SSAP 2012

Saturday we rode Six Mile and ran into Manny doing some quasi-epic stuff. Fun to see him and catch up. He is more local to me now than before, so it will be cool to link up with him in the future.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172612744

Words really can’t explain Sunday. I wore a GoPro for Manny and hope I got some good stuff. I was only really riding with people the first lap, so it should be easy for him to watch

I rode with ChrisG the first lap. He was climbing things most people were walking. He kept a solid pace but I could not keep up on the fire road downhills. Doesn’t make sense, I know, but that was where the gap was created. Had sightings of woody, Glick and Chris throughout the whole second lap, but could never really catch them. I LOVED this course. I finished 45th, right in the spot I belong me thinks. The people in front of me are faster.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173046763
I’ve never ridden a mountain bike, that fast, for that long, ever. It doesn’t have to do with being fast, it was just how fast the course was.

 

Yesterday was our first ride from the new location. Still trying to iron out the best loop. I made two while I was at work yesterday and told Mandi to pick the simple 25 mile flat one, or the 42 mile one around Round Valley. She picks the latter of the two. Load up the files on both Garmins (as mine is just about dead) and we are off.

Planning a loop without any real knowledge of the area is hard. Where I chose to cross over 202 the first time was stupid. It wasn’t even an intersection. A light was here but still not really too safe. Blah. Whatever. The other crossing should be better.

We head up Cedar Grove/Harland School/Pulaski Road which is just huge roller after another. These kind of suck the life and speed out of you the whole way, which I wasn’t prepared for. We were keeping it cool knowing we had two big climbs coming up.

Up Old Mountain Road and onto “The Reservoir”. Man is it nice up here.

We eventually start cruising down and man this was fun. I felt like I was in the tour or something. Nice wide swooping turns on fresh pavement. You forgot how much you climbed when you can bomb down it at 30+ MPH

Mandi asks if we are done and I say no. Up Stanton Mountain we go! This was probably the biggest climb I have done to date. This road just keeps pitching after every turn. You will think its over, then another 90 degree turn and it kicks up again. She stuck with this climb and we reach the top. Woot!

The ride from here on out is pretty peaceful and quiet. This was good planning by me. I’m sure it being all slightly downhill for around 10-15 miles also helped, but the scenery and quiet roads are great out this was. Passed some old farm houses and some really rickety bridges (think Griggstown Causeway back when it would have been made of wooden planks)

We come up to 202 again and I picked a spot where we cross…. Without a traffic light. Meh. Nobody said it would be a perfect loop! We get closer to home and we ride the last mile or so with blinkies and just enough sun light to get back to the door. One thing that is different around this area is its pretty much up or down, 80% of the time. Which is cool and all. I think I can throw some flatter stuff into the mix if need be.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/171800785
If you are reading this and have any other loops in the area, please reply with them. Need more info. I have tapped into Fred, I know Jim does some cool stuff around here. Just need more variation for next time.

Mandi is pooped. I have two hotdogs with two hamburgers and curl up in some PJ’s. Legs felt good the whole time and always had some pop. I guess that is what not riding for 3 days will do to your body. Glad to feel fresh.

Today Is nice and rainy, so I will finish up some pieces in the apartment and watch both Game 7 games with some homies. Well at least until bed time. The Devils game starts at 8:40, so that means it’ll be over around 11ish or so? That’s lame. At least it won’t mess up Norms commute since they are playing in Florida. He can blame the Ranger fans for that. That should do for now.

Scalpel Demo

So my weekend was pretty awesome, Lets see if I can recap it all.

Friday I’m leaving work to drop off some maps I printed up for Jay of Six Mile. These things will help new peoples get around the trails without having a search and rescue team get them out every time. I call Chris earlier and ask if they have any FS29er demos available, anything. I’ve always been curious about them. I know that they had a demo Anthem X which would have been cool. I show up and guess what was just built?

They finished the Alloy Scalpel 29er. This would be the second time I demo a bike, brand new from Halters. Talk about awesome. I’m going to write a review of the bike in another post, so I won’t clog that up here.

Ask nicely and anything is possible!

With 2 beautiful days of weather, I would have a great opportunity to hammer this thing. Head straight home and meet Mandi ready to ride. We decided to do a Semi-JimV inspired ride and ride to Six Mile. It is a quick 20-25 minutes on the canal path one way, and a mile of road to the path. Obviously this wasn’t the best place to demo a FS29er bike, but a great place to start as it is my local trailhead. I could see if I could whip this thing around.

