February rides

[ny biker]

New month, new thread. No I have nothing to contribute (yet). Anyone else?

[Sky King]

It is supposed to start raining and not get below freezing for the next 3 days!!! I have never been so excited for rain, ever. Maybe by Monday the snow and ice will be gone. I've been going to spin class and I am so not good at sitting on one of those things for an hour. Bring on the rain.

[emily_in_nc]

I'll be going on my third February ride today, the 3rd! So nice to be in Florida this time of year. I don't ride on the weekends here as the lovely bike paths are choked with newbies, kids, dog walkers, etc. So, I'll have in around 100+ miles on the week in three rides.

[Crankin]

I am hoping to ride Sunday, when it will start out freezing, but be around 40 for a couple of hours, later in the day. It's going to be cold and windy tomorrow, so since I have been hiking a lot, I am going to do a tabata class; only 45 minutes, so I can have a normal day.
I rode twice in January, which is fine by me. I need the mental break, so I can be fired up in March. Our big trip is the end of June, so the key for me this year is to not flame out after coming back from Spain and then our short trip to the Berkshires. Thinking I need to plan to lead a couple of rides in August and September to keep me motivated.

[ny biker]

We're expecting the same weather here this weekend, Crankin. But I'm not sure yet what my plans are, and I also want to take a break now in order to be in a good frame of mind later. I might go for a walk/easy hike with a friend on Sunday. I'd kind of like to go see a movie, too, at some point, and also need to finish painting the giant dresser that is currently taking up space in my living room.

[north woods gal]

Trying to heal up from my fall, early in the week, but darned bruised ribs on my right side are killing me. Rode, indoors on the trainer, yesterday, but couldn't stand sitting in the house, today, so rode out on the lake ice with the dogs. Not good. Any riding seems to be aggravating things, probably from leaning forward on the handlebars. May just have to go for a week with no cycling. Bummer.

Did buy a set of studded fat bike tires, yesterday, though. Not sure which bike to put them on, yet. No way am I giving up. :)

[Crankin]

Buying cycling gear is a good substitute for riding, at this time of year.
I don't think I will get to ride Sunday, as now they predict rain/snow showers.

[azfiddle]

Good weather here in southern AZ- five commutes this week, starting temps in the low 40's and riding home in the 60's or close to 70!
Getting ride to ride a short way up Mt. Lemmon this morning.

[north woods gal]

Good idea on the bicycling gear, Crankin. Also a good time of year to do some rebuilding or even start thinking about changing or adding bikes.

My Salsa Fargo is a good example. It's a drop bar mountain bike with 29er wheels/tires, kind of a cult bike for those of us who have them. Love the bike in every respect with one huge exception. It has SRAM Apex shifters with I HATE. The problem is the single paddle that is used for both upshifting and down shifting on SRAM. In order to down shift, I have to move the paddle twice the distance in, compared to moving it a short distance for a higher gear. With my hands, I struggle to reach in far enough when I need to downshift and if I don't reach in far enough, I actually shift to a bigger gear, not a lower gear and that completely kills things when I'm in a climb. Even when I do it right, it's still slow and awkward to downshift. MUCH, MUCH prefer Shimano 105, Ultegra and so on because downshifting and upshifting is on different levers and I have enough reach with both. Much more manageable for me.

At this point, it's either convert everything over to Shimano - and that won't be cheap - or trade it in on another bike. Decisions, decisions.

[ny biker]

Good idea on the bicycling gear, Crankin. Also a good time of year to do some rebuilding or even start thinking about changing or adding bikes.

My Salsa Fargo is a good example. It's a drop bar mountain bike with 29er wheels/tires, kind of a cult bike for those of us who have them. Love the bike in every respect with one huge exception. It has SRAM Apex shifters with I HATE. The problem is the single paddle that is used for both upshifting and down shifting on SRAM. In order to down shift, I have to move the paddle twice the distance in, compared to moving it a short distance for a higher gear. With my hands, I struggle to reach in far enough when I need to downshift and if I don't reach in far enough, I actually shift to a bigger gear, not a lower gear and that completely kills things when I'm in a climb. Even when I do it right, it's still slow and awkward to downshift. MUCH, MUCH prefer Shimano 105, Ultegra and so on because downshifting and upshifting is on different levers and I have enough reach with both. Much more manageable for me.

At this point, it's either convert everything over to Shimano - and that won't be cheap - or trade it in on another bike. Decisions, decisions.

Are your handlebars too big? Having compact drop bars has made a huge difference for me, and I have no trouble with Sram shifters.

[north woods gal]

Thanks, NY. Might try that. The problem with the SRAM is mostly back when trying to ride trails and single track. For that, Salsa recommends staying down in the drops for better braking and control and I agree. It is safer for technical riding. When in the drops, though, almost impossible for me to get enough reach to downshift, so I have to go back up on the hoods to do it, right. All and all, I think drop bars are fine for milder and easy trails, but they really are a mismatch on the techno stuff. Not a big deal, because I have other bikes for trail work.

