Saturday March 8 Rides

[Mr. Bloom]

Well, I never thought I'd get one of these threads started on a 28degree day...but I did my coldest ever!

7.5 miles, 15.2 avg mph

28 degrees, 9 mph wind, snow everywhere, but roads mostly clear!

I'm in Bloomington, away from most of my cold weather gear. I bought gloves, but my thumbs nearly froze!

[Geonz]

There's lots of BLoomingtons :D Probably not too far from me - it was 25 when I did my ride to the LBS and a cruise with the Speed P8 and told 'em I'd be back on a Non-Saturday so we could all have fun figuring out how to put a folding bike on an Xtracycle. 10 miles on the Xtra, 8 or so on the Speed. Slowly :)

[makbike]

No outside riding here. We have 8" on the ground and it was wonderful. I did log 20 miles on the trainer and will most likely repeat it tomorrow. It is suppose to be 60 F by Wednesday. Gotta love the weather in Kentucky!

Here is what my house looked like at 8:00 a.m. So peaceful!

[SouthernBelle]

We got slightly less snow here, maybe 4 inches. So instead of riding I went hiking through the fields. It will be gone tomorrow!

[melissam]

I feel a little guilty for saying this, but it was beautiful in my neck of the woods -- about 70 degrees.

I joined the AIDS/Lifecycle CAT1 group for a 50 mile training ride. I missed one of the turns on the route sheet, so my ride was a bit longer than planned.

The highlight of my ride was getting picked up on by a Russian cyclist on behalf of his friend. I have to say, it was the best pickup line ever; it went something like this: "Do you like my friend? He's not married. He likes you -- he says he likes your face. Are you married?"

There's something about the direct approach and a foreign accent that tickles me.

We chatted a bit, and they invited me to join them for a climb up Kings Mountain Road, but alas, we ALCers are not allowed to deviate from our training ride route sheet -- ever. Besides, I'm going to do a sneak preview of the infamous Quadbuster Hill tomorrow, and I don't think my legs have it in them to climb Kings Mountain one day and Quad Buster the next.

Das Vadanya!

[Fredwina]

had a cold last , so I spelt in . Did ride to the coffee shop and chatted with my club buddies before getting 30 miles in

[Mr. Bloom]

There's lots of BLoomingtons :D )

No Sue...there's only one BLOOMINGTON, but I hear your state and one to the north have a Bloomington as well...

[Trek420]

No ride but did get to the dojo. Pretty good workout, I have to do this more often. I don't know my right foot from my left. :confused:

[cyclechick2008]

Logged 15 on the stationary at the gym. Halfway through the 3rd Harry Potter movie.

Logged 70 miles this week! Go Me!

Kim

[KSH]

25 degrees here when I woke up.

I did 2.5 hours on the trainer (roughly 42 miles)... and then I ran outside for 1.25 miles (warmed up some by then).

I'm just holding on until it warms up. Not sure how many long trainer rides I can handle. For the rest of the month my long rides on Sat are 4.5 hours.

[KSH]

Well, I never thought I'd get one of these threads started on a 28degree day...but I did my coldest ever!

7.5 miles, 15.2 avg mph

28 degrees, 9 mph wind, snow everywhere, but roads mostly clear!

I'm in Bloomington, away from most of my cold weather gear. I bought gloves, but my thumbs nearly froze!

That's hardcore! And cold. Very cold. Great job.

[HillSlugger]

We had awful rain most of the day and now we have wind gusts up to 50mph! I rode in the basement, 25 miles on the rollers and the trainer. Watching dvds makes it tolerable, but I think this was about my limit. KSH, I don't know how you went for 2.5 miles! :eek:

[SheFly]

We had almost 4 inches of rain here yesterday. Unable to bear ANOTHER ride on the trainer, DH and I went out and did a 22 mile spin on the bikepath on our MTB singlespeeds - in the POURING rain :eek:. Not too bad, although it was also only about 35 degrees. Pretty wet and cold when we got home, bue we didn't have to ride the stoopid trainer!

SheFly

[Mr. Bloom]

... did a 22 mile spin on the bikepath on our MTB singlespeeds - in the POURING rain :eek:.

It's a sincere question I have...HOW do you do that? What kind of gear kepts you adequately warm at that temperature in a pouring rain!

[Crankin]

Mr. Silver, SheFly does it because she is tough (but very down to earth... she likes coffee). The rain here was horrible! I did a core workout inside. We had to take our son to airport to head back to San Diego. He is leaving for Iraq on Thursday.
I am hoping to ride outdoors later this afternoon because it will be LIGHT until 7 or so.
My husband has to fly to Phx to help take care of a family situation (bad, both parents in hospital) and is taking his Bike Friday. Although I don't envy him dealing with his siblings, I am jealous he will get to ride in 65-75 degree weather.

