fI've been falling further behind, it seems, on talking about my biking progress. The last week has been a very mixed bag, in terms of success and pleasure.
The first several days, I was riding at night and doing eleven miles or so, as I described previously. That was almost all taking it easy, with a couple exceptions, and I'm just going to talk about the exceptions today.
Two of those days, I did that loop, but decided to attack a hill on Williamsburg Rd near my house (the last hill before I get home; the segment is called Wmsburg Riser). The first of those times, I planned ahead, but forgot where the segment started, and started pushing a (short) block early. I still got a PR of 36s, but definitely gave up something. Two days later, I didn't plan ahead, but as I reached the correct starting point, decided to charge up it and set a new PR of 34s. Both times I failed to keep pushing after cresting the hill; if I want to challenge for KOM, I need to do that.
Another exception was that I took Friday off, and did a ride of a little over an hour. I decided to challenge the Arlington trail loop (Custis/W&OD/Mt Vernon trails) that I hadn't done since October 28th. Call it a benchmark of progress since then (and while I knew it had been a while, I didn't realize it had been quite that long since I did that ride). How did it go? Swimmingly.
I did fall off considerably from the penultimate hill to the end, but still did get KOM. In doing so, I beat my old record by just over two minutes; not bad for a sixteen-mile loop (fifty minutes down to forty-eight, roughly).
Oh, and at the end of my fifteen mile loop on Saturday, I finished with a slight variation on my normal route, coming back via Little Falls Rd/Yorktown Blvd instead of Williamsburg. There's a stretch along there that I used to try to tackle vigorously, but which I hadn't done hard in quite a while (since March, I think, looking back at my times).
Well, I decided to go all-out along that stretch, and actually caught and passed a couple of cars that were probably doing the speed limit. Man, did that feel good. Actually, it felt remarkably good just pounding along there; I'm not sure what it was, but I found the perfect cadence or something, and it just felt like flying instead of riding. I was working hard (420W avg), but somehow, it didn't feel like it.
The cars started with a lead of 1-200 yards, and I didn't think I'd ever catch them (especially since I stayed seated the whole time), but I did it with room to spare. I kept hammering the pedals up the hill just after the end of the segment. I was seriously beat by the time I got to the top, but it was a good feeling.
When I first started out, I was doing that segment in just about a minute, but this time was 36s. Back then, I knew I'd be able to improve, but would not have guessed that I'd be able to do so by so much. Now I wonder if there's any more room for improvement, although I doubt I'll try anytime soon.
Actually, I created the segment, and I think I did it after my first round of improvement, where I got 10-15s better, and wanted to see myself beating other people. It was pretty eye-opening to see how much faster the other people were at the time. Definitely motivation for me to improve.
Once thing that has come out of the last few days is that I've found that I really enjoy riding at night. It was more of a scheduling thing that got me to be doing that (my wife needing to go to work early, mostly), but it works pretty well. I play Puzzle Quest in the morning, finishing competitions (right at the end is a bad time to not be playing). And in the evening, I play some more of that, but when I get to a point where I need an hour or so of healing, I take a break to ride the bike. Works out pretty well.
And I'm surprised that I find the roads and trails less crowded at night. I don't see the joggers running in the road, which is nice (that still bothers me quite a lot, especially the ones playing chicken), and there are actually fewer cars as well. The latter shocked me, but I certainly enjoy it (other than the jerk who passed me at 75 in a 30mph zone, last night. And who couldn't even be bothered to get all the way in the other lane. Was seriously wishing a cop had been there).
So I might just keep riding at night, instead of switching back to the morning. The one fly in the ointment is that I haven't been sleeping enough, and playing that game is the primarily culprit for that. I might talk about that part some more, but suffice it to say that it's probably unsustainable for me to keep sleeping so little. We'll see.
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
20150720
20141015
Starting the season
Three games in, the Caps season can already be described as very up-and-down. The first period of the season, against Montreal, was one of the better ones I've seen them play in the last several years. In it, Burakovsky showed why he wasn't sent down (I was highly skeptical, at best, of this move, but he's looked very good so far).
The second period was discouraging, and you had to think the disallowed goal would give them some additional motivation, but the third period was really terrible.
They got really lucky with the second disallowed goal and with the other "goal" hitting the corner of the post (ironic that both of those were caused by Bourque (and f- that guy, anyway)), but still allowed a tying goal.
In the overtime, they actually looked quite good again (and with some interesting forward pairings. Ward and Chimmer was a bit interesting, but Kuzya (who'd been stapled to the bench for most of the game) and... Brouwer? were an odd choice. And it was a surprise to see Bura out, though he acquitted himself well), but not good enough to win the game.
