Riding in the Holiday Season: December Rides!

[north woods gal]

Ooops, missed that Sue. 6000 miles is one heck of a year. Congrats.

Good ride, today, but mostly on paved neighborhood roads. Temp was warm enough to break up some of the snow pack and traction was very good. Not much for miles, only 7, but riding snow is different, plus added in 3 miles on my trails.

Our forecast high temp for Christmas is zero. Note self: time to setup the indoor trainer.

[ny biker]

Catching up.

Best of luck with the IVF, Rebecca!

Congrats Sue! And hats off to you, NWG, for getting outside for activity every day.

Happy Chanukah to Crankin and anyone else who celebrates! (I hope I spelled that right!)

I personally love seeing pics from and reading about winter rides in areas that are still warm.

I managed to get out and ride last night. We've had warm-ish weather for a few days, but I wasn't able to do any cycling over the weekend for a couple of reasons. I've had a cold which caused lots of coughing. We also had a tiny bit of snow that fell during rush hour on Friday, so all the roads in the area were heavily salted, and road salt is a minor asthma trigger for me. And on top of everything else I had lots of shopping and other things to do to get ready for Christmas. So conditions were not good for bike rides. But yesterday things were better. It was the warmest day of the bunch, topping out near 60, and the forecast was for temps to stay in the low 50s until late at night. My cough has finally subsided, and most of the road salt has dissipated.

Even at 50 degrees it was still chilly when I started around 8:45 pm, but I warmed up quickly. In fact it was so nice that I extended things a bit. I did notice more of a chill as I got near the Potomac River, and again near the end it was a bit colder. But overall I was comfortable. It was nice to see all the holiday lights that people have put up. At the end of the ride my Garmin showed that I'd ridden just under 20 miles, so I did a few laps around the parking lot to make it an even 20. Normally I do some 20ish mile night rides over the summer and shorter rides this time of year, but this year has not been normal at all.

So now I'm done for the year, as I'm heading out of town soon for the holidays and won't be back until late on Jan 1.

[north woods gal]

What a relief to see everyone, again. I couldn't pull the site up for several days, now. Kept getting a "couldn't connect with the server message". Anyone else have this problem?

Anyway, yes, crazy me, I'm still riding every day and we're now into some serious cold as in below zero for a high temp. Minus 23, last night, for a low. Won't even try to explain why anyone would be riding in such weather, but just as an interesting thing to share, when riding in sub zero cold, some things kick in that are unique to that kind of cold.

The most noticeable thing when riding on the hard pack snow or even clean pavement in sub zero cold is the increased rolling resistance with the tires. On a local road, for instance, my usual top speed rolling down the hill in warm weather or even moderate cold weather is about 18 mph with the fat bike. In sub zero cold, same snow conditions and road, same bike, same tire pressure, my max speed on this hill drops to about 13 mph. That's a huge decrease! With that added rolling resistance, even riding a short 5 miles on the road becomes a serious workout. I lose at least two, maybe three, gears to maintain my usual pace. On the trail, bike handling also changes.

The one good thing about this kind of cold, though, is that the snow hardens up nice, allowing me to ride in snow that is too deep when it is warmer. Can also ride out on the lake, now.

If all goes well, will finish the month with only two days missed on the riding. One of those days, was spent shoveling snow on my trails and one of those days was a glorious day in fresh snow with the XC skis. Just couldn't pull off the skis and go bike riding.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. Please think of me when you're riding in more sane weather. Send some my way.

[Crankin]

The only riding I have been doing is spin class. I go to one that's only 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of core/body work. It's on Wednesdays and Fridays, so when I can't do an outdoor activity, I go to this. Done a few hour long spin classes in the past month. Will look at my Garmin on Friday, to see my total miles, and at this point, it's fine. I am thoroughly enjoying xcountry skiing and snow shoeing/hiking in the winter and looking forward to renewed motivation and maybe a century this year.
Glad the forum is back.

[emily_in_nc]

Glad to have our forum back!

I've been keeping up the regular rides here in generally warm, usually sunny Florida! The past two mornings have required tights and wool jerseys over a regular jersey, but mid-way I am able to peel off the outer layers. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and cloudy, so that's our laundry and errand day. Looks like I'll end up just crossing over 3700 miles for the year when all is said and done. No complaints about that! Next week looks like a chilly and possibly rainy (which we really need; it's been so dry) start to the new year, so I may be taking a riding break for awhile. Glad there's a gym here in our RV park, and we can always bundle up and take walks even when we don't feel like riding.

[shootingstar]

I've done only baby short rides under 12 km. Vancouver has had some snow, ice and now it's cold with rain at 2 degrees C which is not pleasant for cycling. I'd rather cycle -10 to -15 degrees C with dry pavement.