Ride # 11: Between Storms

February 4, 2014, about 3:00 PM

It snowed yesterday afternoon and into the evening, but not too much accumulated. Maybe an inch. It's going to snow tonight and continue into tomorrow, possibly as much as a foot of snow, a pretty serious dumping apparently. That's the way of things in New England.

But this afternoon, after the sun had been out for hours, after the temperature had climbed above freezing and the residual snow had melted off the slate roofs, after the roads had turned to slush or dried out altogether, it occurred to me that I could actually ride today. That caught me by surprise. But I had to act quickly, it was already almost 3:00.

The good thing is, getting dressed is now a quicker endeavor since splurging on some top quality winter cycling garb. I'm ready to go in 15 minutes.

Still, I left later than I'd hoped. That proved too bad because the conditions were really good - empty roads, snowy forests, crisp air - and I felt great and would have turned out a big ride had dusk not been a factor. I could only ride so far before the waning of the light. And with the sandy tarmac, threats of ice and snow patches, and areas of dampness, extra caution was in order and that slowed my speed down considerably.

But that was fine. After all, I was riding! For the third time in February! Frost heave tarmac and snow terrain, the sloped hillsides visible through the barren tree trunks. Pine trees, dark green, edging the town reservoir's snowy-faced expanse. This was joy unexpected.

Joy Unexpected

Conditions were bad enough to be rugged, to remind me that I was riding a bicycle through the snowy Princeton and Lemonstar hills, but not bad enough to be truly dangerous. As always on the hilly roads that comprise a Sholan Loop, there were few cars. Mostly I had the silent sloppy roads to myself. If I had to move to the center of the road to avoid a blown-across-the-road snow patch, not a problem. Even when a car approached from behind, rare was another car oncoming today (this actually runs counter to my usual experience which is that you can be riding along for five ten fifteen minutes and encounter no cars from either direction and then one comes from ahead and one comes from behind and we all three coalesce at exactly the same time, it's weird).

15 Hours After the Last Storm and 12 Hours Before the Next

In short, today's ride was superb. I could have ridden another hour easily. These are all excellent training rides, albeit shorter than I'd like. The Rasputitsa is 47 miles; we did 42 (half in the rain) on Sunday and I felt good the whole way. The key is building on the conditioning I already have this early into the new year. I fret about it. Not the discipline aspect of it but the weather. I dread going a week or more without getting in a ride. Given the two impending storms (the aforementioned one this evening, and a possible Nor'easter this coming weekend), I can't help but wonder when I'll be able to ride again.

Now that I have all the necessary gear (except dedicated rain garb) to meet most conditions, I decided that only a few natural impediments could be legitimate reasons not to ride:

* steady rain/snow/sleet/hail
* single digit temperatures
* darkness
* post-storm road conditions (snowy, icy, soaked)

Otherwise? Sure there are all kinds of socio-cultural deterrents but the point is that unless I'm foiled by natural causes, I can choose to ride. Today the choice was easy.

The Reward for Getting Out There

Ride Stats: 19.42 miles (31k), 13.3 mph, about one hour and twenty-seven minutes en bicyclette. Temperatures were upper 30s when I left but right around freezing when I got back. 147 lbs this morning. Saw one big hawk fly closely overhead.