Spring! Return of the after-work rides

Finally!  The after-work riding season is back!

This past winter was the toughest I’ve ever seen for hitting the trails.  I really enjoyed the crazy weather, but the trails were always either soaking wet or covered by snow.  I only had one weekend with no plans and dry trails.  Spinning classes and road biking kept me from wasting away to nothing, but I’ve been dreaming of spring.  Now the weather is perfect and daylights savings time – combined with the fact that the sun is going down later and later – has finally made it possible to ride after work.

I’ve learned that packing correctly for the evening ride is key.  Forgetting some things, such as sunglasses or a pre-ride snack, will make your ride suck.  But forgetting other things (shoes, pump, helmet) are show-stoppers.  It usually takes me a few times to get it right.  Today I’ve loaded up a gym bag with everything I think I might need so I can be out the door and on my way to the trails as early as possible.  It includes:

• Technical shirt
• Biking shorts
• Gloves
• Helmet
• Two pairs of white socks  - the extra pair is in case a buddy needs a pair
• Sunglasses
• Water bottle
• Pre and post-ride supplements – currently I’m all about L-Arginine with Ornithine and L-Glutamine
• Ibuprofen
• Bike tools – some of these I bring on the ride, others I just leave in the car
• Tube repair kit – I have a nifty little pack under my seat containing everything I should need to fix a flat
• Floor pump – I leave this in the car
• Banana – to carb-up on the drive to the trail
• T-shirt and baseball cap for the ride home – I hate stopping at the store on the way home just as the sweat on my technical shirt starts to ferment.
• Deodorant (see above)
• Camelback – if it’s warm I’ll bring the reservoir.  If it’s cool out, I’ll leave the reservoir and use my water bottle.  The backpack part of the camelback is great for carrying tools, extra layers and my cell phone.
• Headlamp – in case some kind of bike issue keeps me on the trail longer than expected.  Riding in complete darkness on technical trails is no fun.

The sunlight lasts later now that it’s spring, but it still gets dark pretty early.  It’s important to pick your trail wisely and make sure you’re able to make your way back if you’re stuck on the trail when it gets dark.  It’s also good to know exactly when the sun is setting, have a good feel for how long it’ll stay light enough after sunset to ride under the tree canopy, and have a good idea of how long you’ll be on the trail.

A good resource I’ve found for this time of the year is sunrise/sunset charts.  Here is the one I like to use:

You have to adjust the chart for daylight savings time, and know how to read military time, but it’s a great tool to use when planning your evening ride.  It’s also great to print off and have at your desk during the middle of winter when the sun sets at 4:30, so you can daydream about the day when you’ll be able to ride after work.

2007/2008 XTERRA East Championship Highlights

From 2007

Also from 2007. Longer video. Shows a lot of the Urban Assault mountain bike race, which is now part of Dominion Riverrock instead of XTERRA.

From 2008

It’s nice to see such experienced riders working so hard to ride our local trails. Watching these videos is getting me pumped up for the XTERRA and Dominion Riverrock races.

Belle Isle vehical bridge reopened

River District News is reporting that the vehicle bridge on the south side of Belle Isle has been reopened.

The article quotes a press release from the city that mentions that the re-opening of the bridge “provides a safe method of travel for emergency vehicles”.  Emergency vehicle access is really important as the weather improves and more people spend hot days sunning on the rocks and playing in the water.  But more importantly, the re-opening of the bridge will allow a vehicle to drive down to drain the port-o-poty.

I made the mistake of entering the port-o-poty back in February and it was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen.  A park employee told me that no one had been able to drive down to change it out since the bridge was closed.  I imagine that the guy that ended up changing it out was either the new guy, or someone that lost a bet with his coworkers.

The re-opening of the bridge is good news for anyone interested in the XTERRA races, the Urban Assault or next year’s Duathlon.  It’s also good for people riding the Buttermilk/Northbank loop.  We’ve had to resort to throwing our bikes over the barricade and climbing over to avoid a detour over the rocks or the Lee Bridge.

Here’s an article that talks about the initial closing of the bridge and has a picture of the barricade.

Domininon Riverrock

More evidence that Richmond is an awesome place for the outdoor/active lifestyle.

The Sports Backers site for the Dominion Riverrock has a list of events.  The most exciting event is the Urban Assault mountain bike race (ok, I’m a little biased).  I won’t be riding it but I hope to next year.

