I gotta say, last week was a darn good week’s worth of riding. There was no singletrack, and the rides weren’t all that long, but I managed to get 8.5 hours worth of riding in, which isn’t too bad for a beer loving, burrito eating, crap cyclist with a bad back like myself. Speaking of my back…
I mentioned in a post earlier this week that we had some absolutely crap and freezing weather here last weekend. Until last weekend, I had never seen snow in May in my entire life…EVER. All that seems to be frozen, E. coli riddled water under the bridge right now, as the past three days have been a springtime enema of perfect 65˚ temps, bright sunshine, calm winds, and blue sky. So, as busy as I’ve been with some projects, I’ve been making sure to squeeze some ride time in.
After Friday’s pretty OK, could have been better but I’ll take it, mountain bike ride, Mother Nature got her giant panties in a bunch and cast wind, rain, cold temps and snow (yes, snow in May) down upon the central Michigan area on Saturday and Sunday. It really was a kick in the longing for a real spring teeth. The weather didn’t get in the way of me riding, but a weekend packed with soccer matches, and MPSC commitments did, and I have to tell you, that cold and blustery weather made for some cold ass soccer watching.
Tuesday I was pretty bogged down with home, work, and family stuff, so I snuck out for a quickie. Just before I got ready to roll, I checked the weather and it said there was a seven mile an hour wind coming from the east. That was fine with me, anything in the single digits around these parts is a blessing from the cycling gods above. However as I sat in the garage bucking down my shoes, I heard the garage door rattling. “Hmmm…. that’s a pretty strong seven mile an hour wind I thought to myself.”
I had hoped with our move over I would be back to a semi-normal riding schedule. Sadly, this week things have not really come together. First weather got in the way (hard to believe it’s nearly May given how cold and crap our weather is), then a long “to do” list was presented to me by our realtor in regards to our old home which is going on the market in two to one hundred ninety-six hours.
I, er I should say we, are finally getting completely settled into the new crib and totally digging it on so many different levels. As a bonus I finally have a desk for my Mac and junk, and it only took me four hours to put together. Thanks Staples! (Not really, maybe next time you could get it shipped in 500 different pieces instead of just 400?). In any event, I have a desk and it looks swell in my office. Even better than finally getting settled in a new crib is getting in two-days in a row in of riding.
Knowing full well that most of my Friday ride time window, would be taken up with the closing on our new crib, I made sure to sneak out for another quick spin on Thursday. It wasn’t the greatest of rides, and I was feeling sluggish from being a slug, but it got the job done.
After a crap week of riding, it felt amazingly good to get out for a second day in a row on the Boone. Slightly warmer temps, less wind, and remembering to actually wear the appropriate base layer helped me go a few miles further than yesterday and get in a ball hair under 30 very unimpressive miles. Yeah, my hip/back still hurt a bit, but screw it, I was riding my bike when I should have been home packing, updating the shop’s website, the soccer club’s site, getting a flyer finished, packing, doing laundry, painting the basement, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner.
Spring in Michigan means that even when there’s no snow, sleet, or freezing rain, ride time often greets you with 32˚ temps and a crisp 10+ MPH wind coming out of the north/west. With a heavy sigh into the vat of coffee raised to my rotund face, I reluctantly made my way up to the Chamber of Farts™ to strap myself into Part 1 of my winter riding gear (spring ensemble): wool socks, fat condensing base layer, lined bibs, and Craft WindStopper base layer*. Then down to the big box of bike shit for Part 2: riding jacket, cool weather gloves, vintage Bikeman.com skull-cap and my regular Pearl Izumi kicks. With that, me and the Boone were out the door…
After a ride on Saturday which was confined to the paved roads north of town, I was looking forward to venturing off onto the dirt and gravel on Easter Sunday.
