(Postblogged on Sunday, 10/9)
Woke up super early, very tired and not looking forward to what the day was going to unfold - so I guess I'm a total glutton for punishment. Here it was 5:45am, dark out and raining like a mo-fo, winds picked up. I went out onto the deck and was slapped in the face with wind and I could see all the palm trees and dune grass whipping around like footage of a hurricane newscast. I thought to myself, this is gonna be bad, this is gonna be shitty, this is gonna be crazy. That inspired me. After I showered and put on my cycling gear....I gulped down 2 Red Bulls, a cup of coffee, 3 bananas, 2 power bars, 4 Enduralyte tablets, grabbed my shit and I was off. The drive to the staging site was just a repeat of the night before - dark, rainy. I was driving with thousands of cars with bikes - all heading to a day of wet reconing. We all filed into the various parking lots - 8,500+ cyclists were registered, I'm not sure how many actually arrived - but there were thousands of us. This is the largest single organized cycling event each year - I was going to do this whether I liked it or not. Hell, I've endured worse I thought - huge ass hills, thousands of miles of training, heat, cold, wetness, all for the love of the sport. I'll do this even if I curse at myself the entire time. A great aggression/stress tool.
By the time I got all my other cycling gear on, gloves, shoes, helmet - I was already soaked to the bone. My feet squishing around in shoes, the parking lot was flooded with about 3-4" of water. I met up with a few people from my cycling club and we said - let's do this....FAST, SAFE and let's only stop 3 times - paceline the entire thing. We headed out in a large herd of about 40 of us - there were thousands of cyclists out there, comepletely miserable. The rain never EVER let up - and then once we got out into the open flatlands, the winds picked up. I was glad I had a crew to pace with, made the wind situation less. We took turns leading for 100 pedalstrokes, then switching - we made excellent time for such a shitty windy/wet conditions. There was soo much water being sprayed in my face ("rooster spray", aka "road juice"), I couldn't taste what was my own sweat, rain, gatorade, spit, road juice. It was utterly nasty.
We stopped only 3 times, to keep up the fast pace - and to avoid hypothermia. The conditions were soo nasty - it was almost too much as to not laugh at it, so as a communal experience - we were definatly all in the same boat, misery in numbers. At about mile 76, we had an unfornunate thing happen - the third guy leading the paceline accidently clipped the front tire of the dude in front of him (it was difficult to see, rain splatered cycling glasses, fogged up, raining hard). The middle part of our paceline went down - and hard. I was fortunately in the rear after my frontline pace duty, was able to steer around. But we had to stop and assess the situation - make sure no one was hurt. 6 dudes got a lot of road rash, 3 others got their bikes messed up. We called the SAG, they sent a car and an ambulance - which arrived within minutes....the group told us to go on. (I'm suprized we didn't have more crashes - given the shitty conditions)
At this point I was ready to just FINISH this goddamned thing. Enuff already. I've never felt this wet in my entire life - with two exceptions, doing the Heart of Virginia Century in Ashland, VA last year in Hurricane Ivan...and once when I was in Boy Scouts on a 3 day canoe trip down the Shenendoah River. The surving group from the crash, we started yelling off the miles as we got closer - we were all ready.
Then it happenned - we finally saw the finish line area, and just spun down and rolled in. We all said quick farewells, there was little to do at that point but just go into the damn Maggs center pick up t-shirt, patch, and get the fuck outta dodge - it was still raining like crazy. The parking lot was completely flooded. I only managed to take a few pics all day - it was a hurried and harrowing event. Fuck You Tammy!
I got to my car and managed to take off all my clothes IN my car (I didn't give a fuck if anyone was looking), and changed into some dry clothes. I turned my car on, and the damn windsheild wipers in sonic uber fast mode and made my way out of the flooded parkeng lot. The drive back to the hotel was equally nuts - rain, flooding, grrr....
