February Groundhog rides

[north woods gal]

Do give a fat bike a try if you get the chance. Very different riding experience than a standard MTB. Without getting all techy, those big balloon tires make for a very comfy and stable ride. Very confidence inspiring. Makes you feel you can boldly go where no bike has gone before.

[ny biker]

Catching up again. I rode my bike on Thursday night after work. It was humid and in the high 60s. It was a slow ride as I am so out of shape. Also I had to stop several times to take off extra layers because I was overdressed. But it was nice to just get out and pedal.

Cold and snowy today but not much accumulation and it will be sunny and above freezing tomorrow. I'm out of town for the holiday weekend and not doing anything exercise related other than stretching. But another warmup is coming in a few days; I am tentatively targeting Tuesday for another night ride.

[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.

[ny biker]

I ended up doing 45 minutes on the indoor trainer today. I have been having problems with my Rivet Indy saddle and adjusted the tension on it to try to make it more comfortable. I was going to go out and run errands, but decided to ride the bike instead and test the adjustment. It seems to have worked, though I might tighten it a bit more.

I did a music workout on the trainer, big chain ring for one song, small ring for the next, etc.

[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.