Mt. Vernon Trail Today

I'm going to try (the operative word here is try) and do two 40 mile rides this weekend. I've got the first one under my belt. Hopefully, I'll be able to move tomorrow and do the other one. Oh and after that I plan on going to the gym and working out.

First of all I went up to Hudson Trail Outfitters to have them look at my brakes on Friday. I think the brake noise has finally been solved. I got a little noise on my ride but not much. And when it did happen it seemed to be coming from the front brake. Of course in the past the noise had been coming from the back brake guess you can't win them all. It was sort of a busy Friday afternoon for these guys. In fact they had only one full time mechanic there but he was able to get to my bike in under an hour. I really appreciated it.

My plan was to leave between 6-6:30 am. I got off around 6:40. Not too bad. I was a little disorganized. I hope to be a little better at it tomorrow. I got to try out the camelbak that I got for my birthday. It was great. I stay much more hydrated with a camelbak then with bottles. It's so much easier to get a drink when riding using a camelbak then a bottle.

I set out on my journey. I went on the Mt. Vernon trail. I had a good ride until just before I reached Alexandria. I started running into all sorts of groups of runners. They were obviously training for something. Too bad they didn't seem to know how to share the path with other people. I passed several groups saying on your left. They moved just enough for me to get by and when I say just enough I mean just enough. They left me about half of the passing lane. On one occasion I stopped before even attempting to pass. The other lane, the one I'd be passing in, was not a full lane width. It also dropped off into well gravel is a nice way of referring to it. It was rocks you'd drop off into. I decided to detour around these guys. I continued to run into groups of these runners some as small as three or four some groups well over 15 until I reached Belle Haven. It thinned out a little after that but not by much. One other time, when I called out on your left, a women actually moved into the left hand lane. I barely missed hitting her.

I was a little frustrated with this. But very slowly I ran into fewer and fewer of these groups. I made it almost to Mt. Vernon but had to stop because I had to pee really badly. After that I decided to just stop where I was. I ate my banana and my two chocolate poptarts and headed back. On the way back the runners were mostly gone. There were still a lot of people out and about. I got home around 11 so it was a pretty good ride all in all.

Hopefully I can get out a few minutes earlier tomorrow. Tomorrow it's off on the W&OD!