February rides

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...

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. :)

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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. :)

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/3/2840/3...d32e0cdf_z.jpgUntitled by Sharon Goldwasser, 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/1/698/32...d39349d1_z.jpgUntitled by Sharon Goldwasser, on Flickr

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...

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.

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. :)

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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...

Good news 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.

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

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Originally Posted by Crankin

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

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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.

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!

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.

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

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

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

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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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Oops! Wrong month. See March. :)