Bold New Jacket

Today I took the winterbike on it’s first snowy ride.  We have a couple of inches on the ground that haven’t melted yet, and I needed to go to the bank.  Unfortunately, I never cleared the cyclometer from my last trip for groceries (Monday?) so I can only show you the combined ride.

0’23:41, 5.7mi
avg 14.6mph, max 22.6mph
25ºF, SS Odo 5mi

Clearly nothing spectacular on the SS, not that I really was trying for such, I was just running errands.  And normally, I wouldn’t have even posted about it except for one awesome thing:

my new jacket

That picture was from my 20 mile ride last week, at 33ºF.  Note that I’m only wearing two layers: The coat, and a single long-sleeve jersey.  These are from today:

Yes, that's snow on the tires!

Note the butt-flap.  It snaps up and away when you don’t need it.  Today I had it out (opening it while riding was slightly more difficult than I  would like) in spite of the rear fender, mostly to insulate better.  It was COLD!

And finally: the hot cyclist of the year award goes to…..

Probably someone with more hair

With all the snow I haven’t biked to work this week.  I was playing with the idea for Thursday, but was told to work from home due to ‘inclement weather.’  I’d like to bike in on Sunday, but chances of me waking up in time are slim.

A Bold New Plan

This winter continues to plague my cycling dreams, but Spring’s hope is budding restlessly!  Tomorrow I’m buying the coat. I own the coat.  Now I can ride in freezing rain fearlessly!  The plan is, of course, to start riding to work again.  I’ll start next week, with my shift change.  I thought I’d ease myself back in, so I put on the jacket, other gear, and took off for my first ride of the year.

I thought I’d take my favorite route, the hilly twenty.  With a total climb of 1182ft, I was fairly certain I would not ride the whole thing.

The weather was sunny, 33ºF.  It was one of those ‘warm feeling’ days, in spite of a cold wind.  I made good progress, keeping my cadence up and generally getting used to riding again.  At my almost-half-way intersection point, I felt like it was time to go back, but wanted to see how much more I had in me.   How could I settle for 10 miles?

I kept my cadence around 90 for 3/4 of the ride.  After I conquered the biggest hill (mile 13) with a cheer, I pushed down the other side and hit my top speed: 37mph.  Half way up the next hill cluster, I felt my exhaustion sap away my hopes.  Immediately I rose out of my seat and tried to blast up the hill, but there was nothing left.  I had already resigned myself to using the granny gear on the previous hill, but now was a different kind of resignation.

The last few miles were horrible.  I was hungry and physically exhausted.  Water didn’t help, I could only pushed on.

1:27’20, 21.45mi
avg 14.7mph, max 37.0mph
33ºF, Odo 21.4mi
Cadence: Good for 15mi!

Home. Pain. Fear. Please god let the door lock open. Failed. Again. Opened!  Drag the bike inside, immediately desire to raid the kitchen.  Too hot, peel off stinky gear.  Hang it up first, eat second.

I knew, on sight, that the stairs would do me in.  After a brief stretch I had the confidence to climb them.  This was a tremendous mistake.  Sure, I climbed them, slowly, carefully, and it did hurt; but it was the way back down where I thought I was going to die.

My legs were jelly.  Each step down the stairs prompted the question “Is this leg going to buckle?”  This was less like descending stairs and more like a controlled fall in slow motion.  I was afraid for my life.  It took every ounce of effort I had not to fall down the stairs.  It was critical fatigue and I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to.  And yet here I am: safe and sound.  Instant relief when I braced against the wall at the bottom of the stair.  Yay, I’m alive!

Thoughts on the ride: I’m so glad to be back.

Winter Bike?

I have been thinking about my ‘winter bike’ idea, and I realize the bike I bought is trying to be too much.  It can’t have it be a fixie and a mountain bike and a winter commuter.  However, it is possible to salvage the bike.  I could put a big chain ring on it.  Right now the gearing is miserable.  I detest the handlebars, too.  Maybe they can be adjusted.

My other altertative is to sell this bike and buy an old junker track bike, put some cross tires on, and go fixie.  This is the attractive idea, at the moment.