February Groundhog rides

[north woods gal]

Hope you manage it all, N.Y. When I was a career mom, it was all I could do to ride even once a week and sometimes couldn't even manage that, especially in the winter. Some days, no way could I find time to do any kind of exercise and was too tired to some, anyway. Commuting by bike was my way of sneaking in some ride time when I could, but that wasn't always an option.

Retirement has been such a blessing for my riding. Trust me, I'll never take the free time it gives me for granted. You'll get there.

Today, temps actually got into double digits. Trail was all hard pack and got a nice 5 mile workout on the trails, then back in the house for some hot cocoa.

[ny biker]

Thanks NWG. I took the weekend off from all things related to work and got in a good 45-minute workout on the trainer last night. Also did 15 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym on Friday, would have done more but didn't get there early enough.

Chicago just had measurable snow for 9 straight days -- did it fall on you too?

[Crankin]

What a strange winter this has been.
Saturday was 50 degrees with snow melt like crazy. I went for a trail run in slush. Sunday, we had pouring rain all day. It was well forecasted, so I went to spin at 7:30 AM, since I had a bunch of cooking to do, to get ready for my trip to Vermont. What a weird spin class. A bunch of much older (well, they seemed older than me, like 70-80) men and women who were dressed in cotton, hence sweating profusely, and smelly . It was so humid in the room, from the rain. They were alternately not doing much on the bike, spinning like crazy, or groaning. It's a very small room, the bikes are jammed together and it was hard to concentrate with all of this, even though the class was actually good. Then, when I went to leave, I had my jacket and bag for my shoes in the corner. When I went to get it, the fan that was on the floor got knocked over and hit the pedal of the woman on the bike that was next to it. The class was over and she was still riding. She got all pissy; I don't even know if it was my "fault," but I saw her again this morning and she was kind of mean. But, she's always like that.
We leave Wednesday for far northeastern VT. I am so looking forward to x country skiing, but I think there may even be some rain up there. Sigh... it's going to be 50 here on Wednesday, and my club is doing a ride I would actually enjoy for a first ride of the year. Well, I will be in the car, praying for snow!
Hopefully, I will have a fabulous weekend skiing and ride next Wednesday.

[north woods gal]

Thanks NWG. I took the weekend off from all things related to work and got in a good 45-minute workout on the trainer last night. Also did 15 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym on Friday, would have done more but didn't get there early enough.

Chicago just had measurable snow for 9 straight days -- did it fall on you too?

No, all the snow has been moving south of us and I'm okay with that. We still have plenty on the ground. It's been an unusual ten day stretch of dry, but cold, weather, highs in the teens and dropping below zero, every night. Actually a good thing. My trails are in great shape, all packed hard from all my riding and the teens are still decent for riding.

We may see some warmer temps, this week, though. I have mixed feelings about that, because a little melting invariably turns to ice and then the trails get dangerous, fast. Ice is fine when you're riding the straight and level, but not so good on the techy stuff - sharp turns and quick steeps and drops (the fun stuff) and my trails have a lot of that.

Was chatting with some of my fat bike riding pals at the bike shop, this week about riding the ice. We all agreed that going down on the ice is spookier and nastier than when going down on dry trails. Comes so fast and without warning. No way to prepare for it and protect yourself. The bike literally flies out from under you, almost like an explosion. Have had my nastiest injuries going down on ice.

Of course, anyone with an ounce of good sense wouldn't be riding a bike on an icy trail, but that's definitely not me.

[emily_in_nc]

It is definitely a strange winter! Even here in central Florida, it shouldn't be summer yet, but that's what we are having lately -- lows around 65-70 and highs in the 80s. Pollen (that is normal) and humidity. I will say that it is nice not having to worry about layering up for a ride, which we were doing just a couple of weeks ago, but I would have preferred a more gradual spring-like transition. Normal high right now is 73 -- not 86!

Ah well, that's climate change for ya.

[ny biker]

Yeah we had lots of rain all weekend but it was warm. On Sunday it was in the 60s and I didn't even need a coat. I was just so happy it wasn't cold enough to be snow. I spent a few hours writing Get Out the Vote postcards for a special election in Pennsylvania. It was organized by the local Democratic committee and held at a nice house in a neighborhood that I ride through on my evening bike rides. It was fun seeing the inside of one of the houses for a change.

On Saturday I cleaned out closets in preparation for having new floors installed. I went through several drawers of bike stuff. When I get new gear I tend to keep the packaging in case it needs to be returned, and I keep instructions and extra parts like brackets or zip ties. I ended up getting rid of lots of unneeded cardboard and some old gear. Some will be donated and some (like old lights and batteries) will go to the hazmat/electronics recycling place.

So I had a good off-the-bike bike weekend.

NWG, do you have any studded tires for riding on ice?

[north woods gal]

NWG, do you have any studded tires for riding on ice?

Oh, yeah. In fact, in the winter I keep two fat bikes setup with studded tires. One has shallow lugs for riding fast on hardpack/ice and one has a very aggressive, deep tread for working through the deep stuff when there's ice underneath. Crazy expensive tires, but the studs allow me to ride in just about any day in the winter, any conditions and do provide a big margin of safety, but you do take a hit on speed and performance. Nevertheless, studded tires are no guarantee. I have gone down with the studded tires on the trails. Ice on the trails is a devil to figure. Hard to read and even see, sometimes. So very different than riding on a level road or even out on the lake ice. Perfectly smooth, clean lake ice is actually very easy to ride even with non-studded fat bike tires.

Much prefer riding my one of my other three fat bikes without studded tires to get my hour plus of riding done, every day. (Yeah, I have five fat bikes.) Much easier and faster ride without studs and regular fat bike tires do a great job in any kind of snow as long as there's no ice in the equation.

Tires and tire design are such a big deal for winter trail riding. Choosing which bike and tire combo to use on any given day is very much like trying to predict the best wax/skis for snow conditions when XC skiing. Have learned a ton about snow biking, thanks to having my own personal test track out my backdoor. Love it, but, yeah, I am looking forward to spring.

[Crankin]

Ha, I have enough trouble deciding clothing combinations for < 60 degrees! Actually, between 50 and 60 is the worst.
And I have waxless skis. I couldn't deal with worrying about that. Only thing I have is lube for when it's starting to get around freezing or higher and the snow gets sticky. It's not wax, though, just a roller stick of liquid stuff.
Yes, I m lazy.