The only things I really remember is that it was extremely dusty and all I wanted to do was go faster. That and the bugs. So many bugs on the canal path. I wanted to die. We couldn’t talk to each other on the canal path it was so bad. You had to put your hand over your mouth and talk, otherwise you would be picking these things out of your teeth.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/170040691

Riding from your front door makes the trails seem even better than they really are. You don’t feel like you wasted an hour in the car. Got to work on that tan line and enjoy the sun that much more.

Saturday Comes around and I think it is Sunday. Yesterday was a ton of fun, plus whenever I have a dream, it takes place as a full day. Weird I know. So I will wake up plenty of times and think it is the next day. Sucks hard on weekends because I’ll think it is a work day, rush around and get all my stuff together for work, Only to realize its Sunday.

Originally had plans with Jared and the Doc to head to Wiss for some MTBing, but found out some festival was going on. Meaning it would be mobbed. So we changed plans and decided to ride from the Barn with Capers. Mandi wasn’t 1000% present so she decided to stroll the town and catch some rays in Lambertville/New Hope. Capers and I both decided to punish ourselves today and do the full Lambertville Epic loop.

This is where the FS bike and geo really helped. It loved the Water Co trails and techy rocks this place had to offer. The bike really takes the edge off the rocks/roots that you encounter out this way. Capers saves a couple of OTB moments by not landing on his face. We don’t get too turned around in the Water Co trails, but I feel like we may have missed some stuff when I was leading

Head out down the Greenway and man, this bike just took over. Not sure if the extra weight + the FS took over, but I felt like Danny Hart. everything felt paved underneath me and I felt extremely fast. We run into a group of hikers and turn it down for a second, but then right back into it. Woo! I would love to just session this trail. I know I said that before, but SaD.

Into Bald Pate and after about an hour of techy goodness. Capers wants to hit two big ass climbs, and I’m down. The first one he sends us up is an eroded trail which was a straight shot up. Not too fun. Even with the 2×10 its just too much for me, and I have to bail about 70% up. Doc does the same. We later find out this was the wrong trail. oh well. We hit this switchback trail which was pretty dope, twisty and tight, then right back up the same ridge. I do miss the lockout on the lefty now that I’ve tried it again.

We this trail called “Steps Trail” or whatever, thats what Doc called it, and I looked mad fast:

We head out of the Pate and cross into Washington Crossing and out to the Canal Path. This to me is always the hardest part, mentally on this ride. You just want to be home now. For some reason Capers takes me through this dumbass doubletrack at the end that goes around some big ass field which was stupid. Capers senses this and asks me if I like this. I immediately told him I did not like this and GMTFO of here. He complies and we head back. I tap my water in my Camelbak about 10 minutes from the barn.

Almost run over a couple of people on the canal path and BAM, we are back at the barn.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/170364157

Head out to Lambertville Station for Burgers and shit. Nice day to sit on the patio and smash some buuuuurrrrgers. I make Capers walk home from this point and head on my way back home.

I finally part ways with the Scalpel in Bridgwater and drop this off to Mr Kirt. I throw the plastic pedals and I know my time with this thing is over. I am very impressed by this machine and I’m sure he will too. I was glad I was the first to christen it.

Sunday comes around and I feel pretty sore, but not as bad as I thought. Today we started painting the apartment, but took a lunch break to meet Dustin, Jamie, Bill and Lisa at Stuff Your Face in New Brunswick. Dustin showed up 30 minutes late in honor of Lou, so I was even hungrier than I originally was when I showed up. I proceeded to Stuff My Face along with everyone else in a nice delicious boli. No photos as I was DYING. As we are walking out I try and give some advice to Dustin about gearing for SSaP, but he isn’t interested. I tried giving him the out on blaming his gearing on me, or taking all the pride in choosing his own. Sunday can’t come soon enough, I can’t wait for this race.

Walk back in the rain to the car and back to painting until 7PM. Blah. This will all soon be over.

That is good enough for now; Gotta start talking about the Scalpel somewhere….

PFW ride was going to hurt; Jay sent out a facebook shout to his homies and really brought in a good amount of riders that wouldn’t normally show up. More bodes = go faster = more pain.

In the meantime I hung out around the shop and distracted everyone, especially when Trip started building this:

Short recap of good moments:
-Jay tries to fly up Burnt Hill Road (short steep uphill) after Max and I chase him. That was fun.
-Pick up Billy Big Pants on 518. WHAT UP SON!