The shootout seemed fairly desultory, with nobody doing anything terribly interesting, and it seemed pretty anticlimactic when Holtby allowed the final shot in. Overall, a disappointing game, but one showing promise.
The second game, against the Bruins, did not feel like a good one at all. But OV scored on the OV power play one-timer to give a lead. A few minutes later, Alzner made a great pinch to keep the puck in, Backs won possession, and immediately hit OV cutting toward the net. OV wristed the shot over Rask's shoulder to double the margin.
Possessionally, though, it was pretty terrible, and Holtby was called on to make a number of nice saves to preserve the lead.
The second period was more even, possessionally, although it felt like Boston had the better of it. But the second power play unit chipped in halfway through, with Bura in MarJo's position, passing to Kuzya in Backstrom's, passing straight across to Green in OV's position for the one-timer score. It should also be noted that Bura drew the penalty on this one.
The third period still went more Boston's way, possessionally, until the last five minutes or so, when they seemed to give up.
But Holtby continued to stand tall, especially being called on in PK situations, and kept the B's out of the net. By the end, Boston had given up, and Ward got his first of the season (from Carlson and Bura) to complete the shutout.
All in all, not the way I'd draw it up, but it's hard to be upset with the result.
The third game, last night, was back at home against the Sharks. The first period went about the way you'd expect, against a San Jose team that hadn't yet allowed a goal and got a little luck. That helped push Holtby out less than ten minutes in, as he allowed three goals on seven shots. Not his night.
Irwin had his first career multigoal game with the first two, and John Scott had his third career goal (in about 100 games, IIRC) for the third.
The Caps kept the Sharks out of the net the rest of the period, but I still waited well over an hour (maybe two) before turning the rest of the game on. And that was after long debate.
The team justified my faith less than three minutes in, with a nine-second power play. It was OV fooling the D, and passing to MarJo on the far doorstep for the tap-in, instead of taking his usual one-timer. A very nicely-played power play, as all five players touched the puck in those nine seconds.
Two and a half minutes later (does this sound familiar, perchance?), Pavelski scored to restore the three-goal margin.
Playing against type, the Caps scored back one, and one-and-a-half, minutes later (Green and OV with the honors) to make it a close game again. That was it for the scoring in the period, but the Caps continued to play hard and threaten.
Wingels extended the lead once more, only a minute and a half into the third, and it took the Caps a long time to come up with an answer. That answer finally came from OV, on the power play, but was not one of his normal one-timer slapshots. He go the puck in his normal position, and actually waited on something for a second or two. But his wrister found the top corner, near side.
The building really went crazy a minute later, when Brouwer got the defender to trip, coming down the left side, then floated to the middle, waited for Niemi to go down, and found the top-right corner for the tie.
A minor penalty on Backstrom with just over a minute left provided some additional drama, but they weathered that storm, even into the overtime. The Caps looked pretty good in the overtime, even getting the only shot on goal, but were unable to score, so things went into the shootout.
And let's just say that that did not go according to script, as all three Caps missed and Pavelski's score was the difference maker.
But really, it's hard to be upset with a shootout loss to the Sharks. Especially a game that started so poorly.
So the Caps finished the trio with four points, which would have been a pretty optimistic prediction at the beginning. They haven't looked great, or even consistently good, but they show a lot of promise. Bura is more than justifying the staff's decision to keep him on the big team; MarJo is improving on the boards. Fehr looks pretty good on the top line. The Chimmer-Laich-Ward line hasn't done much, but we know what they can do (they'll turn it around; they've had some good chances). Kuzya has looked good in pretty limited minutes (psst: he needs more ice time, and I think he'll get it).
O'Brien and Latta haven't looked bad. In fact, I'm in favor of keeping Latta in the line-up when Beagle's healthy.
The power play looks like it hasn't been tinkered with (much; OV's getting less ice time, but that's probably to the good), and is getting a lot of shots. No one has tried the "man on OV" yet; we'll see how things go when they do.
The penalty kill looks improved, though not as much as I'd hoped. They are still allowing too many shots, but it's a lot less than last year. Mostly, they need to work on clearing. They've failed on too many clearing chances already. That seems fluky; we'll hope that's true.
Given all the off-season turmoil, it's hard to be disappointed with where things stand.
The Devils are coming to town tomorrow, and they've been scoring this year. So that should be quite a challenge. The Panthers follow that, then it's time for a three game swing out north and west (Oilers, Flames, and Canucks, in order). We'll have a much better handle on where the team is at the end of that.
The second period was discouraging, and you had to think the disallowed goal would give them some additional motivation, but the third period was really terrible.
They got really lucky with the second disallowed goal and with the other "goal" hitting the corner of the post (ironic that both of those were caused by Bourque (and f- that guy, anyway)), but still allowed a tying goal.
