Take the long way home

Rode into work and then took a roundabout route home - out Falls Road to Oregon Ridge - then across Paper Mill down Manor and up Cub Hill to Old Harford which took me most of the way home.

The northernmost point of this ride takes me through Jacksonville - once home to one of the many Nike missile batteries that surrounded US cities in the early part of the cold war. My quick bit of googling about these led me - HERE - where I found a list of all these sites and discovered that many of our bike rides around MD take us past several of these former sites. A nice trio of decent climbs:
Falls Road from Seminary to Oregon Ridge
Paper Mill from the reservoir to Jacksonville
Cub Hill from Cromwell Bridge to Old Harford/Ranger Court
and some strong head winds here and there made for a nice effort on my little break from tech rehearsals.

51 miles on the day
2291 YTD

Another Quick Visit to NYC

Took the train up to NYC to see designs for our third slot and short break before tech-ing our first show of the season. Made my first visit to the Guggenheim Museum - found the building a bit more interesting than the art on show - Louise Bourgeois - but I did like the spiders above which were on the lobby floor. Then I spent much of the afternoon strolling and people watching in Central Park. The contrast to what the park looked like 20 years ago when I saw it in person for the first time and now is amazing and a testament to the success of the Central Park Conservancy. A couple more obligatory Guggenheim tourist photos HERE

Labor Day Meander

Monday 1 September 2008 Rolled out in the late afternoon for a loop around the city - headed down to Lake Montebello then through the old Montebello Rehabilitation Hospital which is now part, though unused, of the Morgan State University Campus. I followed roads and paths across the campus before coming out on Perring Parkway. From here I followed a variety of side streets that paralell the Chincapin Run up to Lake Avenue. Lake took me to Falls Road and the Old Pimlico which delivered me to Quarry Lake (pictured above). After looping around the old quarry I headed out Greenspring to Old Court Road. This took me to 7 Mile Lane then Cross Country Blvd. brought me back to Greenspring then Northern Parkway where I looped back to Greenspring on one of my favorite roads in town - Cylburn Ave. I tried to take a short cut across TV hill, but discovered that what looked like potential routes where actually construction sites. This delivered me to a quick detour through Medford and across the 41st Street Bridge to TV hill. Then it was up the switchbacks of the Jones Falls Trail and into Druid Hill Park. I then headed to Charles Villiage for a pit stop with Kelly and Lindsay at Starbucks before riding home.

Lindsay makes a new friend

40 Miles on the day
2240 YTD

Bay Country Century (almost)

Joined the gang on the road for the Bay Country Century on Saturday. Started off as a very gray day, but it burned off as the miles passed and it wound up being a lovely day for a ride. We passed the miles chatting about the Democratic convention - Michael had just returned from it and told us what it was like in person. We also chatted about McCain's VP choice - I think my friend Marni's blog entry about sums it up.
Sometime after a pit stop at the 50 mile mark, I began to have stomach cramps and general lack of energy. At the time I was sure it was too much of the electrolyte drink, but in retrospect I think I was seriously under hydrated and probably could have used a few more calories... Everybody kindly took turns hanging with me as I dragged my way into the next pit at 80 miles. After a bottle or two of water and a bit more food it was clear to me that I wasn't going to bounce back fast - so I told them to head out without me and called the SAG hotline to get a ride back to the start. I suppose on the plus side I was lucky to be on a fully supported ride for my first serious bonk.

a small handful of other photos HERE

80 miles on the day, plus almost
30 miles from the commute a half I did this week
2200 YTD

A Night at the Fair

Joanne & I made our annual trip to the State Fair on Saturday evening - ginsu knives, cows, milkshakes, pigs, corn-on-the-cob, rabbits, funnel cake, goats, quilts, chickens, french fries, ferris wheels, and this year a first for us - a sheep with gold lame fleece: Had a grand old time wandering around watching the animals and the people. Also had fun taking pictures of the rides - more HERE.

Ride Round the Severn

Saturday morning we met up at Steve's for breakfast and a casual spin up to BWI followed by the length of the B&A trail. We headed into Annapolis for lunch (mmm peanut butter smoothie) then circled back to Steve's.

This was our first ride in the new kits Aesha acquired for us. It was great fun rolling along in a paceline decked out like a team - definitely turned a few heads. This was also my first ride wearing bib shorts and I'm sold - won't be doing long days without them again.

Many more pics HERE by Aesha (merci)

50 Miles
2090 YTD

A week of meandering commutes...

I'm trying to get in some extra miles this week to get back in shape for next weekend's Bay Country Century - so a couple of inventive detours to extend my commutes a bit;

FRIDAY
My usual roundtrip with a spur on the way home to our company picnic in North Baltimore(+3 miles).

Alex & Charisse at the picnic

THURSDAY
Woke early and added on the length of Roland Avenue/University Blvd from Hopkins up to lake avenue to my regular ride(+5 Miles).

Sunflower on Evergreen Avenue

TUESDAY
In the morning I took a little detour to have breakfast with Joanne at the Common Ground (+2.5 miles)- but along the way I took some pics to document some of the highlights of my morning ride. Then on the way home I took a loop through Roland Park and back through Homeland before rejoining my usual route (+5 miles).

Old Firehouse on White Avenue

Old Streetcar Substation - also on White Avenue
served the 15 & 19 lines
http://www.btco.net/ghosts/streetcars/subs/substations.html

formerly Sonbergs - the corner store I went to as a boy

Woodbourne Avenue - my first sprint of each morning

Cell Tower 'disguised' as a tree

Community Garden on Woodbourne
almost always someone here working their plot
wearing a big straw hat

San Marten Drive

70 miles for the week
2040 YTD