October rides: put a little color into it.

[Crankin]

I didn't ride at all this weekend. Yesterday, there was a small window of sun and not so windy; we walked RT 4.1 miles to a celebration in the village center. Not so much going on, but a good, brisk walk. Today, we had DGD. Had planned to go all over town in the trailer, but with 45 degrees and winds gusting to 35, it felt like January! I ended up doing hill intervals on the treadmill (walking) for 20 minutes, and then we took her to the Old North Bridge, where we made her walk a mile and recreate some family history by sitting on a big tree. Too bad the one we had our kids climb up is cordoned off and dying. Absolutely no color in the trees here. Alarming. No global warming, of course.

[north woods gal]

Nice ride, yesterday. Finally, no rain, at least, but quite cold with temps the 30s. Did 12 miles on pavement around the neighborhood on the Gunnar. Not that I need ANY excuse to ride this fabulous single speed, but I figured the wider tires would be safer, since a lot of the roads have heavy leaf cover and after Saturday's storm, a lot of it was still wet and even icy. Finished the day with 4 miles of trail riding with Star and even managed to do more trail maintenance work. All in all, very productive day.

A slight skim of ice along the lake shore, this morning. Our leaves are all down, now. Looking like late fall, even though it's still a bit early. Time to get the fat bikes set up for snow riding. I think it's going to be an early winter.

[Crankin]

I'm getting concerned that my riding is going to be limited by weather and my schedule for at least 2 weeks. It's gone from August to early December in about 10 days in terms of temperature, which would be OK, without the high winds and rain. I think I may be able to ride Wednesday, but it will be on my own. Friday, I have a friend who moved to the Cape staying over, and she won't won't ride at 46 degrees, which is the predicted temperature for the day... we will hike. Torrential rains both weekend days. Next week doesn't look much better and my birthday weekend in western MA may not include any riding, either, for the first time I can remember since I've been riding.

[north woods gal]

I do understand about trying to motivate yourself to ride when the weather takes a turn for the worse after decent riding weather. Even crazy old "ride in any weather" me finds it tough to do. I will say, though, that as long as I dressed, appropriately, once I'm actually out there in the cold and rain and even snow, I'm usually glad I made the effort. Also helps that I have a long history of riding in bad weather, so bad weather doesn't intimidate me as much as it does for some others. Even so, sometimes when I'm out there riding in rough weather, can't help but think I must be a little crazy. Guess it's part of that old traditional notion that bicycles are for riding in nice weather, only. Hard to overcome that idea, at times. Anyway, I do understand about trying to get out and ride in yucky weather. As always, do what you think is best for your riding. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Just because I'm a little crazy, doesn't mean everyone else has to be.

Speaking of the weather, it was gorgeous, here, yesterday. Naturally, yesterday just happened to be a day when we had to run a bunch of errands, too. Oh, well. I did get out and ride, late afternoon, though, and managed 4 miles of trail work on the Log Lady. Riding my skinnier tire MTB is my reward for keeping my trails clean, but the trails must still be dry enough. Love the fat bikes and the plus bikes, but riding a bike like the Log Lady brings out the kid in me. Makes me laugh and holler and hoot. Total fun bike on the trail.

So much for the nice weather, though. Forecast is back to cloudy and cold, today.

Update: the sun did manage to peek though the clouds for a bit, even though temps never got out of the 40s. Funny how a little sunshine can improve one's mood. Anyway, did manage a good, strenuous 21.4 miles of pavement with mostly hills on the Nature Boy. Got home, then managed 2 miles on the trails with one of the fat bikes, mostly to give Star her daily trail run.

Neck still gets stiff and sore after a given number of hours of bicycling. Not painful or anything, just uncomfortable. I suspect that's going to be the status quo for me from now on. An all day ride may be a thing of the past for me, now. Oh, well. At least I'm still in the land of the living and still riding. Not complaining.

[Crankin]

I can do cold, and some think I am crazy for that, but I don't feel safe riding in the rain. I do it if I have to. Tomorrow looks pretty good and I have no commitments until 1 PM.
Right now it's becoming very stormy, dark, severe weather alert. Glad I got home in time. They just lifted a tornado warning in SE MA, so it's around.
It's thundering like crazy...

[north woods gal]

I might be a little crazy about riding in bad weather, but I don't do lightning, tornadoes, blizzards, torrential rains or any of the other weather nasties. In the past, I've had to do some of those by necessity, sometimes stopping to take shelter where I could, but not the sort of experiences I would want to repeat. No way. Still, riding my bike in my commuting days did have advantages in a couple of truly bad weather events in Chicago. The weather had stalled traffic and backed it for many miles, causing people not to get home till late at night. Meanwhile, I just walked my bike around bad spots and made the ride home in almost my average time. Then, too, my bike started every morning and never got stuck in the snow.

Beautiful day shaping up, but, of course, more errands to run in town. Have to get things better co-ordinated. Will probably ride, late afternoon.

[Crankin]

North Woods, I was channeling you this morning. Forecast was very unpredictable, but with no rain predicted until noon. Yet, it looked cold and raw, so I got out my stuff for spin, which is an hour earlier than I planned to do an outdoor ride. I started feeling wimpy and decided 1) I needed some bad-assery in my life and 2) It was nowhere near my limit for cold temperatures at 44. So I just got in my outdoor riding clothes, put air in my tires and hung out until 9:30. I did one last check of the radar, which showed nothing. I had thought about wearing my rain jacket, but instead, at the last minute, I chose a Gore-Tex winter cycling jacket that I bought from someone on TE. It's very thin, but extremely toasty, and I chose it over my normal winter cycling jacket because although they both really can only be use in real cold and make me overheat unless it's in the mid thirties or below, this one has pit zips and actually, you can zip the whole sleeves off each arm.
Went out my basement door and noticed some water on my Garmin. I didn't think anything of it, maybe drops from a tree or the roof, or spray off of the leaves. Put on my lights, and started off, and just as soon as I turned onto Main St, I knew it was raining. But, I didn't go back, despite it being more like a light rain than a drizzle. The sun was coming out in one direction and there was dark sky in another. I kept going, thinking I would turn back and do a 2 mile loop if it got worse. But, by the time I go to the point of turning, it had slowed, so I went on, deciding to do my shortish early AM route. There's a climb at this point, so I knew I'd be warm. The Gore Tex worked repelling the rain, though my tights felt damp. When I got near the top of the hill, it had started raining more steadily again, so I decided to take a short cut of half a mile and head back, knowing there were ways to extend the route, if the rain stopped. It was never heavy, but by this time I felt both sweaty and damp at the same time. So, I ended up doing 7 miles, one of my shortest rides ever, on the road, except for a commute.
I was out for about 30 minutes, and I felt really good from the fresh air, but the risk of hypothermia did worry me. I was dressed correctly, but did not have my helmet rain cover, just a fleece cap under the helmet. It continued raining and got worse until it finally stopped around 1:30.
I was able to get all of my errands done and meet a friend for lunch at 1, so I feel good I got outside and didn't suffer in the sweaty gym...