[azfiddle]

We rode from our house to milepost 4.5 on Mt. Lemmon today (me and the DH). It was cool to start but warmed up to short sleeve jersey temps. About 29 miles total- and almost 2000 feet of climbing or so. And then I rode to get a hair cut and color, and groceries on my touring bike, for about 4 more miles.

[emily_in_nc]

We rode from our house to milepost 4.5 on Mt. Lemmon today (me and the DH). It was cool to start but warmed up to short sleeve jersey temps. About 29 miles total- and almost 2000 feet of climbing or so. And then I rode to get a hair cut and color, and groceries on my touring bike, for about 4 more miles.

Good job!

[north woods gal]

Plus, one, AZ. The only practical way for me to rack up those kinds of miles, right now, and do it safely, is indoors on the trainer. Yuk! Love my snow biking, but this time of year I'm dreaming of those good times to come when the snow is gone and I have hundreds of miles of nice dry open road to explore. Definitely cabin fever time for me. :(

[north woods gal]

Good news and good day for me. My bruising has subsided to the point where I can ride, comfortably, again, without aggravating anything. Did two miles of heavy duty plowing and pedaling though deep crusty snow out on the lake (whew!), then added another easier pedaling mile, riding the shoulder of our snowy neighborhood roads, being very careful to stay off the well traveled and slick portion of the snow pack. Still need to mount the studded tires on one of the fat bikes, but can't decide which one gets the studded. Kind of OCD, maybe, but hate changing out tires on the other bikes because each kind of tire and tread has its place for various types of winter riding I do. That, and I hate doing the switch out tires thing. :)

[north woods gal]

Well, rather than sink a lot of money into switching the Salsa Fargo into Shimano from SRAM, I just traded it off on, yup, another fat bike, a Norco Bigfoot 2, so it wears the studded fat bike tires. Two problems solved in one move.

Have to say, those big 45NRTH Dillinger 4.8" studded tires are awesome. Rode ten miles, today, mostly on our local snow and ice packed county roads, but also some riding on the lake and even some riding on the back trails. Pretty crazy to be able to stand up and pedal up snow and ice-packed hills, but I can do it with these tires. Single digits for temps while riding, but was plenty warm and got a good workout.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p606/Jneastra/P1080901_1.jpg (http://s1158.photobucket.com/user/Jneastra/media/P1080901_1.jpg.html)

[ny biker]

North Woods, what do you wear on your face in those single digits?

We are on a February roller coaster here, with two days of record-setting temps in the 70s followed by cold wind with white-out snow squalls, then a cold cloudy day. For the weekend it will be warmer than average, in the 60s possibly. No offense to Crankin but I am not sorry that we didn't get the snowstorm yesterday and am equally not sorry that we're not in the crosshairs for another one on Sunday.

My bike has been in the shop for the annual clean-and-tune service this week, and I'll be picking it up tonight. The cherry-red bar tape that I loved was worn and dirty so it's been replaced with a bright light blue. I will test ride on the trainer tonight to see if I can pedal and clip in and out without hurting my ankle.

[Crankin]

I am not offended, NY! Your area does not normally get the type of snow we experience.
Nice bike, Northwoods. I am imagining Northwoods wears a balaclava, or a combo of neck gaiter and fleece cap.
So, we got about a foot of snow yesterday. We did get to our 5:45 am tabata class, as the gym decided to have the class as the snow didn't start until around 7:30. My office was closed, so I stayed inside all day after the class. I wanted to ski through the neighborhood, but I started feeling exhausted and weird, mostly I hope, because I haven't been sleeping well and i have been exercising a lot. The snow is beautiful powder, so I now have the next 3 weekends of nordic skiing. So happy. We are agetting a little snow tonight, about 3 inches, then a bigger storm Sunday into Monday.
This weekend it will be local skiing, up to southern NH tomorrow, meeting our friends who moved. Then Sunday, very local, in the next town, early before all the yahoos from the city get out here. Next weekend, we will be up near Stowe, Vt for the long weekend, and the weekend after that, we are staying at an inn near the the local ski place in southern NH, so we can ski saturday and Sunday there.
After that, it will be March. A lot of years, we are out on the road on March 5th or so, but lately, it's been closer to the 15th or 20th. I could do another weekend of skiing, but after that,I need to get my bike azz in gear. Our trip to Spain is June 26.

[north woods gal]

Yup, a combination of things, depending on just how cold it is. A balaclava with a scarf or neck gaiter does a pretty good job most of the time. When temps get down into the single digits and a bit below zero (yes, I bike in those temps), I also find a neoprene nose/mouth mask to be very helpful, because that's a sensitive part of the face for me. The other part of my face that is very sensitive in extreme cold are my eyes. Then I add a good set of tinted ski goggles. The tinting really helps wear and tear on the eyes on sunny days with the light reflecting off all the snow.

