The Renaissance Continues

Well last post I concluded that maybe the tide was turning (in terms of my riding at least), and so it continues. I spent the majority of last week camping at the Assateague National Park in Md’s Eastern Shore. Original plan was for a “whole family” trip but this was nixed by daughter #3 (the three year old) taking a huge dislike to the tent during a trial run and the tentative trip coinciding with the same daughters “Princess Dance” summer camp. So it was just me, daughter #2 (the nine year old)and her friend that made the 3 hour trip to the Eastern Shore. Company was provided by half of another family (Jen and her two boys) Jen’s husband was supposed to be there but reneged on the commitment to compete in the National MTB Championship in Vt (fair excuse I suppose). With the youngest absent and all the kids being old enough to attend the gratis kids club at the campground the mornings were left free for a road ride. Whoa the Eastern Shore is flat! How flat? I hear you ask. Damn flat, pancake flat – no flatter than that! The result is road riding that is an intoxicating mix of constant high(ish) speed and essentially continual effort. There is no real opportunity to coast as there are no down hill stretches and the continual flat nature of the terrain enables you to reach speeds not easily achieved (by me atleast) without gravity’s assistance. As a result we hustled for ≈ 30 miles on both days available riding. Jen regaled me on both days with accounts of her exploits as a leading roadie “back in the day” including a podium finish in the National Road Race Championships after she had managed to bring down the majority of the leading pack in the final sprint with some borderline shenanagins but miraculously remained upright herself. On the first day I even attempted to initiate a mid-ride sprint at the turn around point. Feeling f,ing great as the extra effort kicked up my speed I felt a little idiotic when I glanced back and realized Jen wanted none of it and had just turned around already and was just waiting for me to catch her up once I had had enough of my foolishness. Looking back I am somewhat relieved Jen took this view of my over exuberance as she is still a pretty mean sprinter and would have undoubtedly kicked my arse and dented my ego if she had taken the bait of an impromptu intermediate sprint. The second day ride followed the same route but was slightly extended coming in at around 32 miles at an average of a respectable (if not outrageous) 19 mph. I must admit I was surprised and disappointed by the average speed as I had been pretty much convinced that we had never let the speed drop below 20 mph for the whole ride, guess those traffic junctions really screw your average speed. The afternoon was spent mainly relaxing in the “Lazy River” at Frontierland a trip to which was the payoff for daughter #2 agreeing to tolerate a second morning at the kid’s club

The longer and more concentrated efforts than usual on the road bike left my MTB accustomed legs feeling somewhat worse for wear after just two days and a third would have been great, but daughter #2 was not in favor of kids camp three days running so the last day at the beach was a “cool down” day on the Boardwalk in Ocean City. To be honest this was not totally unappreciated by “yours truly” after a nightmarish final night which allowed little sleep due to a sudden short but very vicious storm that blew up on the final evening and lifted my tent (along with contents) about four feet off the ground and probably thirty feet towards the ocean before I managed to pounce on it and hold it down – with the help of two over kind souls who came to my aid – until the storm abated. By the time the wind had dropped most of my stuff was wet and I couldn’t be arsed to put the tent back up. I chose to sleep in the car instead, until my daughter and friend woke me around 2 am scared because the wind had risen again and they were afraid that their tent would blow away with them in it. They then slept in the car and I took the duty of sleeping in their tent (after anchoring it to the best of my ability with some large chunks of concrete I scavenged) to ensure it (and I) didn’t blow away into the Atlantic.

The benefits from the Assateague adventure (well the riding bit anyway) were felt on Sunday however during the now regular social ride – wow I felt great! My love affair with my Monocog 29er is going from strength to strength, I just love the way those big ass wheels allow me to ride! Sunday saw the addition of another MTB-rider reborn to the group. Sean another friend was coaxed out of “MTB retirement” and proved to be a very able rider indeed – God the guy looks the part, lean and mean in his “Irish” MTB jersey and he rides with a purpose! In fairness Sean would have been out with us weeks ago if he hadn’t decided to show off “how well Daddy can ride his bike” on his sons new BMX ramp – ramp designed for small wheels and 26 inch rims were a bad combination and so a broken hand was the result.

The Sunday ride took the now regular route from Landing Road, through Lewis and Clarke (where the revelation was that all the jumps and berms have been completely irradicated! Whilst we never really took any of the jumps on it was always kind of neat to have them there just in case the confidence/stupidity was ever found to give them a go. Then on to the “loggy section” that leads to the Belmont loop and the Rockburn Trail. After the third water crossing we again turned left up the insanely steep hill (Sean damn near cleaning it) then back onto the Rockburn Park Trail. A few twiddly bits added probably a mile to make the total distance to perhaps a shade over 10 miles. Legs felt great and MLW complained a couple of times that maybe I could slow down a bit – Yeah right that’s going to happen when the “Mojo” is in full flow, though to be fair to MLW her riding is just going from strength to strength and she is throwing that bike around a fair bit – she can a cropper a bit towards the end of the ride when a sudden last minute hesitation and approaching a log at a sligt angle resulted in a rapid testing of gravity a bruised side and a scrapped elbow. Good on her she never even hesitated and just got back on and attacked the next obstacle – that’s my girl! There was an option of extending the ride along Cascade but the need to catch a plane to Ca in the afternoon vetoed that option – bummer.

Still, life is good, my love for road riding is returning and the MTBing just gets better and better. Hopefully a few longer rides will be on the cards in the next couple of weeks cos the legs are begging for it right now.

Cheers

Dogzbollux