33 miles through Nokesville

Yesteday my friend "J" and I went on a 30 mile group ride hosted by the Potomac Pedalers over in Nokesville. I've heard about the Potomac Pedalers since they are a rather large group but have never participated in any of their rides. They host a very popular century ride called  Back Roads Century that always sells out. I only heard about this particular ride from reading a post about it in a Facebook group that I belong to. It was a free ride to members and non-members so I thought what the heck.

overcast but temps were nice & low

Now, I never bothered to look at the map or to check out the elevation so when my friend J asked if there were a lot of hills I said no I don't think so because from what I have seen of Nokesville and portions that I have driven through it was relatively flat with only a couple small slow inclines. Well, I guess I was wrong, the first 17 miles were quite easy and scenic & I was able to get a few good pictures.

Moooooo

interesting way of decorating 

driveway to a gigantic house 

At just past the 12 mile mark was a country store and that was one of the rest stops. We stopped and chatted, took a drink & grabbed a bite to eat. We befriended a couple ladies who were riding the same speed as us & J took a group selfie.

country store rest stop

break time

group shot

And here is where we got mixed up. We started making our way down the road according to what we thought were the right directions & we even looked back to make sure some of the others were behind us. We even asked is this is the right way & they seemed to agree so we pedaled on. After about 1.5 miles we realized that something wasn't right so we stopped and waited but nobody was behind us. Oops ! We turned around and headed back toward the store where we were relieved to see a bunch of riders still there. We asked one of the guys if we could see his cue sheet since he was riding the 42 mile route & his directions were the same as ours after the rest stop. We just followed everyone else for the next 20 miles.

still trying to smile even climbing his smaller hill.

After the ride we were treated to a huge picnic with lots of food. They had a variety of burritos catered from Baja Fresh along with all kinds of desserts & various home made foods that people brought. It was very nice. We ended up sitting next to one of the ladies who we got "lost" with.

post ride picnic at the pavilion

Baja Chipotle Chicken Burrito

side of guacamole, seven layer dip, chips, ginger snaps, chocolate peanut butter cookie & watemelon

Ratatouille

I went to Ikea to look for a twin bed frame for my little guy & I ended up finding a deal on a nice bookshelf marked 1/2 price. I also purchased some other "necessary" kitchen items like a strainer & a mandoline. Well the mandoline is more or less a new toy. Of course I had to stop at the grocery store to buy items that I could use with my new toy so I picked up some zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant & couple red bell peppers. I searched for some recipes online and came across this one for Ratatouille.

cell phone pic of it just prior to cooking 

 The only thing I did different was that I added a sliced russet potato.Once it was done cooking, we put it over top some rice & it was pretty tasty. I wanted to chow down but I held back because I have 30 mile ride tomorrow morning.

Richmond Half Marathon... Do I run it or do I defer??

This weekend coming up will mark 12 weeks until race day November 15th, 2014. I have been going back and forth on this. Do I want to run or defer until 2015?

My heart says I want to run it but my mind is saying do not risk it. I have until October to defer my registration. I am thinking that maybe I should just give it a try and start training for it & see how it goes. If I'm still having problems with the back of my knee by the deferment deadline then I'll go ahead and defer my registration until 2015.

So I have created my own personal 12 week training schedule.  I've decided to stick to only 3 days of running alternating my non run days with cycling. I am increasing the milage nice and slowly hopefully to avoid any injuries. Monday will be my official start to training beginning with a 2 mile run.

Hopefully this plan works out because I have always wanted to run Richmond. I hear it's a great race.

Bull Run Bicycle group ride #2

Well last night I met up with the same riding group I blogged about on a prior post.I was looking forward to riding with them last week but it got cancelled due to the rain. Last nights count was 53 who showed up to ride. A pretty decent sized group of cyclists especially for mid August when a lot of people are usually out of town trying to squeeze in that last summer vacation before school starts. 

We met up at the bike shop at 6:30 and took off about 10 minutes later. I was able to take a lot more photos this time. You could feel the humiditiy but with the cooler temps it made for a pleasant ride. 

 

taking a break at the halfway point

My best running friend "J" joined us too. She hasn't been riding much this summer and her longest ride was 5 miles just a few days ago. It was a little more than 14 miles & she did awesome. 

"J"

We decided to stop at a wonderful little greek restaurant called Giorgio's  for some Gyro's afterwards. 

Great way to end our fun ride :) 

Back to school for the oldest one

Has it really been more than a week since I last posted & why is summer is nearly over?? Geez time sure does fly!

This past weekend we helped move our oldest "S" into her first apartment for her sophmore year of college. School doesn't officially start until Monday, August 25th. Freshman move in day begins this Friday and returning students on Saturday so I am glad she moved into her apartment early. I remember moving her into the dorm last year and the traffic on I81was quite congested at times and then I remember dealing with more congestion at the school. It was a mad house.

