I think we can actually call Winter over now. If today’s south winds didn’t have Spring in them, then it’s never coming at all.
Despite continued low miles and recovery, I managed to up my March total to just over 600 miles. The late final week surge was nearly half the miles in 1/4 of the time. A far cry from the 1000+ from a year ago, but I’m happy with it. I only drove to work twice and made 90% commuting, and 84% on the year. For comparison’s sake, last year was only 70%. And I’m holdin’ on to my podium spot on the DCC commute list.
Was readin’ through last years blogs. Aside from the one about me kicking Craigs ass on mileage in the early 70s and commuting before him (oldie but a goodie), I was reading my account of the Foolish 100. Won’t be repeating it this year due to it being on a Monday (and the weather’s supposed to suck), but I did notice that it mentioned me using the inhaler.
It then occurred to me that by this point in the season the last two years I would have been hitting that thing like a crack pipe. And this year I haven’t even thought about it. Could possibly be the lower miles and easier riding, but this week should have hit me hard, especially Wednesday’s Ramble and 70 total miles. Could be the conditioning of cold weather riding over the winter, or maybe just my overall improvement.
Just found myself another possible ultra cycling event for July… as if there needed to be another one.
In looking for a ride to do actually closer to my birthday (Rainstorm 2 weeks before, Ride Across Ohio X? weeks after), I found a new ride put on by Colavita Cycling. The Annie Oakely Bike Tour. The tour itself isn’t an ultracycling event, but since it has a century option, and it starts/ends at the Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, and the Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville is a nearly perfect 25 miles from my house (via an extension of my Piqua Bradford loop)… well, that would make it a perfect preparation ride of 150 miles.
A week or so ago I was whining about not having any remaining vices if I give up my diet soda. That turned out not to be true. After a week of going cold turkey with no soda whatsoever, I have had a couple, and made a rule of no more than 1 a day. And none at work.
I have also been trying out Vince’s test suggestion of drinking water first, then seeing if I ended up with a lot of half empty/full cans of warm flat soda.
Got up this morning and discovered two things. Sunshine, and hunger.
The hunger things been out of hand all week. I keep countin’ my calories and grams and doin’ what I’m supposed to be doin’. Well… almost. I honestly have no need for losing a pound a week, other than satisfying stupid bet requirements. So I’m close, on paper.
Problem is, I’ve also doubled my mileage and output.. damn near tripled it actually. And that means weight gain. Filling out pieces of paper (spreadsheet forms actually) doesn’t mean crap if the body’s hording energy and water.
Spent quite an enjoyable evening ride home concentrating on not going above 13mph. Not for any real reason, other than I happened to look down at one point and see the magic number… so I kept it there. It was a very crisp, brisk north wind blowing, but I had absolutely no agenda whatsoever.
Today marked my third Arby’s week of the year, one each month. I’m still climbing on the commute ratio, now at 83%. I’ve ridden nearly 240 miles in the last 6 days, and just now crossed over 1500 miles on the year. I keep seeing where I am vs. last year, roughly 500 miles behind. How the heck did I ride so much last winter! Even w/o knee injuries. I guess 200 of it was indoor centuries.
Thursday might have to be called one of the dumber rides I’ve ever done. I got soakin’ wet, cold and miserable for no good reason. All I had to do was leave the office at a normal time and ride home in comfort. In fact, all I had to do was look at the radar and leave the office a half hour before I did. The ride in the morning was only slightly wet roads and the afternoon could have been the same. Instead I got drenched… soaked through before I ever got out of Troy. I had dressed warmer knowing I’d likely be getting wet, but not that wet. Oh well. I’d say lesson learned, but I should have learned this one a long time ago and still I get wet. It would have been the perfect day for a commuting bike w/ fenders and fatty tires. But I’m still waiting…
At least I got to test the waterproofiness of my laptop backpack. Let’s say that it passed but it failed. The laptop got home OK, but there’s no way I’ll be doing that with any regularity. The zippers aren’t protected enough and water leaks through. Only a tiny bit in a fairly hard rain, but we’re talking about hundreds of dollars in equipment, not to mention the data.
Is it finally Spring? Must be. I’ve somehow managed to go from about 80 miles per week to 190 in the last four days. Can I reclaim my ‘mile hog’ moniker? Soon… very soon.
Should I be doing this? Who knows. I keep saying the more I ride, the better I feel. Today was no exception. I even rode the Ramble. Heck, I damn near survived the Ramble. Granted it was a March Ramble with a couple of regroupings and no real attacks. At least not the kind where it’s survive or go home. But if anybody had told me this morning that I’d get over the hills for 30 of 35 miles I would have died of laughter.
Every time I’m out riding and the cyclometer says 13mph I start laughing, thinking of the day I was riding home from Minster on a flat tire, talking to Craig on the phone:
In case you have never paid attention to my strong suggestion to do so, and don’t religiously watch Top Gear, you really should check out this feature from the ‘latest’ episode. Four different methods of transportation used to get across London in a race. The relevance here is, as you would expect, that one of the methods is a bike.
The feature is quite long and can be found (for now) in three pieces on YouTube. First part is below, then there are links to the other two.
