I’ve gotten some good hill work in over the past couple of days.  Yesterday, I took a quick tour through the Glen Artney area of Patapsco State Park.  This area is accessible by taking a right turn near the Grist Mill trailhead, and following the road under the railroad tracks.  The road forks, and if…

After 4 years of bike commuting from Elkridge to UMBC, you’d think I’d have found all of the possible routes, but I’m still finding more.  I consider that a good thing, because it keeps me from getting bored with any one particular route.  Also, these days I’m finding myself less willing to ride regularly on…

Just got my road bike back from the bike shop the other day.  I wore through my second drive train.  The bike is 11 years old now, and has a 9-speed cassette, and the new ones are all 10-speed.  To make a long story short, it seems that the chainrings for my old Shimano 105…

Yesterday morning was likely the last gasp of this winter that never was.  When I left for work, it was a nice, crisp 32°F.  Freezing temperatures are not unheard of around here in late March, but they’re not common either, and given how warm March has been, yesterday morning felt really Arctic.  Of course, today…

I hit 9000 miles on my road bike this morning, on my way into Patapsco State Park.  I was on the service road on the Howard County side that leads from River Rd. to the Avalon day use area.  I hit 8000 back on July 12, 2011, so it took around 8 months to log…

So, I did a 20 miler this morning on the way to work.  That’s a good bit longer than my average morning ride.  I wasn’t setting out to do 20+ miles; it just happened.  I had originally planned to do around 16-17 miles with a few more hills, but I got a leg cramp around…

I finally broke my February curse this year.  I rode to work 14 times, twice as many as any previous February.  Granted, this is only the 4th year I’ve commuted by bike regularly in the winter.  Bad weather has sidelined me a couple of years in February, and last year it was injury.  This year,…