I stopped by a place on the way to the hotel, got me some crab cakes, shrimp, scallops - and a steak. I was sooo farking hungry. Came back to the hotel, unpacked, took a very NICE hot shower (not that I needed any more water on my body that day), then honched down the food. Then sat out on the deck and watched the funny traffic on the Coastal Highway (just a 2 way strip) - there was a huge Hot Rod Convention that weekend, hundreds of old hot rods out there doing their shit. The rain finally stopped. I went out on a walk to stretch out, and walked on the beach for about an hour. Came back to the hotel, packed up my stuff to leave in the morning. Then hit the hay. Uhhhhggggg... What a fucked up day.
Seagull Century 2005
Woke up super early, very tired and not looking forward to what the day was going to unfold - so I guess I'm a total glutton for punishment. Here it was 5:45am, dark out and raining like a mo-fo, winds picked up. I went out onto the deck and was slapped in the face with wind and I could see all the palm trees and dune grass whipping around like footage of a hurricane newscast. I thought to myself, this is gonna be bad, this is gonna be shitty, this is gonna be crazy. That inspired me. After I showered and put on my cycling gear....I gulped down 2 Red Bulls, a cup of coffee, 3 bananas, 2 power bars, 4 Enduralyte tablets, grabbed my shit and I was off. The drive to the staging site was just a repeat of the night before - dark, rainy. I was driving with thousands of cars with bikes - all heading to a day of wet reconing. We all filed into the various parking lots - 8,500+ cyclists were registered, I'm not sure how many actually arrived - but there were thousands of us. This is the largest single organized cycling event each year - I was going to do this whether I liked it or not. Hell, I've endured worse I thought - huge ass hills, thousands of miles of training, heat, cold, wetness, all for the love of the sport. I'll do this even if I curse at myself the entire time. A great aggression/stress tool.
By the time I got all my other cycling gear on, gloves, shoes, helmet - I was already soaked to the bone. My feet squishing around in shoes, the parking lot was flooded with about 3-4" of water. I met up with a few people from my cycling club and we said - let's do this....FAST, SAFE and let's only stop 3 times - paceline the entire thing. We headed out in a large herd of about 40 of us - there were thousands of cyclists out there, comepletely miserable. The rain never EVER let up - and then once we got out into the open flatlands, the winds picked up. I was glad I had a crew to pace with, made the wind situation less. We took turns leading for 100 pedalstrokes, then switching - we made excellent time for such a shitty windy/wet conditions. There was soo much water being sprayed in my face ("rooster spray", aka "road juice"), I couldn't taste what was my own sweat, rain, gatorade, spit, road juice. It was utterly nasty.
We stopped only 3 times, to keep up the fast pace - and to avoid hypothermia. The conditions were soo nasty - it was almost too much as to not laugh at it, so as a communal experience - we were definatly all in the same boat, misery in numbers. At about mile 76, we had an unfornunate thing happen - the third guy leading the paceline accidently clipped the front tire of the dude in front of him (it was difficult to see, rain splatered cycling glasses, fogged up, raining hard). The middle part of our paceline went down - and hard. I was fortunately in the rear after my frontline pace duty, was able to steer around. But we had to stop and assess the situation - make sure no one was hurt. 6 dudes got a lot of road rash, 3 others got their bikes messed up. We called the SAG, they sent a car and an ambulance - which arrived within minutes....the group told us to go on. (I'm suprized we didn't have more crashes - given the shitty conditions)
At this point I was ready to just FINISH this goddamned thing. Enuff already. I've never felt this wet in my entire life - with two exceptions, doing the Heart of Virginia Century in Ashland, VA last year in Hurricane Ivan...and once when I was in Boy Scouts on a 3 day canoe trip down the Shenendoah River. The surving group from the crash, we started yelling off the miles as we got closer - we were all ready.
Then it happenned - we finally saw the finish line area, and just spun down and rolled in. We all said quick farewells, there was little to do at that point but just go into the damn Maggs center pick up t-shirt, patch, and get the fuck outta dodge - it was still raining like crazy. The parking lot was completely flooded. I only managed to take a few pics all day - it was a hurried and harrowing event. Fuck You Tammy!
