze into the top tube - the ride is smoother. It’s very counter-intuitive because if I hit side gusts at say – 30MPH, the last thing my brain says to do is become a bullet and accelerate quickly to 40+MPH. By the end of the ride I was starting to get the hang of it (or just wanting to finish so badly I lost my ‘common sense’ chip).

(Miles is in the lower right hand corner)

Afterwards, I set out to knock off the usual 5K brick run. I neglected to remember how darn hot out it was at the lower altitudes. Plus, I think I need to increase my calorie intake during the bike a bit – I was feeling a bit ‘empty’ by around mile 80. No worries though, I’ve got two months till Ironman, and plenty of more century rides and bricks to get everything sorted out. Onto the weekend!

Boo-Boo and Bambi 0

Today…well today was a long day. I knocked out my first century ride. Technically 101 miles. Except, this wasn’t no flat-ground century. Nope, this was back up on Skyline again (in case you haven’t noticed by now – every one of my long rides is up in the mountains on Skyline Drive). And yes, it’s a Friday. Normally I do them on Sunday, but I got family coming in early tomorrow morning – so I had to move things around a bit.

(The North Entrance to the Park)

Over the course of the 101 miles I had the ‘privilege’ of pedaling my ass up 9,811 feet of climbing. That…that’s a fair bit of climbing. In addition to going up and down a gazillion times, I got to see quite a bit of wildlife today. And I’m not just talking the 48 or so caterpillars I think I killed. Or the one squirrel that tried to play chicken on an ascent (I won, I held my ground, I was only going 8MPH – it was my way or the highway – he ran away at the last second), or the hedgehog looking thingy, or the two snakes, or the one vulture (holy crap that was big), or the other eagle-ish birds.

Holy cow the deer were out in full force today! Revenge of the deer apparently. I saw probably 30-40 deer today, rather impressive. Some of them were pretty darn stubborn. I had to stop quite a few times. I probably could have fed Bambi if I had the patience. It really had no desire to go anywhere but look at me.

In addition to Bambi, I saw both Boo-Boo and Yogi. First I saw Boo-Boo just a few feet away – maybe 10’. he was munching on stuff in the grass. So I stopped and watched for a few minutes. He was REALLY into the grass (and really close). I could have put on a tutu and done an Irish jig and he still wouldn’t have blinked. But I got a ton of photos, none of which are very good because his head was munching bush the entire time.

He looks bigger than he was. He was smaller than my bike. Like a big teddy bear from the fare!

My ultimate goal on this ride was to get to Big Meadows – at mile marker 51, and then turn around and go back. So here’s the welcome sign to Big Meadows…it’s named after…well…a big meadow behind it.

The weather was a mixed bag today. Sun, rain, thunderstorms, wind, clouds, sun. All while maintaining 90*+ out and some less than pleasant humidity. The wind and rain didn’t make for fast descending.

There’s a little country store and campgrounds and gas station at Big Meadows (in the middle of the national park). I was starting to feel somewhat tired after all the climbing, so I tried to refill the tank. But I couldn’t decide where to put the pump. Speaking of which, I went through 11 bottles of liquid today (24-28oz) during the ride.

Oh, while I was descending I was thinking about what would be worse: Hitting a squirrel (again), or hitting a deer. I decided that if I had to hit an animal again above 25MPH, I’d rather hit a deer. See with a squirrel, when I hit it I will likely fly off the bike and direclty into the concrete (I got lucky once, but I’m not going to get lucky again). There’s no getting around it – once I leave the bike and become airborne the only place I’m going to go is onto the concrete…at 25-40MPH.

But a deer – if I broadside it, will act kinda like a big airbag. My bike will crumple (but I'll lose energy in the process), and then my body will likely hit the deer. Now assuming I don’t go over the top of the deer, I’d stop fairly quickly (but at a lower velocity). If I go over the top – then I’m no worse off than the squirrel situation, except maybe a few MPH slower because of the initial airbag.

Now, it should be clarified that if I rear-end the deer and end up impaling myself up the deer’s ass – that would be less than ideal. Just sayin’.

Also, I haven’t come to a conclusion on whether hitting a bear would be better or worse than the deer. It’s a fairly low to the ground animal – so my chance of going over the top are higher. Btw, I saw another bear a few hours later. Yogi was MUCH bigger than Boo-boo, so I just kept on going and only took a quick photo.

I also learned some interesting things about descending and wind gusts. I found that even when the cross-winds pickup and your brain says “Sit up, apply brakes and slow down”, that if you get into the most aero position possible and really squeeze into the top tube - the ride is smoother. It’s very counter-intuitive because if I hit side gusts at say – 30MPH, the last thing my brain says to do is become a bullet and accelerate quickly to 40+MPH. By the end of the ride I was starting to get the hang of it (or just wanting to finish so badly I lost my ‘common sense’ chip).

(Miles is in the lower right hand corner)

Afterwards, I set out to knock off the usual 5K brick run. I neglected to remember how darn hot out it was at the lower altitudes. Plus, I think I need to increase my calorie intake during the bike a bit – I was feeling a bit ‘empty’ by around mile 80. No worries though, I’ve got two months till Ironman, and plenty of more century rides and bricks to get everything sorted out. Onto the weekend!