Busy couple of weeks

I've really been slacking on keeping the blog up to date but temps have been warming and I have been spending as little time as possible indoors. So let's see what I can do for an update...... Two weekends ago a bunch of us headed down to Virginia to ride the Leesburg Bakers Dozen. This is a 13 hour race held on a private farm and even though the course didn't have a lot of climbing it ended up being brutal on the body due the roughness of the newly cut trail. It was my first endurance race so I really didn't know what to expect. I got way to excited early on in the race and didn't do that good of a job pacing myself. The end result was me coming in 18th of 30 some people. I threw in the towel around the 8 hour mark with 62 miles under my belt. It was a great time and I can't wait to do it again. My buddy Kevin got 5ht place...way to go Kev! You can check out some pics here. http://picasaweb.google.com/kegley/LeesburgBakersDozen

That race was on Saturday, the following Monday I was feeling good so I headed out by myself for a recovery ride at the Frederick Watershed. Even though I felt good before heading out, as soon as I started pedaling, I realized my legs weren't ready to tackle the hilly and rocky terrain at the Shed. That ride ended up only lasting about an hour. I felt like a slug.

I didn't get on a bike again until this past Saturday. Joe, Andy, Dave and myself decided to hit the Shed for a day of riding after a trip to Elizabeth Furnace got canned at the last minute. The idea was to do whatever we felt like and that's exactly what we did. Exploration was the theme for this ride. We found some trail that we had never ridden before so that was a treat. Apparently, the Watershed is also a popular place to pick edible plants such as Mushrooms and young Ferns since we ran into a number of folks doing just that. We ended the ride by having a few brews then continued the after ride festivities back at Joe and Julie's place in town.

Sunday was a long day for me. I ended up sleeping on the couch on Sat night giving up the beds for visiting family/friends. This led to me getting about 2 hours sleep. When I finally got my butt moving, I headed over to the Greenbrier race to hang out with Tom and Danielle and cheer on Kevin who was racing the Marathon class. After a couple hours of hanging out, cheering and taking pictures I had to take off and run to Annapolis for a fancy dinner at the Chart House with family. Of course we had to go back to my in laws house for dessert afterwards, even though we had already had dessert at the restaurant. I was so freaking tired when I got home that I walked straight through the door and directly to the bed. Actually feels good to be back at work for a little R&R. ;)

Spring is still on hold

Hit up Patapsco with Mehdi this evening for a fairly casual ride. All the blooming buds and leaves that were in the process of popping have ground to a halt. The trails were in great condition, not too dry, not too wet. I guess the cool temps are keeping people in because it was another day of sparse encouters with other riders and trail users. We did a lot of chatting about strategies for the Leesburg Bakers Dozen Enduro that's coming up in a couple weeks. At the end of the day we logged 11 miles or so. The new 80mm Fox fork on the IF is working out great. I feel a bit detached from the trail compared to my rigid fork but it definitely takes a load off the arms and shoulders which is exactly what I wanted for the upcoming endurance race season.

Opening Soon Mini-Storage

The other day, I drove by a construction site in New Market and discovered they were putting up one of those self storage facilities. I thought to myself...Wow, that's going to be an attractive addition to the community. Rows and rows of brightly painted, corrugated metal buildings will fit right in on Rt 144 less than 1/4 mile away from Historic New Market.

As I was driving around Frederick and adjoining areas that day, I started paying attention to just how many of these storage places there are. They seem to be everywhere! I guess my question is, what are people storing in these places? I myself used one of these storage places for a couple months when I was in between houses but that scenario can't possibly keep these places in business. I have a feeling these storage cubes are mostly filled with junk that people can't quite bear to part with. I wonder if self storage is such a booming business in other countries or if we as Americans are just too into hoarding junk? A perfect example are my in laws, they are the typical American family. Both worked for most of their lives and still live in the same house where they raised their family. Now they are getting ready to retire and have realized that they have way too much stuff. Are we all destined to spend our entire lives working for and collecting material possessions to only offload all of those possessions when we go to retire? Are we slaves to junk? Do we really need all this stuff?

To-Do-List for Tomorrow

1. Wake up
2. Commence commute to work
3. Think about how to become rich by riding my bike
4. Come to the realization that I'm not going to get rich by riding my bike
5. Think about how poor I am willing to be just so I can ride my bike instead of work
6. Come to the realization that that if I'm poor I won't be able to afford bike stuff
7. Get depressed for 5 minutes
8. Arrive at work
9. Get depressed for 8 hours
10. Ride my bike with friends
11. Drive home with smile on face
12. Drink beer and enjoy my wifes company
13. Eat and enjoy my wifes company
14. Drink more beer and enjoy my wifes company
15. Sleep and/or ENJOY MY WIFES COMPANY ;)

Mother nature is cruel

Woke up to a dusting of snow and 30 degree temps this morning. Cursing the cold, I loaded up my bike and gear to get ready for a ride at Schaeffer Farms with a handful of guys. About six of us ended up hitting the trails around 12:30 or so. Warming up was especially rough since my body had already forgotten the cruel sting of winter. All in all it was a day of attrition. By the time we reached the 2 hour mark, the group had dwindled down to two riders. Kev and I left Schaeffer and headed for the Hoyles Mill Connector to get some extra ride time in. After finishing the connector up, we did another lap at Schaeffer to end up with a nice round 3o mile ride. Despite the cold it ended up being a good day.

A Christmas Story

Regretfully, I learned today that director Bob Clark and his son were killed in a car accident in LA. Bob was involved with some of my favorite 80's classics. A Christmas Story, Turk 182 and Porky's were all the work of Bob Clark. According to the story, it appears they were hit by a drunk driver. Bob's son Ariel was only 22 years old. What a shame.....

The Wraith

A number of years back I posted some screen shots on IMDB of a very young Brooke Burke when I noticed she appeared in the movie "The Wraith" uncredited. Numerous people have asked about the screen shots since they were removed from the old server a couple years ago and my co-worker Jon who is a serious movie buff reminds me to dig them up and repost them at least once every six months. Today, he reminded me again since someone posted on IMDB wanting to see the screen shots. Well, here they are in all their cheesy 80's movie glory. BTW, I think I remember Jon telling me that she is now credited for the movie on IMDB. I've done my part for 80's movie history! ;)