I got to my car and managed to take off all my clothes IN my car (I didn't give a fuck if anyone was looking), and changed into some dry clothes. I turned my car on, and the damn windsheild wipers in sonic uber fast mode and made my way out of the flooded parkeng lot. The drive back to the hotel was equally nuts - rain, flooding, grrr....
I stopped by a place on the way to the hotel, got me some crab cakes, shrimp, scallops - and a steak. I was sooo farking hungry. Came back to the hotel, unpacked, took a very NICE hot shower (not that I needed any more water on my body that day), then honched down the food. Then sat out on the deck and watched the funny traffic on the Coastal Highway (just a 2 way strip) - there was a huge Hot Rod Convention that weekend, hundreds of old hot rods out there doing their shit. The rain finally stopped. I went out on a walk to stretch out, and walked on the beach for about an hour. Came back to the hotel, packed up my stuff to leave in the morning. Then hit the hay. Uhhhhggggg... What a fucked up day.
Seagull Century 2005
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(Postblogged on Sunday, 10/9)Work was work, finished up loose ends before I dreaded leaving at 3pm to drive towards Ocean City, MD to do the Seagull Century (in Salisbury, MD) in the wake of Tropical Storm Tammy. It did not hit me what a horrible thing it would be to not have left earlier - when I was slapped with the realization that it was a 3 day weekend (for some - Columbus Day...I never get silly holidays like that off). Well, let me just say - that was the worst driving experience I've ever endured. I left at 3pm for a reasonable 3 and a half hour drive ...tops. Suffice to say, I hate driving at night...and especially in horrible rainstorms, and especially for more than 4 hours. I want to give out a heart-felt FUCK YOU! to the reminants of Tropical Storm Tammy for making the most white knuckled 8 hour drive. It rained like a mother fucker - cats, dogs, elephants, rhinos, blue whales. It just dumped and dumped and DUMPED rain. For all 8 + hours of driving, I had my windshield wipers on the super high endurance speed. There was nothing but bumper to bumper traffic between my office and Ocean City (except the last 7 miles). The wind gusts were horrible, I never made it above 40mph at any time, there was massive flooding and hydroplaning was a mess. Grrr!
I checked into my hotel, a semi shady but a nice place right on the bayside of Ocean City - 2 blocks from the ocean (the bay is also the ocean). I had an ocean front view (never to really be seen thru the rain and darkeness). I had to quickly settle in, unpacks, and prepare for the (what was going to be a VERY wet 100+ mile) Century ride the next day. I slurped down 2 beers, while preparing for the Century, to help take the edge off all the curse words that were stored up in my head after such a stressfull, shitty drive. I called for a 5:45am wakeup call then jumped into the clean sheets and went to bed - I had to get up early the next morning.
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Oy oy oy....what a tiring day. The crappy weather didn't help. Was cloudy and rainy all morning. I was still sleepy after 3 cups of coffee. Was able to get through the day - work was a little slow, but the highlight was interviewing some new candidates for 4 open positions we have.
Managed to get out of work on time and go out on a semi-long 38 mile ride out towards Shirlington - on the way back..I had to step up the pace and try to outrace an incoming storm - I got to my car and it dumped cats n dogs. Ran to the bank, store and gas station to get a few last things for my trip out to Ocean City/Salisbury, MD for the Seagull Century this weekend. Should be a lot of fun, albeit hurricane Tammy's leftover rain. But I'll be staying in Ocean City - will be nice, I have a bayfront view with a deck. There's great restaurants nearby. The commute out to Ocean City I'm not looking forward to - 4.25 hours...on a Friday, right around rush hour. I'm leaving work mid-afternoon - will probably take me close to 6.5 hours.