Can't help but think how I must look like a fright with such a setup, but all our neighbors know it's me under all that stuff and wave when they see me. Haven't been racking up a lot of miles, but I am proud to say that I'm biking every day, regardless of the weather, doing 5 to 10 miles a day, now that I have the studded tires. Biking all bundled up, plus the cold, makes for more pedaling effort, but I love it so. It's its own kind of biking. Nothing else like it.

[azfiddle]

I am in awe of those of you who do get out in freezing temperatures. Although I've been commuting regularly to work all year, I just couldn't make myself ride when it was 29 or 30 degrees and dark outside. There were a few days that were 39 and 40 (and probably dipped to 37 in the cold air drainage areas along the Pantano Wash (dry riverbed).

That said, I have made 24 trips between my house and school (22 on work days, and 2 for planning/grading) since Jan 2. It's gotten to the point that I don't want to drive and feel like I'm cheating if I do... I even rode on Thursday when we had parent teacher conferences, and rode home in the dark under the almost full moon. It was lovely- the 3 mile section of the bike path that goes through relatively undisturbed desert between the air force base and the mountain bike park was incredibly quiet and tranquil. I saw 3 people and 5 bunnies along about 7 1/2 miles of pathway. It was even pretty quiet along the suburban neighborhood streets near my school and then there was just a mile from the path to my house.

Thinking about doing a group ride this morning.... or a solo birding ride. I've got an hour to decide.

[north woods gal]

I dig what you're saying about some riding in the dark rides. A lot of my commuting in my Chicago days involved riding in the dark, both ways. Some of those rides were less than fun, of course, but I remember some that were almost other worldly beautiful, too, the kind you hated to end. The commuting by bike really helped restore my spirits after a stressful day at work.

Pretty quiet on the birding, up here, but should start to see some migrants, soon.

[Crankin]

Commuting to or from work in hte dark is one of my favorites. I wish I didn't have such a short commute now.

[azfiddle]

I got in about 40 miles (had the Garmin turned off when I was going slow through parks to look at birds). I saw 57 species today. Highlights were 13 species of ducks, many in spectacular breeding plumage- especially a gorgeous male Wood Duck. 5 species of raptors: Cooper's Hawk, Red-tail, Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, and Peregrine Falcon. First swallows of spring- definitely a Rough-winged Swallow and maybe a Tree Swallow. It wasn't a fast ride, but I routed it to take advantage of a fairly strong tail wind for the ride home.

[Helene2013]

My riding consists of ride on the trainer...no choice. I just got back into training mid-Jan after someone on Dec 29th fell on me after slipping on ice (under snow) and I did not see it coming nor able to avoid it and injured my leg just under the knee to the calf. It felt like the knee (not the fractured tibial plateau one from other knee last year) but it truly was the lower leg. Ortho gave me the ok to resume my gym, and listen to how the leg feels. I had hamstring/ calf pain for over 2 weeks from that fall. Now it is all back to normal. Did my ramp test yesterday and it was lower than the last I did before the fractured titial plateau but much more than I had anticipated. Now I can have my PT/trainer plan a real effective program to get me on track to be able to nail that 112km bike ride I signed again for in June.

I've started to run very short periods of time on treadmill...like 20 seconds and walk 40 seconds. The knees needs to adapt again. What a waste of precious time but no choice to get back slowly than re-injure it again.

Our winter is really bad this year. Snow, freezing rain, melting, refreezing...all in a week. I love winter. I'm a winter person. But this winter is the worst I've seen so far. Not able to snowshoe, etc...

[shootingstar]

Best of luck in your recovery. I haven't cycled at all in past 2.5 wks. due to heavy snowfall and deep cold (-25 degrees C) where I am. We'll see in 1 wk., given the melting right now. Just walking outdoors.

[north woods gal]

Sorry to hear about your injury and how it happened, Helene, but you're right, a fall is a fall. Your winter sounds something like ours. As much ice as snow and crazy swings in temperature, with lots of thawing and re-freezing. Our groomed trails are in good shape, thanks to a lot of work on the part of volunteers to keep them in shape, but all my snow work is the back country/wilderness type, so I have to take what comes. Thank heavens for the fat bikes, though. Can always ride them as long as the snowplows are out. Been a very busy fat bike season for me.

[Crankin]

Sorry to hear about your fall, Helene. It sounds like you have a plan, though.

[emily_in_nc]

Ugh, Helene, sorry about your injury -- and your winter! Neither sound good, but recovery (and spring) will come in time.