Here’s a blurb about the course:

Competitors will choose between an 8 mile or 15 mile loop of the famous James River Park trails, which are considered one of the most technically challenging urban trail systems. The mountain bike course includes steep up hill and down hill single track trails, stairs over railroad tracks, tunnels, bridges, creek crossings and lots of natural obstacles. This is not your normal mountain bike course. Leave the beach comber bike in the garage for this one, mountain bikes only.

Here’s the course description:

The start is the same for both races:

Start on Tredegar Street heading west and cross over to Belle Isle underneath the Lee Bridge. Take a left turn after the pedestrian bridge towards the east end of Belle Isle and right turn onto the “Lost Trail”. Make a left turn when you exit the “Lost Trail” and ride over the vehicle access bridge to the south side of the river. Follow the fire road past the 22nd St. stairs, past the Nature Center/Reedy Creek to the 42nd St stairs. Climb the 42nd St. stairs and ride the trail taking the higher of the options. You will shortly come to a “T” intersection.

From this point follow the directions below depending on your race:

Short Course:

The riders will start at the vehicle access bridge to Brown’s Island and go west on Tredegar Street.  They will go behind the Belle Isle parking lot and head west on the North Trail.  At the Texas Avenue Parking lot they will exit and go left on Kansas Avenue.  At the end of Kansas Avenue they will rejoin the North Trail.  At the end of the North Trail, you will stay to your right and cross over the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge stay to your right and get on the Buttermilk trail heading east.  Stay on this to the Lee Bridge.  You will then ride against traffic on the western side of the bridge and exit at the 2nd street on ramp.  You will then take the road to your left and up a steep hill before descending onto the gravel road that you will then u-turn on and take to the east and finish by 5th Street.

Long Course:

This will be a giant lollipop course.  The riders will start at the vehicle access bridge to Brown’s Island and go west on Tredegar Street.  They will go behind the Belle Isle parking lot and head west on the North Trail.  At the Texas Avenue Parking lot they will exit and go left on Kansas Avenue.  At the end of Kansas they rejoin the North Trail.  At the end of the North Trail you will stay to your right and cross over the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge stay to your right and get on the Buttermilk trail heading east.  When you get to Reedy Creek you will make a right through a tunnel and do a 3.7-mile loop in Forest Hill Park.  When you leave Forest Hill Park you will rejoin the buttermilk trail to the east and drop down the 22nd street stairs.  You will head west on the gravel road.  At the 42nd Street stairs you will go up and head west on the Buttermilk trail to the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge you will turn left and re-enter the North Trail but this time heading east.  Take the North Trail back to the Lee Bridge.  Stay straight under the Lee Bridge to the finish at 5th Street.

Other events I’m looking forward to are the free concerts and the James River Scramble 10k Trail Run.  The run is definitely a blast.

Course Preview – National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race

Yesterday my buddy and I spent the morning (Easter Sunday) exploring the National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race course. The race consists of a 5k trail run, 11k bike (mountain) and a 3k trail run. The National Duathlon Festival website had maps of last year’s courses, but the race organizers definitely needed to change them due to repairs being done to the Belle Isle vehicle bridge. So we were exploring the area trying to guess how the course would be revised.

Following last year’s course maps we ran from the Tredegar parking lot, along the Northbank trail to the turn-around point for the 5k section, and then back to Tredegar. It was not quite as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The trail is very narrow in sections, which wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that any quick divergence from the trail could result in a long fall down an embankment.  It’s really difficult to image people running both directions on the trail at the same time.  But this trail has been used before for the race, so we figured that this section wouldn’t change because access to the trail isn’t affected by the Belle Isle vehicle bridge issue.

Next we tried to figure out which bridge the race organizers would use for the biking course to get from the transition point to the Buttermilk trail. We rode our bikes along the same course as the James River Scramble 10k which brought us east to the 14th Street bridge and west along the floodwall. Using this bridge to get to the south side of the James River was more out of the way than we had expected and was obviously not the route they would pick. After looking around we realized that the Lee Bridge would be the best choice. But how they would make up for the mileage lost by bypassing Belle Isle?

Well, today we got our answer (opens pdf).

Run #1

The 5k run course leaves transition and takes runners to Belle Isle via the footbridge. The course will loop the gravel road around the base of the island and turn left to the top of the island. On top of the island the route will do a complete loop of the top of the island before descending a trail off the south east side of the island. The missing trail on the east end of the island will bring the runners back to the footbridge and back to transition.