Welp, I'm finished packed, everything in car - re-cleaned bike. I'm bushed. I'll be back on Sunday evening - hopefully with some photos (will be wild, about 7,000 cyclists will be there).
Managed to get out of work on time and go out on a semi-long 38 mile ride out towards Shirlington - on the way back..I had to step up the pace and try to outrace an incoming storm - I got to my car and it dumped cats n dogs. Ran to the bank, store and gas station to get a few last things for my trip out to Ocean City/Salisbury, MD for the Seagull Century this weekend. Should be a lot of fun, albeit hurricane Tammy's leftover rain. But I'll be staying in Ocean City - will be nice, I have a bayfront view with a deck. There's great restaurants nearby. The commute out to Ocean City I'm not looking forward to - 4.25 hours...on a Friday, right around rush hour. I'm leaving work mid-afternoon - will probably take me close to 6.5 hours.Welp, I'm finished packed, everything in car - re-cleaned bike. I'm bushed. I'll be back on Sunday evening - hopefully with some photos (will be wild, about 7,000 cyclists will be there).
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Yet another day...meh. But a productive one. Went into work - was a beautiful drive in - the rest became blurry after I sat down at my desk. A whirlwind of corporate drama and one stupid crisis after another for the sake of continual crisis. Oh well. I just use it as fuel to destress after work - and it pays the bills, and my silly habits of cycling and cooking and art.
Finished up on time and geared up and biked out to Purcellville and back, 46 miles - such a beautiful day...perfect October cycling weather. I counted 26 deer along my ride. I helped out a stranded cyclist in the dark who had a flat and no pump - we pacelined the last 12 miles, he was appreciative (and a little embarrassed for being unprepared).
Came home to chore-central. Cleaned/lubed my bike, put it back in car - a task that always takes exactly an hour. Then tossed in all my laundry - pure domestic bullshit. Fixed dinner and chilling front of the boob tube while catching up with correspondence - and more organizational crap for the weekend (print out maps, call confirmations, et al.)
Life is always soo good - still...I'm now hankering to make some homemade pumpkin soup, sit in a hot tub while listening to some Luscious Jackson....
Finished up on time and geared up and biked out to Purcellville and back, 46 miles - such a beautiful day...perfect October cycling weather. I counted 26 deer along my ride. I helped out a stranded cyclist in the dark who had a flat and no pump - we pacelined the last 12 miles, he was appreciative (and a little embarrassed for being unprepared).
Came home to chore-central. Cleaned/lubed my bike, put it back in car - a task that always takes exactly an hour. Then tossed in all my laundry - pure domestic bullshit. Fixed dinner and chilling front of the boob tube while catching up with correspondence - and more organizational crap for the weekend (print out maps, call confirmations, et al.)
Life is always soo good - still...I'm now hankering to make some homemade pumpkin soup, sit in a hot tub while listening to some Luscious Jackson....
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What a wonderful, yet tiring day. I woke up sleepy after not sleeping well - choked down some coffee and headed into the office, t a seemingly tame day. It was overcast and just a sleepy day - it seemed that coffee wasn't being effective, but I got thru it. Finished up on time and went out on a long 44 mile training ride - out to Shirlington and back. It was strangely beautiful...perfect cycling weather, albeit overcast. Finished up and stopped by the store to get a few last minute things for the pesto I was going to make.
I have a laundry list of chores for the next few weeks - and some of which involve the trips both weekends out of town to Centuries. Tonight was vacuuming and bed laundry duty, teemed with making homemade pesto. Tomorrow night is cleaning/lubing my bike and cycling laundry, Thursday night is packing for trip (will leave from work on Friday). Oh the boorish details.
So tonight after I got most of my regular chores done and all laundry/vacuuming done...I settled into an hour of making homemade pesto. I got the basil from my parent's garden on Sunday. My place smells lovely - and I have about a quart of pesto...divided up. Life is good.
(here's the recipe:)
Scott's Homemade Pesto
Key to making fresh pesto is having a bountiful amount of fresh basil in the garden, and some fresh jalapeno peppers.