After four days of not riding due to (first) bad weather and (then) too many projects I got deeply into during the bad weather, I finally got out today. I usually skip riding on the weekends since the best options here in Florida are paved bike paths, which get crazy on weekends and much quieter during the week, but I broke my usual rule and rode today. The weather was just too gawgeous not to. 70s, not too much wind, nor too much humidity, sunshine, birds chirping, and flowers blooming. Half of the county was out on the paths with me, but it wasn't too bad; mostly congested around parks/parking areas and not too bad in between. Managed to achieve my highest average speed since we got here at Thanksgiving, despite all the cyclist and runner "traffic", and just had a great ride overall. Hard to stop smiling in weather like this!

36 miles.

[north woods gal]

Just a meager 12 miles for me, but it was mostly snow packed roads with a little off-road work on some trails. Very windy, though. Some 30 plus mph gusts, but decent temp around freezing. I am ready for some spring weather, though. :)

[Geonz]

Just a meager 12 miles for me, but it was mostly snow packed roads with a little off-road work on some trails. Very windy, though. Some 30 plus mph gusts, but decent temp around freezing. I am ready for some spring weather, though. :)

You sandbagger :) Those aren't meager miles. I got in 7 with the weekend errands... Saturday I did a real "go out and ride" because it was 61 degrees -- but even then all of 11 road miles... my goal is this week (since it's mostly above freezing and no precip in forecast) to start sneaking in the gratuitous miles (this a.m. I added 1.5 miles to commute, and I'll go out for my sanity ride at lunch and try to do 2 laps instead of 1 and ... maybe break a sweat :))

[north woods gal]

Okay, you got me. :) Hey, any miles are good miles, right? Really, though, I'll take riding outside even on the nastiest days, to riding indoors on the trainer. Those trainer miles are a last resort.

[emily_in_nc]

I agree, NWG, 12 miles on snow and with wind gusts are an equivalent or better workout than my 36 miles in favorable, fair conditions!

Yesterday was chore day, but I'm looking forward to a ride today. It's supposed to be partly cloudy but looks a bit threatening out right now. I'll be checking the radar before I head out. Don't want to get rained on. At least snow is not an issue! :D

[north woods gal]

Good reminder on the radar. I've made it a habit during thunderstorm season to check it, regularly, before heading out. Have been able to avoid some nasty weather that way.

Speaking of weather, here we go, again. Middle of February and the forecast for the day is some more of the icy stuff, even some possible rain. This has not been a normal north woods winter. Thank heavens for the studded fat bike tires.

[ny biker]

I don't think any part of the US has had a normal winter, except maybe the deep south and even there they had a tornado recently. We have been on the mild side in general, which remains fine by me. Yesterday I saw a map showing no part of the western US being under severe drought conditions, for a the first time in quite a while. On the other hand, something about a dam possibly breaking in California.

Once again we have a forecast calling for unusually warm temps this weekend, but since similar forecasts have underperformed recently I'm not holding my breath. Since we usually get snow this time of year I am not usually riding at all outdoors this time of year, so I'm okay if it turns out to be cold. However I really need to get past the inertia and get in some indoor cycling time, since I'm totally forced to take a break from weight-bearing cardio until my ankle is better. I guess tonight I should set everything up and program the thermostat for a low temp tomorrow night, so I will have fewer excuses to be lazy about it.

[azfiddle]

I follow the NWS tabular (hourly) forecast, which is usually pretty reliable. It was supposed to rain Sunday night/Monday but was mainly windy here. It was windy, dark, and potentially raining so I drove to work Monday. This morning, I forgot I had a morning meeting and got 1 block- turned around and had my husband drive me half way. It was a 6% chance of rain but I got sprinkled on! It was cool and breezy coming home- and rain by the mountains but I didn't run into any. It hasn't been as warm a winter as last year, but more rain this year (even with La Nina) than last year with El Nino.

Anyway- hard to say what's a normal winter anymore..... More rain in the forecast for Saturday.

[north woods gal]

Got a Jones H bar handlebar and put it on my Pugsley as part of my winter project to turn the Pug into a utility, take everywhere bike. Did a bit of test riding with the new handlebar, yesterday, out on the snow pack, and it's all to the good. Unlike a standard factory bar, the Jones allows for all kinds of hand positions and has extra mounting options for bags and such. Next step is adding some faster, low rolling resistance tires to the Pug. Those are on order.

My plan is to use the Pugs as a road warrior, mostly on gravel and sand roads, fire roads and so on, but it will also have to do some pavement to reach those roads. The bulk of my summer mountain biking, last year, was with fat bikes, anyway, so figured might as well branch out a bit more with the fatties.