In the overtime, they actually looked quite good again (and with some interesting forward pairings. Ward and Chimmer was a bit interesting, but Kuzya (who'd been stapled to the bench for most of the game) and... Brouwer? were an odd choice. And it was a surprise to see Bura out, though he acquitted himself well), but not good enough to win the game.
The shootout seemed fairly desultory, with nobody doing anything terribly interesting, and it seemed pretty anticlimactic when Holtby allowed the final shot in. Overall, a disappointing game, but one showing promise.
The second game, against the Bruins, did not feel like a good one at all. But OV scored on the OV power play one-timer to give a lead. A few minutes later, Alzner made a great pinch to keep the puck in, Backs won possession, and immediately hit OV cutting toward the net. OV wristed the shot over Rask's shoulder to double the margin.
Possessionally, though, it was pretty terrible, and Holtby was called on to make a number of nice saves to preserve the lead.
The second period was more even, possessionally, although it felt like Boston had the better of it. But the second power play unit chipped in halfway through, with Bura in MarJo's position, passing to Kuzya in Backstrom's, passing straight across to Green in OV's position for the one-timer score. It should also be noted that Bura drew the penalty on this one.
The third period still went more Boston's way, possessionally, until the last five minutes or so, when they seemed to give up.
But Holtby continued to stand tall, especially being called on in PK situations, and kept the B's out of the net. By the end, Boston had given up, and Ward got his first of the season (from Carlson and Bura) to complete the shutout.
All in all, not the way I'd draw it up, but it's hard to be upset with the result.
The third game, last night, was back at home against the Sharks. The first period went about the way you'd expect, against a San Jose team that hadn't yet allowed a goal and got a little luck. That helped push Holtby out less than ten minutes in, as he allowed three goals on seven shots. Not his night.
Irwin had his first career multigoal game with the first two, and John Scott had his third career goal (in about 100 games, IIRC) for the third.
The Caps kept the Sharks out of the net the rest of the period, but I still waited well over an hour (maybe two) before turning the rest of the game on. And that was after long debate.
The team justified my faith less than three minutes in, with a nine-second power play. It was OV fooling the D, and passing to MarJo on the far doorstep for the tap-in, instead of taking his usual one-timer. A very nicely-played power play, as all five players touched the puck in those nine seconds.
Two and a half minutes later (does this sound familiar, perchance?), Pavelski scored to restore the three-goal margin.
Playing against type, the Caps scored back one, and one-and-a-half, minutes later (Green and OV with the honors) to make it a close game again. That was it for the scoring in the period, but the Caps continued to play hard and threaten.
Wingels extended the lead once more, only a minute and a half into the third, and it took the Caps a long time to come up with an answer. That answer finally came from OV, on the power play, but was not one of his normal one-timer slapshots. He go the puck in his normal position, and actually waited on something for a second or two. But his wrister found the top corner, near side.
The building really went crazy a minute later, when Brouwer got the defender to trip, coming down the left side, then floated to the middle, waited for Niemi to go down, and found the top-right corner for the tie.
A minor penalty on Backstrom with just over a minute left provided some additional drama, but they weathered that storm, even into the overtime. The Caps looked pretty good in the overtime, even getting the only shot on goal, but were unable to score, so things went into the shootout.
And let's just say that that did not go according to script, as all three Caps missed and Pavelski's score was the difference maker.
But really, it's hard to be upset with a shootout loss to the Sharks. Especially a game that started so poorly.
So the Caps finished the trio with four points, which would have been a pretty optimistic prediction at the beginning. They haven't looked great, or even consistently good, but they show a lot of promise. Bura is more than justifying the staff's decision to keep him on the big team; MarJo is improving on the boards. Fehr looks pretty good on the top line. The Chimmer-Laich-Ward line hasn't done much, but we know what they can do (they'll turn it around; they've had some good chances). Kuzya has looked good in pretty limited minutes (psst: he needs more ice time, and I think he'll get it).
O'Brien and Latta haven't looked bad. In fact, I'm in favor of keeping Latta in the line-up when Beagle's healthy.
The power play looks like it hasn't been tinkered with (much; OV's getting less ice time, but that's probably to the good), and is getting a lot of shots. No one has tried the "man on OV" yet; we'll see how things go when they do.
The penalty kill looks improved, though not as much as I'd hoped. They are still allowing too many shots, but it's a lot less than last year. Mostly, they need to work on clearing. They've failed on too many clearing chances already. That seems fluky; we'll hope that's true.
Given all the off-season turmoil, it's hard to be disappointed with where things stand.
The Devils are coming to town tomorrow, and they've been scoring this year. So that should be quite a challenge. The Panthers follow that, then it's time for a three game swing out north and west (Oilers, Flames, and Canucks, in order). We'll have a much better handle on where the team is at the end of that.
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