Beautiful drive toward the mountains 

streets around campus are pretty empty

In other news, my attempts at biking last week were met with more flat tires. On Thursday I planned to get in a long ride 15-20 miles because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it over the weekend due to packing and moving. I drove over to the trail & got my bike out and filled both tires with the correct amout of air. I started getting my shoes and my helmet on when all the sudden I heard a big BANG. It totally scared the shit out of me. I looked around and noticed that my back tire was flat! WTH!! I was so mad because I used the last spare tube I had fixing the back tire on my last ride & I didn't have another spare tube. I just packed everything back into the van and drove over to Walmart & bought 2 more tubes. I got home and started changing the tube & upon inspection of the tire I noticed a slash on the sidewall. Ah-ha! problem solved, time for a new tire. I am guess that slash in the tire was the culprit for these last 2 flat tires I've had to deal with

On Sunday afternoon I went to the local bike shop and bought a new tire and had it plus the tube put on, $54 was a bit steep but I got a good quality tire and I was ready to ride but it would have to wait until Monday because I had little guy all day. Hubby went to the junk yard with a buddy of his and did not get home until after 7. I spent the rest of my day cleaning and organizing the house.

Why did I step on it?

I made the horrible mistake of stepping on the scale yesterday after my 12 mile bike ride. I sound like a broken record player (really showing my age now) but it looks like my vacation from counting calories & eating healthy food must sadly come to end. Time to get back to being good- ugh! I hate being good with food. It's so much more fun to be bad and eat whatever I want. I wish I could take Charlene's approach but that wouldn't help get the pounds off either.

In other more exciting news... I am still riding my bike. I decided to go explore some new places so yesterday I rode 12 miles & headed over to the Possom Point Power Plant. I picked this location because the road that leads to it has very little traffic and it's somewhat scenic & shady. The only scary part is that there is no shoulder to ride on, but since there is little to no traffic I wasn't as worried.  

Notice the gas pipes next to the guard rail. I am curious if they are still being used.

Once you pass this area you come to the front of the power plant where there is a gate and a guard station. I wanted to stop to take a picture of the whole plant but I didn't want them to think I am some weirdo so I turned around and stopped here to take a picture. There were a lot of birds flying between the power lines.

Pretty scenes along the river

I ended my ride with a lovely flat tire on the back wheel about 1.5 miles from my house. Thankfully I had a spare tube. I ended up wasting 20 minutes changing it & trying to pump it up with the hand pump. What a way to end my lovely bike ride. 

Being a minority in a 14 mile group ride

Monday evening I was looking online for some cycling groups in my area. Now I do not mind riding alone but it is nice to have some company once in awhile, especially on those longer rides. I figured there HAS to be something since I almost always seem to pass by 4-5 bikers everytime I ride on the local path. Well, I came across a page on Facebook for a bike shop over in Manassas. I was excited to read that they actually host group rides on Tuesday's at 6:30pm. I figured what the heck I will check it out. So yesterday I drove over to their meet up location. When I got there I was a bit initmidated & had 2nd thoughts when all I saw gathered in the parking lot was a large group of men standing with their bikes. I finally saw a couple of ladies & decided to just suck it up and go for it. I am so glad I did because even though we (the ladies) were clearly in the minority it was a fun ride. They counted a total of 54 riders, 4 of which were the ladies. We created quite a sight for the cars on the road. I was able to take some pictures.

sharing the road or maybe taking it over

using up one lane to wait for the traffic light

We rode for about 8 miles through some nice neighborhoods and out to the local airport where we stopped to take a mini break. 

waiting for the others at the rest stop

They were going at a pretty decent pace too, which gave me a good workout, thankfully there were not a lot of hills.

cycing through the local park

I will definitely try to be there again next week. So happy to have found a semi local place for a group ride.

Tour of the Towns ~ Tour of Prince William

Yesterday I completed my first paid cycling event, Tour of the Towns. It was my first time participating in this type of event so I was a bit nervous especially since I was going at it alone. Luckily it was held relatively close to my neighborhood so that helped ease my mind. I think if it were miles away I would have been more nervous about doing it alone especially in unfamiliar surroundings. The ride began in the parking lot of the National Marine Corps Museum .

very cloudy but we were spared from any rain drops

 It was a rolling start so you could go anytime between the hours of 7:30-9:30am. I arrived just after 7:30am & there were still quite a few people in the parking lot prepping their bikes. I got my bike out & pumped my tires, filled my water bottle & put on my helmet and gloves. I checked in at the registration tent and was handed a bag that included my event t-shirt & a sticker with my rider # to be attached to my helmet. 

I had an internal debate with myself on weather to start my ride at the same time as another group of riders or just start on my own. I gave up on waiting for a group and just hopped on my bike and took off. 