[north woods gal]

Have a significant thaw headed our way, so got more trail riding on our hard icy snow, today, while things are still frozen. Pretty tricky, but fun, riding. The hard packed width of the trail is only about as wide as my snowshoes, since that was what I used to pack the trail. Even a little off the hard pack and the bike sinks into about a foot of snow and you slam to a halt. Then you have a problem of getting started, again, because your feet sink into the deep stuff on the side of the hard pack. Once rolling, though, lots of fun swerving and fishtailing. Guess you have to be a hardcore mountain biker to call that fun, but so be it.

Will miss the trail work when the thaw settles in, but I'm a glass half full kind of person, so looking forward to more road work as more road and snow melt on the roads. My goal for this next season is to do more adventure kind of riding on our rural/backcountry/fire roads., mostly with the Pugsley set up as a utility bike. I won't be fast, but I'll always get through. This year, though, absolutely getting a GPS.

[ny biker]

Significant thaw, indeed. At least you (and I) are not getting soaked with all the rain they have in California. Though on the positive side, their drought is over.

I'm still feeling the inertia against setting up the bike in my living room. Honestly I'm a bit concerned that I will run into problems switching the pedals. It took a long time to resolve some problems I had a few years ago with knee issues and heels hitting the cranks while I pedaled. IIRC the fitter at the LBS had to add a spacer to the left pedal. I will try to be careful taking the pedals off, noting anything special such as where I find a spacer, and labeling/photographing things so I can put it the Speedplays back on again at some point. But I'm concerned that I'll end up messing things up somehow.

Anyway I had a brilliant idea to try the stationary bike at the gym, just to confirm that I can pedal a bike without ankle pain. So I tried that last night, but it turned out to be a bust. The geometry of their bike is just not right, and I felt like I wasn't pedaling normally, like the angle from the seat down to the pedals was off. So I gave up and took advantage of the leg extension and leg curl machines just so I could work some leg muscles in a way that wouldn't hurt anything.

So since the stationary bike at the gym was a fail, I'll have to set up the bike in the living room after all. Oh well. Springlike weather is on its way for the weekend so maybe that will get me going.

[emily_in_nc]

A nice 34-mile solo ride today, though I didn't sleep well last night (woke up way too early and could never get back to sleep), so I was feeling a bit sluggish and slow. But it was a gorgeous day in the 60s, not too much bike path traffic, and the sky was just beautifully blue. Florida really is lovely this time of year, and I am so grateful to be here! Also trialed a new pair of PI Quest bike shorts, a bit longer than I am used to (since I am short) and with slightly thinner chamois, but they were quite comfy. I will probably order another pair as I recently ditched my two most uncomfy pairs and need to get rid of one more that is basically falling apart so all the ones I have will work for me. Price was right -- got 'em on Amazon for super cheap, so I wasn't too confident, but they are very good. I think tall gals might like these b/c of the longer inseam.

[azfiddle]

Finished up today with my 4th commute of the week, and had company both ways- one of my friends rode with me and then came back down and rode home with me. So she got in 40 miles to my 20!

I started to leave work and discovered the screw came out of my cycling shoe. I taped it around my foot with masking tape and went to Ace Hardware on the way home- it's all fixed now.

No riding this weekend- the weather forecast is wind: up to 40 mph and rain: 100% chance on Saturday through Sunday. Maybe I'll get a lot done around the house.

[Geonz]

We're a little breezy but... SIXTIES. in FEBRUARY. Today I'll ride the bus across town to pick up my Transport. I'm hoping the hub transplant went smoothly. I had a Dutch Gazelle w/ 700cc wheels and a great generator hub w/ Busch-Muller light... but... the frame rusted out. The Transport has 26 inch wheels ... and great disk brakes so I'll need to find it a home (it's hardly been ridden)... so they've plopped the generator hub in the 26 inch wheels. I'll ride home the long way and go for at least 15 miles...

[north woods gal]

Two days in a row of 50s. In fact, we broke the record high, today. Mostly just road work with the fat bike and, yes, still using the studded tires. Although the roads I ride are now about 50% clean pavement, that other half is still wet ice and VERY slick. Couple more days and it should all be open, so will be able to switch bikes. Did 15 miles on the fattie, though, so good workout on a spring-like day. Wonderful to be out.

As for riding the fat on the trails, no go. The hard snow base is collapsing. Will be making good headway, then the base gives way without warning and I sink into a foot plus of snow.

