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Saturday morning I took the train west a ways, and went for a long ride through Rock Creek Park. There’s one road, Beach Drive, that is closed to cars for much of the park, and has very minimal traffic through the rest. I found some good hills, and in general got in a great ride. It was a fun ride, but I was undecided as to whether or not it was worth the hassle. My stats can be found here if you’re curious: motionbased

This morning I set out to do the National Capital Velo Club’s Espresso Ride, which left from a coffee shop in Georgetown. I took the train to the same place as Saturday, and rode over. It turned out to be a pretty solid ride; probably 35 people of varying abilities, and very well organized. A few good climbs. I spent most of the time sitting in the pack, because I didn’t want to get lost and my Edge was out of batteries. I haven’t really let it charge for awhile, but I figured it would be fine. I think I climbed pretty well, and I made one strong attack. It was a fun ride and I will do it again. While I was out we also ran into a bunch of riders from Coppi, presumably associated with the restaurant, about 35 or so again. It seems there is some sort of a cycling scene here, you just have to find it. I definitely still need practice riding in large groups (plus I enjoy it), so I think I’ll get to used to taking my bike on the train.

Saturday I went on the weekly UMD Cycling group ride. There were actually only two of us, probably because it had been raining for 3 days and only stopped a couple hours earlier, and there was a Maryland football game on campus at the same time. Regardless, we kept the pace pretty high for the first 20 miles or so, explored some cool paths, and successfully avoided most of the puddles.

I had a good weekend of fairly excessive physical activity. Friday afternoon I played in a big game of ultimate frisbee on campus at UMD. It was fun, I made a couple good grabs and defensive plays, but my thighs were sore afterwards, and I had blisters on my toes. Saturday and Sunday I went on essentially the same ride with the team; there were 6 of us on Saturday, and 5 of us on Sunday. Kind of lame numbers wise; I’m thinking the likes of the big 50-60 person rides in Evanston are harder to find in College Park.

I went for a bike ride today, my first real ride here in Maryland. Did quite a bit of exploring, I was happy with how it went. It was about a 30 mile loop; kind of difficult to get out of College Park, but once I got out the roads were good, consistent, and long. It gives me some confidence for the future. Now I just have to find some group rides to do.

You also see some interesting things here, that you wouldn’t see on a ride in Illinois or Michigan:

I had my final presentation for my summer project today. I think it went pretty well. There wasn’t any pressure, since I’m not trying to be an intern next summer, or join the full-time rotational program, but I still got a little nervous beforehand. The diversity of projects was pretty impressive. Definitely one of the many benefits of working for a large company; if you don’t like your job, it’s not difficult to find something else you might enjoy more.

After work I went for a fun little bike ride. It was more of an exploratory bike ride; I’m in the process of finding a way to bike to Chipotle and/or to Stoney Creek Metro Park, where I did some riding when I first got to Auburn Hills. The trouble with this area is that when you’re riding on paths (either along busy roads or because light is getting dim) you’re cruising along just fine, and then you crest a hill and see a red sign on the path 100 feet away. This sign often says “Trail Ends”. And then the trail just ends. No transition. No reason for it to end. But the pavement disappears into trees, grass, or gravel, and there is no more biking to be had.

I’ve been without a bike computer or a heart rate monitor for awhile. Today I finally got my Edge. GPS on a bike computer? Who needs power.

It’s significantly more difficult to motivate myself to ride my bike when I have to drive somewhere to do it. Cycling to me is just as much a method of transportation as a way to stay fit. I ride my bike to get away, to relax and see new things. That’s why I was excited this week when I found a side exit to my apartment complex that I could use as a beginning to bike rides. Previously, the only entrance/exit led to a busy road with most traffic going 50 mph. Now I can go out on smooth roads with rolling hills, where cars come up on me going 25-30 once every two minutes, if that.