Province Line Ilya is looking for Strava segments so I told him this was one. He did 1 of the 2, but didn’t know where to go at the top of the first hill. Woops. The guy Austin Roach is a beast:

http://app.strava.com/rides/7032647#132130986

I wanted to try something different, so I immediately shifted into my little ring. Last time I stuck it out as long as I could in the big ring, and I think it hurt more.

Anyway, Max goes to chase Ilya up the first section but doesn’t catch him. I’m close enough to see all this action. Max usually doesn’t have anyone else to chase him but me, so I’m sure he was happy about his new challenge.

Ilya stopped and just rolled up the flat section as he didn’t know where he was. Sorry man! I think I was 4-5th once the first hill flattened out. I reel in the little group that is chasing Max and recover for a tad. I keep trying to pace Lance a tad up the hill, but he seems content with just cruising up it. I eventually have some older fellow in a blue jersey (didn’t catch his name) coming up behind me and keeping a good pace with me. The middle section of Province Line flattens out and you could work together on this one, but he wasn’t interested. Max is just about out of sight now. I have one last effort before the last steep pitch to the end of the climb. Phew. Never catch Max, he is strong.

I think switching to the little ring worked. The first climb section was faster, even though the whole climb was slower, I felt fresher towards the end. We will see how this works.

-Jay comments on how bad ass downhill road racing would be as we weave down Zion/Wertsville/Longhill and Hollow. Dodging potholes and crappy road make for an exciting moment.

-I am too skinny and cannot go downhill Grandview as fast as everyone else. I think its a technique thing, since Ben blew by me

-Capers again send another water bottle flying as he plows through a set of rail road tracks on 601.

-Then he flats.

River Road I decide to pretend like I’m the shit and once everyone is clipped in, go really hard off the light. I looked back and Ilya was with me, maybe one other person. This road is a slight downhill the whole way, with one or two little risers at speed that HURT. I move over in the pace line and let the rotation start. This one hurt really bad. 5 minutes of pain at 26.4MPH and the Griggstown lot comes up. Phew. That one was good.

Couple cats dip off when we go up Bunker Hill, which is a slight uphill the whole way. This rotation hurts just as bad, if not even worse than River Road. I’m pretty much spent and have a tough time pulling through.

-Ben makes up a sprint point but no one can really respond except Rick, Ilya and Ben himself. New Road back to Route 1 is also a slight uphill. Meh. Everyone was playing cat and mouse so I figured I would just push the pace and die. One day I will learn to not be so impatient and just sit in.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/169793546

Back to the lot, wear Jay’s shoes and ride his bike around the parking lot. Man that thing is cool. Glad I can’t afford one. We change and eat some pizza and make funny jokes. Good ride, good peoples and good chatting afterwards.

I was on apartment duty for a hour or so before I could ride. I put everything into one room so we can have a throw away party. Mandi and I were both discussing last night how we would almost hope it rains this weekend/next week, because we need a reason to put our butts in gear and finish buttoning up the apartment. I grabbed a couple of more essentials and headed into Village Park to meet Rick and Co. for the A ride.

The weather is 10x better than yesterday with a cooler breeze. We head out of the lot and instead of slowly cruising (16-17MPH) out on Cranbury Half-Acre road, we are immediately on the gas and putting out an effort.

EDIT: At one point before the Bagel Hills Sprint Point (not sure why its called that, it is a set of 4-5 rollers that are pretty tall, think Lamington Road) a group of 5 or so including Max and a couple of other guys start slowly pulling away. I’m towards the back of the paceline and decide to try and bridge the gap. I bury myself and catch up to them, with no one in tow. Score! We eventually rotate around and are caught by the group, but I felt good about myself being able to catch back up to the lead group.

During 2 of 3 the sprint points on this ride (granted only 20% of the group goes for them) I keep getting strung out and pretty much leading out the group. I find myself in this position too many times, and really need to learn how NOT to be here. By the time everyone goes around me, It’s too late, I can’t do anything. I don’t care too much for them, as I know I’m not a sprinter by any means. I’m here for the pain and would rather push the pace harder and harder. I enjoy following the wheels of Young Max and Somerset Jersey (who I think is named Dave) as I think they are the strongest in the group and pull the huge efforts out of me.