4 cups fresh basil leaves
1.5 cup fresh Italian parsley/cilantro
1 cup Romano or Pecorino cheese, grated
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
4 garlic cloves, roasted and roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 small jalapeno pepper, roasted and minced
1 cup olive oil
3 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Puree until the mixture forms a smooth, thick paste. Chill to keep fresh. Best served in a pasta dish, spread on a pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese, or as a dip, or as a spread for bruchetta.
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So tonight after I got most of my regular chores done and all laundry/vacuuming done...I settled into an hour of making homemade pesto. I got the basil from my parent's garden on Sunday. My place smells lovely - and I have about a quart of pesto...divided up. Life is good.
(here's the recipe:)
Scott's Homemade Pesto
Key to making fresh pesto is having a bountiful amount of fresh basil in the garden, and some fresh jalapeno peppers.
4 cups fresh basil leaves
1.5 cup fresh Italian parsley/cilantro
1 cup Romano or Pecorino cheese, grated
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
4 garlic cloves, roasted and roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 small jalapeno pepper, roasted and minced
1 cup olive oil
3 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Puree until the mixture forms a smooth, thick paste. Chill to keep fresh. Best served in a pasta dish, spread on a pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese, or as a dip, or as a spread for bruchetta.
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What started out of a shitty day turned into a beautiful one. Traffic to work was a strange mess - an accident on rt 7 made my minor commute in a long frustrating one. Got to work, and the new coffee maker that we got was broken...no coffee....and then the network was down....trifecta effect.
As a result the morning was wasted, I took my car to a place nearby to have a plug put in a slow leak on my rear tire, came back to the office and had a frenzy of activity until I realized it was 5:30...I suited up for a nice ride - it was beautiful out, blustering 83 degrees out begging for me to get out there.
Biked out to Purcellville and back - such a fantastic ride, teamed up with a few cycling buddies on the way and we enjoyed the Autumn weather and swapped stories about the latest concern of the recent fatalities on the trail last month (3 fatalaties in 3 weeks) out near Hamilton & Peonean Springs. Huge concern for us that are out there daily. Resolution is forthcoming, from all the recent press - and awareness, and the Federal intervention (3 million people use the W&OD trail a year, crosses 3 counties...and three cyclists were fatalities from intersection crossings in 3 weeks created multiple red flags).
Anyhoo - it was a fantastic sunset and then it turned dark. I used my lights to breeze home in the darkness. The October temperature was amazing - with pockets of coolness and warmth, just oh so perfect weather. Got back to my car and waved to the same UPS lady I see every night - she asked in her hoarse voice, how was yer ride? "I said "splendid" - she said take care, be safe out there...I wished her the same..she drove off in her brown truck.
Came home and assessed the cleaning scenario, watered the garden, cooked dinner, vacuumed, cleaned the tub, prepared for work, finished some work homework.
Life is still good. I need to get a pumpkin (pumpkin soup season upon us - maybe I'll pick one up this weekend on my way back from the Seagull Century)
As a result the morning was wasted, I took my car to a place nearby to have a plug put in a slow leak on my rear tire, came back to the office and had a frenzy of activity until I realized it was 5:30...I suited up for a nice ride - it was beautiful out, blustering 83 degrees out begging for me to get out there.
Biked out to Purcellville and back - such a fantastic ride, teamed up with a few cycling buddies on the way and we enjoyed the Autumn weather and swapped stories about the latest concern of the recent fatalities on the trail last month (3 fatalaties in 3 weeks) out near Hamilton & Peonean Springs. Huge concern for us that are out there daily. Resolution is forthcoming, from all the recent press - and awareness, and the Federal intervention (3 million people use the W&OD trail a year, crosses 3 counties...and three cyclists were fatalities from intersection crossings in 3 weeks created multiple red flags).