Cycling in Auburn Hills is a little different; there are a lot of good roads sandwiched between 5 or 6 really really busy roads. The roads to ride on are relatively smooth black asphalt, with small shoulders and the occasional hill. Most of the busy roads have something between a sidewalk and a bike path along the side. They are wider than most sidewalks, but intersected by driveway after driveway. What this means is it is actually possible to get around the area on a bike, but you end up slowing down and speeding up a lot, watching out for bumps in the path where it crosses a driveway. Along some of the newer areas of town, where development is just picking up and the roads are dirt and gravel, you can find some of the better paths. It isn’t the best place to ride, but one can definitely do it regularly without getting bored, or riding on excessively busy roads.

This past weekend was regionals for cycling. We went to Butler University in Indiana and raced some awesome races. The road race was a 14 mile loop with one small climb in the middle and a mile long climb at the end; the B’s (me) did 3 laps. I sat in the pack the whole time. On the last lap, there were two guys off the front and I worked with 8 or so other guys in a bit of a paceline at the front to keep the pace high. Going in the final climb, there were still 2 off the front, and pack was down to 25 or so of the 50 who started. We caught one of the two about halfway up the climb, and steadily picked up the pace as we went. It got thinner and thinner. Eventually and Illinois guy attacked, and I ended up chasing him down. I caught, and passed him, and found myself staring at the finish line. I was outsprinted by two Wisconsin guys, and came up 4th. It was a fun race. Results

Sundays race I just hung on; finishing with the pack at 29th. It was a great day for racing, but I was tired from the day before.

Northwestern finished the season 3rd overall, in division one. We’ve improved so much since I started here  4 years ago. Next, Maryland?

I changed 2 flat tires today, and I’ve got one more to go.

I started by fixing my flat from the Michigan race a week and a half ago; that dirt road that gave me a flat not a mile into a 30 mile race. After that my bike was functional again, and I rode it down to the local bike shop to have them true my race wheels. After a high speed crash at the end of the race on Sunday (frustrating) my front wheel was notably not-true. So I dropped it off, rode home to grab some more CO2 (and my recently arrived Cubs tickets) and came back to the bike shop to pick up my wheel. That crash Sunday gave me two flats, I fixed one tonight, I’ll fix the other Wednesday, most likely.

I’ve had two crashes during races this year. I’ve paid my dues. Now I want to start doing well.

Check this shutterfly page out for some quality photos of the racing Sunday. Scroll down to Northwestern. Unfortunately there are no shots of my crashing, or breaking away.

Spring Break has come and gone. This is the first time I didn’t go home for the week; instead spending it with the cycling team. It was a lot of fun, riding in sunny, warm weather on hilly roads without too many cars. The first two days were very aggressive; the rest (for me) were average rides with one or two long, challenging efforts on climbs. The cabin also had a hot tub, which was a nice little luxury after a long day of climbing. Overall mileage for the week was the following:

Sunday: 37
Monday: 51.8
Tuesday: 51
Wednesday: 59.2
Thursday: 43.8

Friday we drove to Michigan for a weekend of racing. Saturday’s race had a mile+ long dirt road in it. I flatted the first time over. It was a lame course anyways, though Clara won her race, and Ben took 4th in the race we were in together. Went out to a nice local Italian place for dinner that night and spent some good time chatting cycling. Sunday was more of a course for me; a 2 mile loop, with a couple gradual climbs, which we rode around for 45 minutes. I spent a lot of time up towards front with Geoff, the other NU Men’s B climber. I felt comfortable and did a good job of holding wheels, but could have been a little more aggressive in terms of attacks. I finished up with 11th, which I was fine with. Geoff dropped his chain in the final sprint but still got 5th or 6th. It was good having a teammate to actually do a little collaboration with during the race. This weekend is Western Michigan, a very similar course. Hopefully we can make things interesting.

Pictures:

Chattanooga (People)

Saturday’s Race (MSU)

Sunday’s Race (Michigan)