It’s pretty disappointing to see that the Northbank Trail run got axed completely. Running over the footbridge to Belle Isle is boring, and running on Belle Isle is also boring. There are a few singletrack sections on the hill at Belle Isle, but the course is now only about 10% trail. The rest is the footbridge (concrete) and gravel road (booo). Here is the track of the new Run #1 course

Bike

The bike course will leave transition and go across the Lee Bridge on the vehicle portion (which will be coned off from the cars) of the road. The course goes parallel to Riverside drive and then goes down the stairs at 22nd street. The course goes west along a gravel road until the 42nd Street stairs. Go up the stairs and stay to the right. This trail will do a cloverleaf and head back toward the east. Stay on the Buttermilk trail and take a right turn into Forest Hill Park just after crossing the Reedy Creek parking lot. You will make a right turn across the concrete bridge and around a parking lot before heading down the lake. Once at the lake, take the trail back to the pipes under Riverside Drive. Head east on the Buttermilk trail until the Lee Bridge. Take the Lee Bridge back to transition.

The original course for the biking course used Belle Isle. While running on Belle Isle is pretty boring, biking on Belle Isle is slightly less boring. The gravel road parts go by faster and the challenge of the climbs and the singletrack section are a lot more fun. The new course completely bypasses Belle Isle and compensates by adding in some of the trails in Forest Hill Park. Adding these trails instead of Belle Isle definitely makes the biking section a lot more challenging. I’m not 100% sure about how the course will work going in to Forest Hill, but I plan on checking it out this coming weekend.

After riding the Buttermilk this past weekend I’ve realized that parts of it are a lot more technical than I remember. I’ll definitely need to spend some time down there to figure out which technical sections I can complete in the saddle and which ones I will have to bail on and walk. There are a few that I might master before the race but I’m definitely not too proud to hoof the rest.

Here is the track of the new Bike course

Also, here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube of Forest Hill and the Buttermik. The Forest Hill video also includes some footage of the Buttermilk trail.

(YouTube blocked the audio from the first one due to copyright issues. Just play some music while you watch it.)

(The music on this one is kind of cutesy. You might want to mute it and listen to some Rage Against the Machine instead.)

Run #2

The 3k run leaves transition and goes to Belle Isle via the foot bridge. After a short loop on Belle Isle the runners will cross back on the footbridge and return to transition.

There is nothing cool about the second Run secition of the race. It just burns off some mileage. I’m still baffled by the fact that they cut out the Northbank section. It would have been so much fun.

Here is the track of the new Run #2 course.

Hopefully next year the courses will be back to normal. I’m a little nervous about the biking section of the race, but I’m sure that I’ll feel better once I spend some more time on the trails. But I’m not too proud to walk sections and I’m not afraid of being last. I just want to get my first multisport race under my belt.

I also want to get my grubby hands on the slick backpack they give to the participants:

Belle Isle Pedestrian Bridge

River District News is reporting that the pedestrian bridge to Belle Isle will be re-opened Friday March 20th.  The timing is perfect.

The weather in Richmond has been cold and rainy for almost a week straight.  Now that the sun is out and the weather is warming up I’m developing spring fever.  I’ve ridden Powhite Park a few times this season, but I’ve really been itching to ride the Northbank/Buttermilk loop.  Having this bridge open finally makes this possible.

The pedestrian bridge allows foot/bike traffic to access the island from the north side of the James River.  This is how you would get on the island from downtown.  The south side of the river has access to the island by the vehicle bridge, which is essentially a pile of rusting metal ready to collapse at any moment (and is still closed).  These two bridges are important if you want to bike the Northbank/Buttermilk loop.

Thankfully it’s possible to get from Belle Isle to the south bank of the James river without having to cross the vehicle bridge.  It requires some rock scrambling and carrying of your bike, but it’s definitely possible.

Here’s a pretty cool article/video about Belle Isle from Discover Richmond.  It shows the pedestrian and vehicle bridges.

RCMDVA

Richmond is a great town.  It has a very rich and diverse culture, an interesting history and (I’m not sure if there are stats out there to prove this or not) but more locally owned restaurants than any other place I know.  But one of the best parts about Richmond Virginia in the mountain biking.  The best trails in the region are accessible from downtown, and the rest of them are only a short drive away.

You can get up in the morning and eat brunch at one of Richmond’s many locally owned restaurants.  Then ride down to the river and spend the day on crazy-ass trails and then have a beer and a recovery meal afterwards at another locally owned restaurant.  It is an amazing city for the active lifestyle.

If anyone lives in a more mountain bike friendly city, please let me know.  I’d like to hear about it.