We extended the loop a tad last night down Norco road, which was a really nice ride for a line. The last sprint down Station Road ends the same way, me in the front. This time I try to slow down and see if anyone gets antsy, but no one cares. Eventually I have to try and hammer from the front of the line which just doesn’t work. I sit up and that is the ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/169230515

I will head back up to HG in May to try my fate at those rides again now that I have a shorter drive home. I’m sure that over a month my fitness hasn’t gained enough where it would be noticeable on the HG ride, but I think I have learned a lot about riding in the group that may make the HG ride “easier” with my new found knowledge. I still feel like the PFW ride suites me better, as I find myself working more in it, but lets see what happens.

Head back to the new hometown and stop at Just Subs on 206. Trip from Halters just happens to be here and we chat it up while I stuff my face. Good subs son. I almost see him get hit by a 18 wheeler as we leave, but I think he did it on purpose. Apparently thats the way you have to enter 206 if you ever want to get on the road.

Some how the Devils blow a 3-1 lead on my ride home. WTF. Once again no photos.

So the ride in was nice, it was actually cooler and enjoyable. The ride home I knew wouldn’t be. I spoke with Mandi and when she ran into Dusty Balls and Jim at Six Mile, they said the canal path was smooth as butter, almost paved. I decided to head down that way on the way home to see how paved it was.

WOW. It was smooth. and fast. Good recco son! One 200 foot section looked like death and not the normal red clay, but other than that, I couldn’t help but want to go faster and faster. I’ve ridden this on my cross bike when it was crappy, but this is great. I made good time on the canal and was in some shade. Got a nice tan for only being in the sun for 1 hour.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168907371

I drove into work today and holy hell it was so stressful. I was late obviously, but only because I went past a McDonalds. I was sitting in traffic and couldn’t help the delicious smell and the thought of a hash brown while I was driving. Mmmmm.

Going to grab some more crap from the apartment and organize a throw away piles then head to the PFW A ride after a quick nibble on some food. Should be a good day. Oh and I have to work all the way until that time. Oh yeah.

Sucks I won’t have any familiar faces since Lou is out of commission Not sure how that injury works but hopefully its fast.

I’m coping out on recapping the weekend. More photos and one line sentences. I’m exhausted mentally from this weekend and do not want to relive it.

Most importantly, the couch has been relocated. Assit to gravity for making this happen as well as Mandis dad and cousin. We found out her cousin was allergic to cats and his face blew up like a watermelon. Poor dude.

Saturday – Jorba Ringwood ride. Chilled with the social group and enjoyed the Ringwood/Ramapo trail. Awesome work. Met a lot of regulars that I don’t know on the board and chatted it up with them.

Lou did something really bad to his knee, so Mandi let him moto-scoot back on her bike and she rode his back:

jajajajaja

Hopefully he is okay. He was able to drive home and seemed in good spirits then. Wish I could have stuck around for the picnic but I had prior arrangements months ago for delicious food in my home town.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168006232

I will be back to ride this trail again. Very easy to follow and super fun.

Back home, shower, then out again.

This was the street Chinese New Year at my fake-Uncles house looked when we showed up 30 minutes after the start time:

Tons of people and tons of delicious food. I started falling asleep and bailed a tad early. The party was going HARD when we left.

Slept hard all night and was able to somehow get up for breakfast, but needed more sleep all together. Chill with my parents the rest of the day.

Other news is the cat met the dog, Calvin the Jack Russell. Calvin did not seem interested in him. Cat was growling and showed him whos boss. We will work on this relationship as we go.

Today First time with my new commute to work, so I figured why not bike it?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168699302

I leave work just in the nick of time to meet Lou and a hand full of other PFW men at the lot in Halters for another rendition of the Sourlands ride. I think 7 of us where at the lot at the time. We were meeting Max and someone else in Kingston. Talks of going up Province Line instead of Spring Hill came up, so that was a new twist. I always tried to push myself on this climb, but the added pressure of the group will always make you try harder.

Theres a slight bump on Burnt Mills Road, and I hit hard to see how I’m going to feel the rest of the ride. I feel good. Max of course follows my lead and blows my doors off at the top to finish things off.

518 to Province Line. Pretty choppy with all the construction. Hopefully they finish that soon. Over the train tracks and we are off. I start to come around the first turn and Max is on my wheel, then leaves me for dead towards the top of the first hump. I give it what I have but he is gone. We descend the other side and the two of us regroup, mostly because we want to be sure we are going the right way. We head up the second part with Max on my wheel. We finally reach that last 100 feet that gets steeper towards the stop sign and Max tries to go on the left. Sadly a car comes up and all motivation to hammer up this last bit is gone. We walk up to the top and regroup with everyone.

