February Groundhog rides

[north woods gal]

Hope you're feeling better, Crankin. I think its great to ride, sometimes, without any thought other than just riding and enjoying it. Just forget the miles, the average speed and all the other techno things and just ride. Easier said than done with someone like me who tends to be always pushing things, but, now and then, I do go into a cruise mode and take in the scenery and just smile. Works wonders for the soul.

N.Y., love that big chainring/small chainring to match the song. Will try it if and when I ever get around to doing the trainer.

[Crankin]

OK, so I rode 3 times in February, which is 2 more times than I did last year.
I am feeling much better, NWG, but I felt pretty horrible right through Monday night. Probably should not have ridden on Saturday, but...
Today, I had a hair cut and foil appt. at 1 and a dentist appt at 4. Of course, the group ride started close to my house, and had a 23 mile version, since I was not ready to ride 42 miles. I tried to change my hair appt., but couldn't, so I ended up with a pretty good day of riding anyway. I rode to the start of the group ride, 5 miles, and rode with them for about 11-12 miles, then I headed home, for a total of 21 miles. Much more climbing than last week, but the pace was pretty mellow, and a lot of the people had not been riding, so they really fell back on the smallish hills. I felt a bit slow, but my average was pretty much what it always is with this group; not as fast as when I ride with DH, but fine for me. It was 42 when I left my house and 58 when I got home, so I might have been a tad overdressed, but I took off my head cover, which made it pretty good.

[north woods gal]

That's great. Glad you got out for a ride and that's more miles than I've done on one ride, all winter. Good for you.

We've had a lot of melting with temps in the 40s the past several days and some of our local roads have dry pavement in stretches, now. Getting real tempted to pull out the 29 plus Surly Krampus and do some road work before the next big snow comes. The Krampus is no ultralight drop bar road bike, by any means, but it's a speed demon compared to the fat bikes. Really developing a case of spring fever. Itching to do some miles on the open road. Come on, spring

[ny biker]

Well I am just itching, literally. The tree pollen is back already and the predominant species right now is cedar/juniper, which is a major allergen for me. I started using the antihistamine eye drops earlier this month, started with Flonase last week, and thought things were under control.

Last night I went out and rode about 19 miles. It was in the mid-50s and not really humid but not typically winter dry air either. Light winds from the south. Quite comfortable, actually. I had a good ride and was a bit less slow than my previous night ride.

This morning when I woke up both eyes were itching. When I looked in the mirror I saw just how bad it was. Both eyes very red and crusty. Yikes.

Tonight and tomorrow we are expecting high winds (from a nor'easter that I think will be much worse for Crankin than for me). After that it will get colder. Hopefully that will lower the pollen count a bit. But it looks like I need to be more conscious about washing my face, hair and glasses and changing my clothes immediately after a ride, literally as soon as I get off the bike rather than waiting until after I've eaten or driven home or whatever.

[Crankin]

Do you use a saline nasal rinse after riding? I try to remember to do this most of the time.

[ny biker]

Do you use a saline nasal rinse after riding? I try to remember to do this most of the time.

Sometimes. I really didn't think it was that bad while I was riding, in fact I didn't think about pollen at all since I did not feel any allergy symptoms at the time. My eyes are less red today but still itching. I'm wondering if I forgot to use the eye drops before I went to bed after the ride.

I have a ride scheduled on Sunday. It will be colder so I hope the pollen won't be as bad. Though if it is still windy I will cancel because that always makes pollen worse.

It is very windy here today with gusts around 70 mph at times. Fingers crossed, I still have electricity though it went off for a few seconds several times between 7:30 and 9:00. I am trying to work from home -- the federal government is closed but my client is opemn. However I keep losing the remote pc connection so am struggling to be productive. Of course the noisy stompy neighbors are home. If the electricity goes out I will lose the ability to drown them out by blasting the tv.

How are things in Massachusetts? I saw somthing about flooding expected in Boston.

[Crankin]

It's a cold rain. Pouring. The wind is definitely picking up now, probably some gusts in the 40-50 mph range. I worked from 9-12 and was glad I have 2.5 mile drive. The North End and Seaport have some flooding already. Towns along the coast, up through the NH coast, down to the Cape are getting hammered. Most of the south shore towns that aways get hit with flooding and severe damage were told to evacuate. I hope they listen, but often they don't. The National Guard was activated last night. I don't think we will get real flooding where I live, maybe some swollen streams. It is supposed to turn to snow out here, but they really can't predict how much; we are on the edge of the rain/snow line. My 2 favorite x country ski areas are in the 6-12 inches range, but, it's going to be in the 40s over the weekend, so Sunday may be a choice of ski or ride. That does not happen often!