March In Like a Lion Rides

[north woods gal]

Emily, that is so cool. March arrives and you already hit the 1000 mile mark. Congrats.

I'm still riding almost every day. Only missed two days in February. Of course, these are snow riding miles and it usually takes me an hour to do just 5. March is still solidly a winter month for us. It comes in like a lion, but that lion sticks around well into April. Just a fact of life, up here. Still, I see changes, now. What snow we get during the week now melts off in the week, so our snow depth is no longer accumulating. It will eventually start to decline as spring arrives.

I ma really getting itchy to get some road miles in and have even been thinking of getting another bike that would work for all day road riding. My Surly Krampus works, but it is really a dedicated trail bike that I make do for road work. Yeah, just what I need, another bike.

[Crankin]

Another bike is always OK. We are starting to think about an around town bike, still with gearing, but bigger tires, and probably a flat bar.

[north woods gal]

Always okay, for sure, on another bike.

You know, if I was living in a city, now, I'd have no problem going even as big as a fat bike with the right tires as a utility bike. Those big tires are super comfy and fear no potholes, curbs, sand or road grit, rain, snow, you name it. My Pugsley would be a great choice. With racks and panniers, it would make a great errand/grocery store bike. It's no speed demon, but it's no dog, either, with the right tires. Figure you can only go so fast in traffic, anyway. A 29+ or 27.5+ would even be faster with many of the same advantages.

More snow coming, tomorrow! This has been one long and very snowy winter. Better get some riding in, today. Will probably be shoveling, tomorrow.

[ny biker]

I was going to lead a club ride today but decided not to. It is still breezy here from last week's nor'easter and as of this morning my eyes were still itching. They're not as bad as they were on Thursday but are still not back to normal. So although we have blue skies and high temps above 50, the breeze and low humidity mean pollen hell.

One of my friends led the ride in my place. I haven't seen his report yet. I did hear from another friend who tried to go for a ride this morning and he said the wind was pretty bad.

Things should calm down tomorrow but another storm might hit after that. Meanwhile I spent some time reading about cedar (juniper) trees and looking at photos. It turns out that the pine tree next to my kitchen window, which I thought was dying because it looks a bit yellow, is actually a cedar tree, and the yellow is the pollen. And there are many more of these trees around my neighborhood.

At this point I am just assuming I will not be able to spend much time outdoors for the next couple of weeks. When I am outside, I will wear a hat and coat so I won't have pollen on my hair and clothes while I'm indoors.

So I guess I will be logging more miles on the indoor trainer.

I'd still rather have pollen than snow...

[Crankin]

We didn't have the sun that you had, NY, but, the wind has died down to just about normal for late winter/early spring. In fact it felt and looked pretty raw, though the thermometer said it was 41. We suited up in winter gear, sans the heavier winter jacket, just the regular wind jacket, and went out for a little 13 mile ride. We had a plan, and somehow, DH turned back toward home earlier than the plan. He doesn't remember things like this well (I said "let's do the ride that goes up X, turn at X, and then back to X," which we did last fall and was about 22 miles). We turned before the 2nd X and that brought us to the 3d X... I was not complaining because just about then, DH mentioned his GPS was saying it was 36 out! I was dressed correctly, I didn't overheat, although my feet were a bit cold, despite wearing my winter shoes. However, it just wasn't nice out. As we got onto a long downhill and short climb which brings us back to our area, we saw another couple, coming from the other direction. They had come from the wrong way, down a one way street, making a left on a busy road, to connect to the downhill street. That move was the reason I didn't go on the group ride 2 weeks ago; we let them get ahead of us, we were moving along and I actually felt pretty good when I got home, after a night of a bit too much wine with friends. We set out to go slowly, like last weekend, but we ended up going not fast, but faster, fine for this time of year, and faster than my group ride last Wednesday.
There's a lot of snow in far NW MA and southern VT, as well as the White Mountains of NH. We are looking at doing a weekend near Bennington VT next weekend, at a x country ski place, that is at elevation and we just discovered it's existence earlier this winter. It's too far for a day trip, but not a long drive, about 2.5 hours. They are getting 5-8 inches of snow Wednesday, while we have another horrible rainy nor'easter.

[north woods gal]

Have to hand it to you folks that are out riding, despite the less than ideal weather, especially with all that wind. I'm not the only tough cookie around here in that respect! Wind is seldom an issue for trail riding in our woods, but as soon as I go out on an open road, even up here in forest country, it does become a factor. Wind makes a huge difference in how I have to dress in cold weather if I'm out on a road.

More snow coming, tonight, just when some of my trails were down to dirt in some spots. Oh, well.

[emily_in_nc]

Agree re. the wind! We don't face the cold temperatures that many of you do since we're in central Florida, but this time of year, wind is almost always a factor on our rides. Today it's to be 10-20 mph SSW, meaning that we'll have a rip-roaring tailwind on our way "out", but a headwind on the way back. I prefer the other way around, but we're due some chilly mornings later in the week, so I'll take the southwest winds over that. Should be upper 60s to low 70s on our ride today, not bad.

I have great respect for those of you who ride in cold weather. It's just not for me. I have to muster all my motivation even to go out when it's in the 50s.