Ouch, that hurt. Max is a super strong kid (I think he’s 19?) and is fun to chase. He is not in the same league as me, but is the only one to really attack things and try to make them hurt, so I chase. I think he just entertains me for a while, which I don’t mind. Make it hurt! :getsome:

We fly down Zion/Zion-Wertsville/Long Hill. I’m behind Lou who is now behind Max. He flew by on the left a while ago and Lou closed a nice gap to reach his wheel. We make the right onto Hollow Road. The road is kind of choppy, so the speed is a little bit slower than normal. At some point I hear this loud noise which sounds like a spoke or RD going into Lous wheel. I immediately see my life flash before my eyes. I make everyone aware that we may be crashing soon, and we all slow down without an incident.

We assess the issue and Lou somehow torqued 6-7 links of his chain. I didn’t know that was possible. I think it has to do with the Rotor ring + bumpy ass roads + 30 MPH downhills. The group makes sure he is okay and Lou tells them to head out. Of course I couldn’t break rule number one (never leave a homie behind) so I stick it out with my man on his birthday. He twists the chain back the other way and somehow it works. That shit was seriously at like a 45 degree angle.

Anyway, we get rolling again and decide to skip Grandview and head straight down Hollow to try and catch the group at the post office. I feel like we should have run right into them with the time difference. We were only stopped for say 10 minutes. We press on thinking they are in front of us. We head over Griggstown and the slight elevation changes on River Rd finish off Lou. I press until the Griggstown bridge we regroup. Over Bunkerhill Road to 27 and shut the engines down. Coast back with Lou and chat it up. We got a better ride in with just us two, so I can’t complain about that. I felt good the whole way through. Will have to visit Spring Hill another day :getsome:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/167552712

About 5 minutes later Rick and the rest of the group roll in. I didn’t think we cut off that much time, but I guess so! Rick said if he didn’t see us at the shop, he was going to go look for us up in the Sourlands. Good guy.

We bother Jay at the shop past working hours. Man his hand is jacked up. Showing us how awesome this Scalpel is. I’m a believer. SELL THE FARM!

Head home and pack boxes. Make my gear bike all ready to ride in the meantime. Going to ride this for a week or so for some rides and then back to the SS build. Mandi keeps stressing about the move, but we really don’t have that much crap. We also have two full weeks minus weekends to button this thing up. Next two weeks will have two races, so we would prefer not to be moving stuff. This will cut into some weekday riding, but it’s only two weeks. We can do it.

Today I realized I packed all my socks, but luckily I had some in the car that were clean. They were clean, I swear. Today is the day we are moving the big stuff. Meh. I need to get that couch out of that damn place before I feel even remotely good about this. After that it will be all down hill.

Don’t get it twisted; I’m not trying to steal any more of Fred’s mojo. I bought his old bike and bit the color scheme, that is more than enough I have been confused with Fred on one of the A rides by Norm, so I could easily grow a mustache and put on a police officer uniform and run shit.

Tuesday was a long one, but I was able to scoot over to Cranbury for the PFW A ride. Capers showed up this time, along with Lou. I told Bill he should come out and start with us, than drop back to the B ride, so that was cool. As I am getting dressed my bike falls over and my Garmin mount breaks. Damnit. That reminds me I need to buy a handful of them.

The group was similar in size from last time, but seemed it had more A level riders this time around. We stroll out and off we are. I recognize some of these peoples now, so we BS. Chat with Rick and a couple of the guys from the Thursday A ride as we stroll out to the loop.

A couple of bad wheels to follow which really made me hurt. Trying to cover the gap a surger would make, into the wind, was just deadly. Matches were going off all over the place. I can’t complain, a couple of guys are doing this on purpose, making everyone else react to save themselves.

We make the left onto Lamb road which is the only real “bump” in the ride (I think I went over this before, but it is a hill in relationship to the rest of the ride) I’m following Rick up the hill and Max and Guys Bicycle shirt go flying up the left. I try and latch on, but Max pulls away and leaves Guys Bicycle man and I behind. That was a good chase.

At the top of the “hill”, I was asked “Are you that Mad Desperado?” on this ride as well. I spoke with this fellow, but sadly I forgot his name. I blame it on my eyes slightly bleeding. Sorry man. Glad to hear that someone I don’t know reads semi-regularly. Kind of made me want to write more. Not sure what more I would write about, but it’s cool none-the-less. FIRST TIME LONG TIME!

Around the same point as last week, I notice Lou isn’t in the rotation. We talked afterwards and can’t figure it out. Hm. People just seem to go onesy and twosys on this ride, its never a big group that falls out.

