Saturday, March 1, 2008

Going solo...

Decided last night that I was going to go out and put in some miles solo today. I had remembered reading Angent Nick's blog about a dc velo ride that took them over the potomac on White's Ferry and decided that was where I was going to go.

I got out of the house around 7:05 and rolled out to VA and started out the bike path towards Leasburg. Nothing hard, no power numbers to report, no intervals...just out for a ride and re-appreciating why I enjoy riding my bike. The head wind on the way out was pretty nasty, but I felt good after putting in about 18 miles for the week (all on Monday). I was in the gym a couple of days, but this weather sucks...and it's been harder for me to get myself outside during the week during crappy weather. I ended up riding about an hour from Vienna to Ashburn with a guy named Jeff who rides for HPC...a good guy to roll with in the headwind. I spend a good portion of it trying to convince him to do road races (he's a cross guy). Fourty five miles later I was in Leesburg eating a bagel with butter and drinking a coffee. I got directions to White's Ferry and headed towards it. The weather started to change a bit (actually was snowing in Leesburg) and went from freezing to really warm once I got to the ferry.

If you haven't been on White's Ferry...take an opportunity to go out there. If you don't want to ride out there, even the drive is worth it. The guy driving the ferry told me it's the only ferry that crosses the Potomac. Really pretty out there and only $1 to cross.

I got lost on White's Ferry Rd (I think I was supposed to turn off at one point) and ended up in Poolsville. I didn't intend on going out there, but rolled through and started my way back to River and back home. I thought for a while that I might be able to tag onto the end of the 10am ride, but my timing was off by a bit. Riding back with a tailwind was pretty sweet.

Overall, I got 87 miles in. It was a long ride that I've been wanting to get in for some time now. The group rides are a blast, but I haven't put in any long steady state miles since forever. Tomorrow a bunch of the R1V guys are going to be at the 8:30 BP ride. The last time we all descended on that ride it was a blast. Should be fun to ride with them and keep working together to have us ready for the season.

I really feel like it's going to come together really well for us as a group this year.

Cheers.

3 comments:

Bryan Vaughan said...

Nice ride....
Sounds a lot like the wandering rides I did in Ky over Christmas. Funny thing is I rode with Jeff on the WOD last week and talked about racing on the road too!

Jesse said...

It was nice...good to just get miles in without killing myself.

JAA said...

Jesse - nice riding w/ you too....and chatting. And yes I ran into - actually like you - Bryan came up on me on the trail. I"m still toying w/ a road race...was thinking about Jeff Cup but family stuff takes precedent....so may instead try 40+ Tysons race....figure the older guys are less likely to crash - w/ their hip replacements and all. LOL. Good luck w/ your upcoming races...and hope to see you on a CX bike in September