[Mr. Bloom]

My husband has to fly to Phx to help take care of a family situation (bad, both parents in hospital) and is taking his Bike Friday. Although I don't envy him dealing with his siblings, I am jealous he will get to ride in 65-75 degree weather.

Wish him Godspeed! I can't imagine what it would have been like to deal with family situations from across the country!

[SheFly]

It's a sincere question I have...HOW do you do that? What kind of gear kepts you adequately warm at that temperature in a pouring rain!

Thankfully, Gore-Tex helped, but only to a point. I had on a Gore-Tex jacket with wool underneath, and "water-resistant" pants. Also had on my Lake MTB shoes (and there is a reason the call them that ;)), and some water-proof/resistant gloves. When I started to complain of cooling off some, DH would say "OK, we're gonna race from here to that sign. Ready? Go!" And we'd spin down the path like gerbils, at about 140 rpm!

BTW - he always wins :D. Truthfully, I didn't really get cold until we were headed home and the downpours had truly started. This created HUGE puddles on the path, and in my shoes and gloves. The warm shower when I got home was great though.

SheFly

p.s.
I think the wind on today's ride was worse.

[Melalvai]

My ride Saturday was an adventure.

I need to go about 30 miles north to drop off 2 more dining chairs to be repaired, and pick up 2 that were finished, at one of the Amish carpenters. These are heavy oak chairs, turns out they weigh 22 lbs each, and the trailer coincidentally weighs the same. Weight hauled in addition to my usual 40 lb bike and me: 66 lbs.

I guessed it would slow me down by about 4 or 5 mph (resulting in 10 mph average). I guessed wrong. I averaged 6-7 mph! I thought it to be a 3 hr trip. It took 5.5 hrs, with few breaks. The 2 breaks took longer than I liked (grocery store, remove broken fender).

And COLD. It was ~10F when I started. My water froze in less than an hour. My toes hurt so much at the grocery store I had to sit down until they thawed. After that first miserable hour, it warmed up, and I fell into a rhythm of pedaling and wiggling my toes. Pedal-wiggle wiggle left, pedal-wiggle right, pedal-wiggle wiggle left. (My left toes froze faster than my right toes. They were also less coordinated wigglers.)

I don't know what happened, but suddenly the plastic fender had bent in half, my foot was caught in it, the front tire wouldn't move, and we all fell over. The trailer with chairs stayed perfectly upright. NO traffic on that quiet road. A 6 mph fall doesn't really hurt much. I didn't even tear my jeans.

It was only a fender bender. :D

My husband and I had discussed beforehand that I might be too ambitious, particularly in light of the temperature. I had nothing to prove and had no problems calling him and having him meet me at the carpenter with the car.

My knees hurt today, reminding me that I really need to get a longer seat post. The seat is high enough for my knees ONLY when it is past the "Do not raise past this mark" mark.

One of the nice things about this ride is that I rigged up a sort of handlebar bag (although that may have contributed to the fender mishap). I kept food in there, and by opening all packages right away, I could get at the food even with my awkward gloves. I clipped a little radio to it and a radio talk show ("What Do You Know") made the hours fly by.

[KSH]

We had awful rain most of the day and now we have wind gusts up to 50mph! I rode in the basement, 25 miles on the rollers and the trainer. Watching dvds makes it tolerable, but I think this was about my limit. KSH, I don't know how you went for 2.5 miles! :eek:

HA! Great job!

Well, my first hour was spent chatting on the phone with a gal pal. I had my blue tooth headset on and she did most of the talking. My coach would kill me if he heard this though, as I should be focused on my riding. :p

The next 45 minutes was spent watching some TV shows I had recorded.

The last 45 minutes was listening to music... and counting down the time.

That's 2.5 hours... right?

Was it fun? Eh, not really. Was it completely miserable... naw. Riding outside in 28 degree weather would have been miserable.

I just had to do it. It was on my training plan, so I did it.

At least it wasn't 4.5 hours like I did one Sat. in February! :eek: I hope I don't have to do one of those again!

[KSH]

You are INSANE!!!! Do you use those toe warmers you can stick in your shoes? I know those help keep my toes toasty warm on cold days. Although I don't ride when it's below 50 these days.


And COLD. It was ~10F when I started. My water froze in less than an hour. My toes hurt so much at the grocery store I had to sit down until they thawed. After that first miserable hour, it warmed up, and I fell into a rhythm of pedaling and wiggling my toes. Pedal-wiggle wiggle left, pedal-wiggle right, pedal-wiggle wiggle left. (My left toes froze faster than my right toes. They were also less coordinated wigglers.)

[Melalvai]

You are INSANE!!!!
I know I've done something right when I hear those words...most days, I do! :)

Do you use those toe warmers you can stick in your shoes? I know those help keep my toes toasty warm on cold days. Although I don't ride when it's below 50 these days.
I admit I did not check the weather before I left, or I might have changed my mind, or at least worn wool socks.