A couple of guys peel off and leave around 8 to ride back to Cranbury.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166895121

Another thing of note (besides the GD wind) was that Capers looked really strong and was on cruise control. Couple of times he had to contain himself as he wanted to murder it, but murderkill is Saturday. He also murdered 3 slices of pizza in 3 minutes. Boy can eat. I admire that.

Lou bought me a Chicken parm and we sat and BS’d for a while. It was a good night. I’m also enjoying the short commute home. I’m thinking next week I may go up to High Gear and enjoy the risk/thrill of not finishing the ride, especially since most of the bigger guns will be pooped from murderkill

Today I was up at 6 to get to work and hammer out a project thats been sitting around idle for too long. Today is (was) long.

Halters PFW A Ride

So today was also a new day in the history of PFW; The first A ride leaving from Halters. I actually showed up a tad early and hung out around the shop. I hung around so much that I actually was put to work, swapping some pedals around. I eventually get to wiggle away from work and got dressed for the ride. We slowly look around and feel like we may be the only ones here. Maybe just because I’m antsy. Around 5:30, Rick shows up along with 5-6 other people. I recognize Rick from driving past him while he is riding when I drive to Capers place right after work. He is always on the same section of 518 hammering along. One being Bacon, who I sold the SS to. Another friendly face always makes these better!

We roll out the expectation to go up Spring Hill Road, which is probably one of the steeper (read steep for 5-10 seconds) hill in the area. I’ve ridden this before just as an exploration ride, so I have some sort of memory of it. The ride down 518 was normal, it’s a busy road but a wide shoulder you can pace through.

Spring Hill is closed for some reason, I think they are fixing a bridge, but it is passable by bike without even having to dismount. We wiggle through and up we go. I’m in the front at this point and slowly looking back to see who is behind. Lou is on my wheel going up. I slowly start to move over and see if anyone else is behind. At some point I say F this and go for it to figure out just how long this road really is. I stay in the big ring and try and power my way up this. About 80% of the way it starts hitting me. The last couple of seconds were pretty steep and it started to takes it toll on me. I stuck with it until it flattened out. I looked back and see a couple of people chasing me, but I am dead. I slow up a tad to hopefully latch on if they go buy. One guy in an orange jersey comes up behind me and rides my wheel the rest of the way up the slightly smaller hill after the bigger climb. I let him pass and try to latch on, no dice. Ouch. That really hurt.

We all regroup at the stop sign and everyone really seemed to enjoy that climb

The only other really note worthy thing was that orange shirt guy (really sorry I forgot his name) slowly pulled away from the group on River Road. I figure what the hell; I know where I am. I coaxed Lou into trying to chase him down. He is in. We both head off from the group of 5or so behind us and try and reel him in. We take turns pulling, maybe 3 or 4. I finally get within 2-3 bike lengths, but not enough to catch the draft. Lou is dead, I am dying but end up keeping pace with orange shirt guy. Eventually the rest of the group reels me in and I jump on. The effort really grenaded Lou, but luckily the rest of this was downhill until the next turn.

Couple people peel off to head back home and the group strolls back to the parking lot; Rick, Lou and orange shirt guy and me.

Good talks afterwards about the ride; It was a solid loop. A little too many left hand turns or red lights, but whatever. It was a great first try at making a solid loop through the Sourlands. I think a couple of tweaks could string together even longer sets of roads without as much stopping.

I get home and upload the loop to Strava to see where that effort stood. To my surprise:

1: Andrew Weinstein -3:40
2: James Pearl – 4:11
10: Kevin McElwain – 4:50

http://app.strava.com/rides/6264369

Can’t explain that!

Head home and catch the rest of the Devils game. They had some advertisement for “pay as they play” playoffs tickets. It was like $460 or something a person for the home games throughout whole playoffs (i think) And they only charge your credit card for the games they play. So if they lose, you don’t have to pay for that shit. I thought it was interesting, but bad timing on this end.

Mandi also told me a story how she busted some kids that jump on the roof of the Salon after hours and smoke that sticky icky stuff. Well maybe they dont smoke, but they are little brats that go on the roof and think they are king of the land. I’m told they would stack up the milk crates to make a set of steps up to the roof or something. Wild stuff.

Today Starts a week of busy busy work. Lots of projects coming down the line that will keep me on my toes. Thankfully it is Good Friday and nobody is working today. My drive in is usually on empty roads, but today was even better. It will be fun just to blast through today and look forward to the weekend.