Spent the rest of the day getting the Warbird ready for gravel season. Changed the 700x35s to 700x40s for a bit better performance in the loose stuff. Almost forgot what a light bike it is, but, then, just about anything is lighter than a fat bike. :)

[north woods gal]

Took the Warbird out on the pavement for a change of pace from the fat bike work. The Warbird is a Salsa gravel specific bike and it now wears 700x40 tires, rather than the stock 700x35s for a bit better bite in the soft stuff. Rode 10 miles of pavement out to the gravel road I like and did one mile on the gravel. Not too bad, no ice or snow, but the gravel/dirt was pretty soft and squishy. Took the long way home for a total of 24 miles on the day. Hit a nasty head wind of 25 mph+ on the way back, but just so happy to be out, didn't mind a bit and temp was in the 50s, anyway. Typical spring ride, but, of course, it's not spring! One of the longest ever February rides for me, up here. Rain moving in, tonight. What's up with this weather?

http://i63.tinypic.com/2ivmqah.jpg

[Geonz]

More ridiculously nice days here! I picked up my Trek Transport and t he hub transplant seems to have gone well. I mused about it being just harder to ride (fatter tires and ... literally clunkier b/c it's more rigid than the Xtracycle so things bounce harder)... and told myself it was time to get in better shape anyway, so leave 5 minutes earlier and ride harder -- and it worked this morning! Since the generator light on the Xtracycle is busted I end up doing "not so bright" on my battery light... but riding the Transport reminds me how nice a *really good* light is. Got in >100 miles last week... trying for the same this one ... happily the rain in the forecast will arrive between midnight and dawn, because I live in Camelot.

[north woods gal]

Two days in a row of 20 plus miles on pavement with the Warbird on top of several days in a row of 10 miles plus on pavement with the fat bikes. Still below my summer average, but, gee, this is winter, so I'm in heaven! Got rained out (not snowed out), today, and looks like several days of wintery mix precip ahead, so more road biking looks iffy, right now. Still, it does feel good to be in road bike trim in February. Don't usually bother to even track my miles in February, but this hasn't been a normal February. I think I'm going to be a bit depressed to see my roads covered with snow, again, after this. Oh, well.

[Crankin]

OK, i did ride today, but not much, even though it was around 55 degrees. The club ride was led by a really fast rider, and since it is still winter, there wasn't a choice of groups. The hike was a boring one, most likely with people who are super slow for my hiking speed.
I met a friend for coffee, came home and ate lunch, and then finally, around 1:45 got out. A huge issue is that there is still at least 5-6 inches of snow in my back yard, where my walk out basement leads to. It's south facing and gets no sun. So, I shoveled the steps (4) and carried my bike out. The side of the condo was not as snowy. I left my bike behind my car and then had to go back in and put my shoes on, etc. It was really nice out and not as horrible on the road, in terms of melting, until I got close to home. I had to ride out in the lane on Rt 62, for most of the last 2.5 miles. This is a busy road, but thankfully, it's school vacation here, so quieter than usual.
I decided on a short, hilly ride and it just about killed me. I feel like I am in good shape between winter sports, the gym, and spin, but it is just not the same. I ended up doing 10.5 miles, at an OK average for me. Then, bringing the bike back in sucked. I got my boots back on, but I was tired and ended up dragging the back wheel through some snow. I cleaned the bike the best I could, without a hose, in the basement.
It's going to be 60+ tomorrow. I have a short day tomorrow, I may ride to work, but it seems hardly worth it for 5 miles total. I'll be up early to go the gym and then I will decide after I get back. The street my office is on is just full of terrible potholes, so it's dicey.

[emily_in_nc]

What a strange "winter"! I'm amazed to see you northern gals getting to ride right now. Very surprising. NC has been truly springlike, I see from my friends back home on FB.

I rode both Mon-Tues (36 and 32 miles), but yesterday it rained 1.5" (something they sorely needed as it's been very dry), and this morning it was still raining lightly, with huge puddles everywhere, so I did yoga/light weights inside instead. Tomorrow is supposed to be very nice, so we plan to take the Bike Fridays out to Walmart, as we really need a few things that are too hard to find elsewhere. That's the hilliest ride we do here, so I am glad to have the mountain gearing on my Bike Friday!

[north woods gal]

Well, winter is heading back to us with a vengeance. Forecast is a for a winter storm with 6-10" of snow for the next two days, so looks like my February flashback to summer is over.

[azfiddle]

Tucson has a quaint tradition of "Rodeo Days"- two days off from school- that dates back to a time when a lot more of the city participated in the annual rodeo activities. So, I have two extra days off and yesterday I took most of the day for a long ride with birding stops. I had about 47 miles and 64 species of birds by the end of the day. What surprised me was that even though I consider the route mostly flat (I was on the multi-use path that encircles Tucson for most of the day) I still had 1600 feet of elevation gain. The most exciting bird was the very rare Louisiana Waterthrush that someone else found two days ago at one of my regular birding stops. Second best was the Merlin at the last stop, as it plucked feathers from a little bird that it had caught. There were great numbers and variety of ducks for a bunch of desert city park ponds.

Today I'm planning to ride up Mt. Lemmon about 5 miles after it warms up a bit.

[north woods gal]

Snow and cold is back, but I got my fats and this girl will ride. :)

[Crankin]

It is 66 degrees out, but the roads are just sloppy with melting snow, so I will wait until tomorrow, when DH and I will ride before we leave for our "dumbed down" overnight nordic ski trip to southern NH. It will still be in the 60s tomorrow, although there is a chance of rain.
Best bet, we will get to snow shoe Sunday, but most likely we will end up hiking. At least it will be around 40.

