February Groundhog rides

[north woods gal]

Our long dry weather spell is coming to an end, this week. Should see upwards of six inches of snow and ice by the end of the week, maybe more. Oh, well. Will try to keep the trails cleared, or at least some of them, but won't fight it to the bitter end. I will use the snow for some skiing and some deep snow fat biking. Gotta adapt if you live up, here.

Was musing, this morning, how I've had such a life-long and entirely beneficial relationship with my bicycling. My bicycles have been to me what horses have been to some cultures. If the day ever comes when I stop riding, I'm probably not long for this world.

[Crankin]

I rode today. Outside. While I don't really like 73 degrees on February 22, it was a good ride. DH and I did a short 17.6 mile ride across town and back. Too fast on the way out, and more what I expected on the way back.
Only negative thing is that despite being slathered by sun block, the meds I am taking for a sinus infection gave me quite a sunburn, but it's almost all gone. I know it's a chemical reaction, but it's never happened before. Thank God, it was gone before I had to go out, later in the day.

[ny biker]

Ack. Weather forecast fail.

A few days ago the forecast was for warm weather (record-breaking, high 70s and 80 in some spots) for yesterday and today. It also said there would be a chance of rain this evening, so I figured I'd go for a bike ride last night. But then the forecast changed to rain after midnight tonight, and it was windy yesterday which was kicking up the tree pollen, so I decided to do the bike ride tonight. Then when I woke up this morning I found that the forecast changed again, back to rain this evening. I brought all my gear to work just in case the rain fizzled out, but nope. I could wait and go later for a short spin, but the roads will still be wet and it will probably start getting colder now that the front has passed.

So we had two days of May weather in February and I missed out on them. Other than walking to and from my car, I spent no time outside. And now we are expecting rain through the weekend.

Oh well, at least it is not cold enough for snow.

[north woods gal]

We're going to get nailed with some heavy snow, tonight, and then, again, on Saturday. Looks like I'll be doing more shoveling than riding for awhile. Oh, well.

[ny biker]

As I drove home from work last night, the roads were dry. And the wind had finally subsided. No idea what happened to the rain that I clearly saw on the radar a few hours earlier. But it was after 11 pm, too late to start a bike ride.

I am gaining weight and really needed the exercise.

[north woods gal]

5" of wet, heavy snow overnight and we're forecast to get another 5", tomorrow night. Whoa!

I did ride my snow covered trails as much as my legs would allow, though. As you might suspect, riding any bike, even a fat bike, in 5" of thick wet snow is no picnic. I did it mostly out of curiosity and to also practice handling a bike in that kind of snow and, okay, I can't resist a challenge. Been riding all winter and I'm in good shape, but, even so, I only lasted a bit under two miles before my legs went noodles on me. I was actually surprised to even do that.

On a techno note, I give a lot of credit to the expensive, very aggressive fat bike tires that I bought, just for these conditions. Still had fishtailing, but way less than other tires I've tried in deep snow. Also, for the record, with each pass over a section of trail, the snow compresses, more, and the pedaling gets easier.

I did try the XC skis, right off, this morning. Got in a hurry and figured the skis wouldn't need any fresh wax. Wrong! Didn't get thirty yards and the skis iced up, bad. Headed back home and waxed them, which I should have done, right off. Will try, again, tomorrow.

[Crankin]

Did a very short, 13.6 mile ride right after lunch today. I waited until it became cloudy, since I didn't want a repeat of the chemical sunburn reaction from Bactrim again. However, it was 52 and no sun, a bit of wind, so I was covered up! Although I rested Thursday,after my ride Wednesday, I woke up feeling crappy again on Friday; I felt like I was going to keel over in boot camp, but I made it through. So, I was somewhat hesitant about going out today, as I was really congested when I got up. But, I felt better after lunch. Poor DH has been dealing with piriformis issues since the late fall, really when we started doing a lot of hiking. He finally went to the doctor, who put him on a week of Naproxin. He's almost done and it's really not resolving, and he's been stretching, too, so we decided to really go slowly. Funny, how much more pleasant cycling feels when you intentionally do this! We've made a deal to build up really slowly in speed this year. Didn't go anywhere special, just around west Concord and Sudbury, though we did climb up one hill I've rarely done, which has a beautiful farm along both sides of the road, and made me feel like I was back in Vermont.
Although tomorrow is going to be the dreaded wintry mix, it's going to be pretty nice this week. I may ride to work on Monday or Tuesday.