The first few miles were easy. Once you leave the parking lot to the Marine Corps Museum you head toward Quantico Marine Base. The directions had us bike down a side road that ran parallel to the base & then we had to make a U-turn at St. Francis Catholic Church. I'm sure this was done to add some extra milage to the route. After turning around at the church we were directed to go through the main gate of the base and ride toward the small town of Quantico.  

a couple of the guys I was pacing into the Town of Quantico

After going around the little town, we turned and headed back toward the main gate to exit the base. This is where I parted ways with the group of guys I was pacing. They were doing the metric century (63 miles). They wished me well on the remainder of my ride & I wished them good luck on theirs.

The next leg of my ride left me a bit fidgety. I had to wait for the traffic light to change before crossing the busy Rt 1 highway. I was doing ok until I had to literally share the lane because there was no shoulder, plus I was also about to cross under both the North & Southbound  I95 exit ramps. 

just crossed the Northbound exit ramp. Next up crossing the Southbound exit ramp

It wasn't as bad as I thought.I think if it were later in the day I would have encountered more cars. I noticed another lady who had pulled over to the side of the road taking a drink. I also stopped and took my first drink as well because by this time I had ridden about 10 miles & was dying of thirst. We chatted for a bit and rode together to the park entrance.

There was a table set up with bottled water, peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, honey stingers & various other fuels. I stopped and ate a banana & had another drink of water before heading into the park.

I figued I better get ready because this part of the ride is the hardest part. Let me say HARDEST PART of the ride again! Starting at the parks entrance & doing 1 loop on Scenic Drive & back to the entrance is about 12 miles. It was definitely a workout with climbing some steep hills and cruising at 30+ mph on some of the downs. I had an epic camera fail & never even thought of taking a picture. My mind was all on getting theses hills over with. 

 

Once I left the park, I had to cross the I95 exits again to get to the museum parking lot. I was happy to be in the home stretch. I remembered to take a picture too.

Finally finished! 

Garmin watch data 

Overall I am happy with my time. I averaged almost 14 mph even with some nasty hills thrown in the mix. Not bad for this heavy Mama. It was a lot of fun and I will sign up for another future ride. I've already searched online & found a few rides in September and October that I might try to do. Who knows I may just take the plunge and do a century ride this year !

 

Meadowood Recreation Area

Well yesterday I was going to come into work late because my little one had his annual physical scheduled for 9am. We finished up just after 10:30am and he assumed that I had taken the entire day off & that we were going to "hang out" together for the rest of the day. When I explained that I was going to the office late he was a bit bummed, so I decided to just take the rest of the day off.  We went to check out Meadowood Recreation Area. It's a local park that has some hiking trails & a mountain biking trail.

Unlike the C&O Towpath or Burke Lake Park, which both have a fairly wide path allowing you to ride side by side, this trail was all single track with some sharp turns & small uphill climbs.

The nice thing is that it is all shady so even though the temps were in the mid to high 80's, we were relatively cool. The path is marked well, although we got lost sort of (more about that later).

 After about a mile on the path we came upon a picnic bench. We stopped and took a seat and drank some water. I took my camera out of the back pack and snapped some pictures of his bike.

We resumed our ride and as we got further down the path it started to get more arduous. "J"  had a couple falls on the bike due  a combination of some loose gravel & coming up too fast on a couple twisty turns. He was starting to complain & began asking if we were almost done. I kept telling him that he was doing fantastic and to just brush it off & get back on. Not sure if my "encouragement" helped or if it annoyed him even more. Thankfully all of that complaining was quickly forgotton when we came across some big mushrooms & a turtle that happen to be crossing the path.

J was quick to jump off the bike to go check out this little turtle. Originally, I was taking pictures of him with my cell phone & they were not as clear as I would have liked so I pulled out my "normal" camera. As soon as I got down to take some close up pictures of him, he started to practically run into the leaves. I am am assuming the lens must has scared him off because it sort of looks like a gigantic eyeball.

We came to another sign post indicating "Yard Sale" trail that was .67 miles. We decided to check it out & it was so much fun! It was more like a challenge trail with jumps & various other obstacles. He was intimidated at first but once he got over the first jump, he was hooked.

I was able to catch this shot with my cell phone of me getting ready to go down a mini hill & the other picture (which is quite blurry) of him doing the part he enjoyed the most.

J's favorite part, a long series of jumps.

After doing the Yard Sale trail, we ended up on the same trail we were previously on except in a different location & because I failed to bring a map with me we ended up going back the same way we came in. We realized this after about 1/2 a mile once we saw some familiar things we had already passed. J was really tired by this point and was telling me he was worried we were lost in the woods. We stopped and ate the sandwiches we had packed earlier. 

We continued slowly on the path & happen to see a swarm of bees flying around really close to the ground. We noticed they must have built an underground nest because dozens of them were going in and out of this small hole in the ground. They didn't bother us & they seemed to be preoccupied so I tried to get a close up shot of them going in and out of their hole

. 

Luckily for us, there was another biker that so happened to be on the path. He said we had about 1.5 miles more to go. We eventually got to the parking lot, packed up our bikes & headed home. Overall I really liked the trail. Next time I plan to start the trail going in the opposite direction since we never made it around the other side.