[emily_in_nc]

64 species, AZ???! WOW! :eek: Tucson is a great place for birding, but I'm still duly impressed.

Today we did my much-dreaded errand ride on our Bike Fridays to Walmart, the ABC store, and Home Depot, filling our panniers a little more at each stop. Fortunately, DH carried the lion's share, to the point that we could actually ride together for most of the way back -- yay! Despite this only being a 30 mile ride overall, though, I only ate one granola bar, and drank only water, which is fine for the mileage, but because of the length of the stops and getting from place to place, we left at 10:30 am and were not home until 2:30 pm, so that was simply not enough calories. So the last 30 minutes, I was pretty much starving, and I slowed down quite a bit. We hit the food big time when we got back!

It was on the hot side today -- lower 70s when we left but around 80 upon our return, windy (in our face most of the way back; not ideal with the load). Still, a pretty day and a successful ride as we had a long list of things we needed to buy.

DH just put another Selle Italia Diva (in white, my first ever white saddle, and she is gorgeous!) on my Bike Friday and changed out the ripped up, old red handlebar tape for white, so she was looking pretty stylish. And the saddle was such an improvement -- I was miserable the last time I rode this bike!

[Crankin]

Glad you were more comfortable, Emily. A new saddle and tape always gives me a lift.
AZ, your post brought back memories of "Parada del Sol." I believe we had the day off, when I started teaching, even though I did not teach in Scottsdale.
Fun memories of the parade and ensuing partying. And, when I taught in the Roosevelt district, we used to have the rodeo people from the Phx rodeo come and give a demo on the playground.

[north woods gal]

I remember shopping at that Walmart on our Florida trip, last September. Definitely some hilly country, but nice area.

Rode, today, out on the freshly plowed roads, but only a few miles. Super windy and low 20s, but, hey, I did ride. :)

[azfiddle]

Yesterday my son and I rode up Mt. Lemmon to Molino Basin (2000' of climbing, 32 miles total) to see a Long-eared Owl that had been reported the previous day. We were successful and it was a beautiful ride but the descent was quite chilly! The directions were perfect, and I was excited to share the info with the birding community since we saw the bird in about one minute (Since then, both the original poster to the birding email list and and I were reminded that owls and nest sites are not to be reported publicly on the list... and I duly apologized...)

When we arrived at the shopping center where many cyclists park before going up the mountain, we saw this:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2840/33066060096_83d32e0cdf_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SnWcEq)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/SnWcEq) by Sharon Goldwasser (https://www.flickr.com/photos/133571926@N02/), on Flickr


And on our return, the door was open, a bikes were parked and we had a short chat with one of the riders. My son was generally nonplused but I thought it was very cool...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/698/32262467964_9bd39349d1_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/R9VzHE)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/R9VzHE) by Sharon Goldwasser (https://www.flickr.com/photos/133571926@N02/), on Flickr

[Crankin]

Cool, AZ.
We rode 24.5 miles today. It is freakily 69 degrees out right now. The front is getting close, though, as it's windy now.
We abbreviated a ride that my club did this week and then made ourselves do it. No more wimping out and no more short rides when we planned a long one. We, especially me, do not want to power through our trip in June/July, which I always do, but then I fall apart. I am tough enough to do that, with little training, other than my normal riding, but this year I am going to train more, by riding more; longer and hilly rides. I am motivated. We didn't care about speed today and that will be my mantra for the next 6 weeks or so. We rode on all of our "old favorites," roads where I first started riding, which I could do in my sleep. It seemed like some of the towns have already swept the sand off the roads, as it was so much nicer than Wednesday when I rode.
A guy on a hybrid pulled out in front of us a bit, when we had gone about 4-5 miles. We passed him, and then he caught us at a light. We sprinted and passed him again, but then he went one way and we went another. Then, he ended up in front of us again, near my old house in the last town we lived in. We let him work, until we got to the bottom of a hill, and he said he had enough! Anyway, our last 2 miles were a hilly street that parallels the street we usually take home. We often take it going the other way to get to Acton and Boxborough, as the ups are less severe in that direction, for the beginning of a ride. Now I know why I don't usually take this road home... the first hill (there's 3-4) is annoyingly steep. They are not long, but in almost 20 years, I can only remember doing this road in this direction twice.
Nothing hurts and I will continue to keep my motivation as the main thing I need to work on. Getting ready to leave now for what was supposed to be 2 days of x country skiing. Instead, it was riding (today) and tomorrow hiking. We found a small mountain pretty close to the inn in southern NH, so we will do that tomorrow morning, and be home home in time for DIL's birthday celebration. The inn has a nice bar and restaurant, so that is where I will be...