Anyhoo - it was a fantastic sunset and then it turned dark. I used my lights to breeze home in the darkness. The October temperature was amazing - with pockets of coolness and warmth, just oh so perfect weather. Got back to my car and waved to the same UPS lady I see every night - she asked in her hoarse voice, how was yer ride? "I said "splendid" - she said take care, be safe out there...I wished her the same..she drove off in her brown truck.
Came home and assessed the cleaning scenario, watered the garden, cooked dinner, vacuumed, cleaned the tub, prepared for work, finished some work homework.
Life is still good. I need to get a pumpkin (pumpkin soup season upon us - maybe I'll pick one up this weekend on my way back from the Seagull Century)
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Ahhhhhh..... What a relaxing day. Slept in and then went out on a really stunningly beautiful Autumn training ride out to Harpers Ferry and back, 52 miles. Came home, continued to clean my house and then prepared to head over to my parent's house for a steak dinner. I took them some crab cakes (recipe & pic below) - they were very appreciative of the crab cakes and the hour it took me to get their new computer online, get their printer set up and everything installed. We had a lovely evening of steak, laughter and stories. Such a great day. Last chore of the day is to load my bike into my car and all my other cycling crap - Sunday night anxiety settles in. And now for the recipe:
Autumn Crab Cakes
1 lb Maryland Lump Crab
2 cups wheat crouton bread crumbs, ground
1/2 cup pumpkin seed kernels, roasted and ground
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup (fat free) mayonaise
2 scallions, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 eggs, whisked
1 tbsp Worchestire sauce
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 lemon, juiced (reserve a slice for garnish)
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
In a large bowl, using a fork, mix the crab into a mixture of dijon mustard, mayonaise, scallions, shallots, Worchestire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, cilantro, salt - mix thoroughly. Add 1 cup of bread crumbs, thouroughly mix then add wisked eggs, while stirring. In a pie plate, add the rest of the wheat bread crouton mix - this will be used as a staging area for the crab cakes before they hit the pan. Let the mixture sit in the refridgerator to cool for 1/2 hour.
Take mixture out and stir. Make small fist sized balls of the mixture and place them onto the reserved breadcrumbs in the pie plate, generously coating each side. Set aside and put the olive oil in a medium-large pan over medium-high heat.
Prepare paper towels on a plate to drain. Once the oil is hot, slowly add the crab cakes - allow them to brown on each side for 2-5 minutes, flip and brown other side.
Once cooked, remove the crab cakes and put onto the plate with paper towels to drain. Once drained, plate onto a warm plate and garnish with lemon slices and cilantro.
Autumn Crab Cakes
photo by d. scott gregory Autumn Crab Cakes click on photo to enlarge |
2 cups wheat crouton bread crumbs, ground
1/2 cup pumpkin seed kernels, roasted and ground
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup (fat free) mayonaise
2 scallions, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 eggs, whisked
1 tbsp Worchestire sauce
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 lemon, juiced (reserve a slice for garnish)
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
In a large bowl, using a fork, mix the crab into a mixture of dijon mustard, mayonaise, scallions, shallots, Worchestire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, cilantro, salt - mix thoroughly. Add 1 cup of bread crumbs, thouroughly mix then add wisked eggs, while stirring. In a pie plate, add the rest of the wheat bread crouton mix - this will be used as a staging area for the crab cakes before they hit the pan. Let the mixture sit in the refridgerator to cool for 1/2 hour.
Take mixture out and stir. Make small fist sized balls of the mixture and place them onto the reserved breadcrumbs in the pie plate, generously coating each side. Set aside and put the olive oil in a medium-large pan over medium-high heat.
Prepare paper towels on a plate to drain. Once the oil is hot, slowly add the crab cakes - allow them to brown on each side for 2-5 minutes, flip and brown other side.
Once cooked, remove the crab cakes and put onto the plate with paper towels to drain. Once drained, plate onto a warm plate and garnish with lemon slices and cilantro.
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(Under development, I'm bashful)