[Pax]

Got my bike back from the shop with my new OrthoPedal installed, works fantastic. Got a short ride in but the temps were dropping like a stone and the wind was gusting to 35mph.

[north woods gal]

Teens and very windy, today, but still rode the fat bike back on some of the trails in the fresh snow. Challenging and hard work, but, of course, that's part of what makes it fun. :)

[ny biker]

Got my bike back from the shop with my new OrthoPedal installed, works fantastic. Got a short ride in but the temps were dropping like a stone and the wind was gusting to 35mph.

Great! I hope it works out well.

I have been suffering far too much from the early pollen explosion -- a double whammy of elm and juniper/cedar -- so I'm staying indoors for now. As noted elsewhere I got in a 30 minute ride around my neighborhood last Monday to see if my sore ankle tendon was okay with the new flat pedals on my mountain bike. All went well except I don't remember how to ride without clipless pedals. No idea when my next bike ride will be...

[azfiddle]

Good news Pax!

[Pax]

Did a little more today, but it's only 25 degrees out so I cut it short. Pedal works great, but it's a lot less power from the right leg with the shorter crank, may have to walk the bike over the causeway bridge when I get back to FL. Am so so happy to have found it though because riding had become an impossibility before.

[Crankin]

That is so awesome, Pax. This is why it's important to keep TE going...

[Pax]

That is so awesome, Pax. This is why it's important to keep TE going...

Agreed, without Sylvia sharing her research with me on this topic, I'd still be stuck at square one. We help each other out here and that is priceless.

[Helene2013]

That is truly awesome to read. And yes, it is important to keep this site opened. I'm happy that you found a solution Pax. Little (or should we say big) things like this changes a life!

[azfiddle]

I rode up to Saguaro NP - didn't bring my card but a friendly cyclist I had met before had me ride through the gate on his pass.

It was cloudy and a little breezy but I saw at least 10 kinds of wildflowers, mostly just the very first individuals.

[emily_in_nc]

Wonderful news, Pax. It may not be perfect, but being able to ride at all vs. not ride is priceless!

[north woods gal]

... It may not be perfect, but being able to ride at all vs. not ride is priceless!

Couldn't have said it, better. I'm at an age where I really do wonder how long I will be able to continue riding as much as I do. It's something I will never take for granted, believe me. I admire you, greatly, Pax, for keeping the spirit. Go, girl.

[north woods gal]

Ten miles of fat biking out on our thawing snowpack on paved roads, today, then tried some trail work. Not good, though. Even the fat bikes stall out when the crust gives way and the bike sinks into a foot of snow, underneath. Will try, again, tomorrow, before the temps get warm enough to soften the crust.

[emily_in_nc]

The past two days have been windy (especially yesterday) and HOT -- highs in the 80s. It's nice leaving at the start of a ride with the temps already above 70, but they get very warm very fast. Orlando might hit 90 tomorrow, which would be a tie for the record. Fortunately, another cool front comes through after that. These temps are unusual for February; weatherman says it's been more like May this week. Not acclimated to this yet!

At the end of February, I'm up to 951 miles on the year. Had hoped to hit 1000, but Feb. is just too short a month! Still, off to a good start on the year!

[Sky King]

Have been so depressed with our weather I haven't dared comment :). I rode 2 times in February which is 2 x's more than January, sigh. Spring can't arrive soon enough.

Glad to hear some of you are getting out and about. Friends of ours just headed to Texas for a month, so jealous.

[Helene2013]

It's winter in Montreal...and pouring rain right now...but -10c tomorrow. So everything will be frozen and slippery. Not a typical winter for sure but it is what it is. Viva home trainers to keep our legs moving! I have no more snow on my grass..but water puddles that will turn into an ice rink in the morning. My poor dogs. :(

But hey! It's March 1st! In a month it will be April. yeah!

[Crankin]

Yes... the thunderstorm front will be moving through here later. It's in the 60F range now, humid and cloudy. But, no fear, it's going to be in the single digits overnight on Friday and Saturday.
However, it looks like next week, I will be able to get some regular riding in, with temperatures in the 50s.

[Pax]

Started out this morning at almost 60, now it's 45 headed to 28; really need to see some sunshine and blue sky, and have this danged wind stop! We've had 25mph winds for a couple of weeks non-stop, not only is it cold and annoying, it swirls up all the allergens.

[north woods gal]

Back to riding snow pack out on the roads, but the fresh 2" of snow that caused it is fun to ride, back on my frozen trails where it hasn't been packed. Not a lot of miles, but fun on this blustery, still very much winter, day.

Just saw that we had the second warmest February on record. My best February for miles since my commuting days while in Chicago, mostly because for two February months, there, my bike was my only means of transportation.

[north woods gal]

Oops! Wrong month. See March. :)