Riding into Dark

Enjoyed the ride todaynight. I have this 5 mile loop through 2 cemeteries, a private nuns home, and city streets, with rolling hills, did 5 loops. Was misting out. Didn't realize the mist was starting to freeze on the pavement. When I stopped to walk through the cemetery gate I was slipping and sliding. My bike studs, like always, hooked up well on the slippery streets. Stopped over at Ma-Pa's for a few minutes. Mom is feeling better, but pretty much chair ridden, with now a cracked vertebra. But always loves to chat, about you, and not her. A class act.
I need to have everything ready so I can rocket out the door after work. But the days are long enough now I can get an outdoor ride after work. :-) Now every day a little bit warmer, a little longer day.

Home sweet home. I see my son Joshua standing in the door way watching. So when he came out with super dog Pitty I snapped their picture, ha ha.

Riding about town.

Old cemetery blocks from my house. Saw graves from the 1880's Rode up and down the hills past 1000's of grave sights.

This view over the Mississippi river is 5 minutes from my house. It is where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet.

Bicycle path down by the river

Lock and dam # 11 on the Mississippi River. Had thoughts of riding out on the ice, but though Brrrrr, if ice broke. Today was fun riding, again felt fast, on CX and pavement. Rode through Eagle point park, saw eagles on the river. Rode through old cemeteries and River view park. Rode up to my parents house and visited, rode downtown, rode on in town bike trails. Up and down hills, made the quads scream, and beg for mercy, the hurt felt good. Had lunch at my house with Daughter, son in law, and grandson. Now it's back to work for the week. Hope I can get outside and ride after work some of the days this week, daylight is limited yet.

Hope your weekend was fun, if it wasn't, sorry, and try to change that. :-)

Dave

Old eyes, and young eyes.

My eyes and grandson Cole's eyes. Cole came to visit this weekend and even brought his parents with him. Wasn't that nice? I wonder about all the things he will see with those eyes and hope this generation will do better with what they see, then mine and previous generations did. Did two separate rides today, between schedules, both on pavement. Felt good, felt fast, even though I still have the winter studs on the Cycle cross, hit some high numbers on the heart rate. Didn't need the studded snow tires for 95% of the ride, but it was those 5% of glare ice that I felt a lot better with the studly fellows. Riding rollers in the basement all week so this was refreshing. Tomorrow thinking about ground and pound, or in other wards, the snowy trails.



That is Wiscosin over the tops of the pine trees, there is the Mississippi river between me and the cheesers. :-)

Lots of hills in my area. I like em. Good work out climbing them and fun flying down them.

Thanks for stopping in, hope you had some fun today too.

"THE RACE" or Walter Mitty wake up.

...I didn't want to let up. I had put to much into this. I could see the leaders at every long straight away then they would disappear around the corner. I was slowly gaining, shortening the gap. There was three of them. There was around 140 behind me, I paid the price to be here. The pace was harder, my heart rate higher, the pain more intense, then anything I have ever done. I was determined to catch them. This was going to be a showdown, this is Leadville 100. Lance this is my race, not yours, I earned it. Get out of my way.

The next thing I hear is "dad are you going to cook anything for supper, or tell me where you hid the George Foreman grill at." I was on my bike rollers, 40 minutes into a planned 45 minute, high heart rate run.

So I say, "Caleb I got 5 minutes left, hold on, and wait, the GF grill is to hard to clean, I'll cook burgers."

Tomorrow the "tour" and I can win it.

Up north visiting with the Cole Man

St Paul's future mayor Mr Cole.

Doing the 9:00 to 5:00 in the saddle

Rode into the small farming town of Farley Iowa. Men in spandex pants, Neon bright jackets and funny shoes are peculiar to those folks.

Ice sickles and bicycles.

My bike was playing hide and go seek with me.

Pedaling on the snow.

Somewhere out there.

Rear View
Rode from 9:00 in the morning to 5:00 p.m. Feel zonked now, but is a good feeling. Probably averaged only 8 mph, snow and ice sliding around. I followed a set bike tracks for 20 miles on a snow mobile trail. Wanted to see who it was. Who ever it was was hauling butt, with only about a 38 CC tire. Could see many places where tires were sliding out. Never did see the owner of those tracks.
Was 33 degrees F the entire trip. Started out cold, got warm, then chilled again towards the end.
Rides like this really burn up the energy, makes eating even more fun afterwards. My plan was to trash my legs today, with no riding the next two days being I will be up in St Paul chill'n with the baby grandson Sir Cole and family.
Well thanks for stopping in, hope you had fun today too.
Dave

Off to the wild gray yonder.

But before I go, I will leave you this link. You gotta check out Kim's blog, and his award winning boogsickles.

Decisions, Decisions

I have tomorrow off work. Bike has new parts and tune up and is ready to rock. I can either

A. Bike ride all day or

B. Ride a bike all day

What to do, what to do?

Spinn'n and lift'n

Now this picture is "Cole Little" and Grandpa me. Wearing my new hat my honey made and so is Cole. Click here, and check her stuff out.

Now notice the next picture, I lost my hat to my daughter Melissa, pernamently. Look at Cole's smile he is even happy about it.




Work'n, spinn'n and some lift'n has been the last couple of days. I can take about 45 minutes max on the indoor bike rollers then my mind says enough is enough. I use a heart rate monitor so I don't dog it and keep the pace up. Then lifting weights, listening to rock and roll for a bit is next on the evening schedule. I have off Friday so the plan is to get out and ride snow for about 6 hours. Always a good work out. Made some improvements on my bike, so the ride will glide.
This weekend I am headed north to St Paul and visit grandson "Cole little" LQQK'n forward to chill'n with em.

Iowa's two bicycling seasons

I've noticed after becoming a year round biker that Northeastern Iowa and many other places on this planet have just two biking seasons each year. There is the season of "sprummerfall" This is the longer season of the two. It lasts from mid march to mid November typically. Preparation for biking during this season is usually pretty simple, the few choices to make are if you need a light jacket, leg warmers, light gloves, or just shorts, socks and jersey. Easy stuff. Bike tires are not a challenge. It's easy to just hop on bike and ride, days have enough light in them that I can ride on any work day. Weekend rides I can ride anywhere, basically any road, or trail.
Now the other season is WINTER!!!!. Frigid, dark, icy, deep snow, cold. Dressing to ride in this season needs to be exact, multi layered, specialized, planned, and developed. Tires are specialized from the Endomorph 3.7" tire to Nokian 336 carbide studs per tire. I have got piles and piles of winter biking gear including lighting systems, chemical warmers, special shoes, socks, jackets, bottle insulators etc.
I do admit, that right now I am starting to get a hankering for sprummerfall again. I've rode a lot of snow and ice this winter and enjoyed every facet of it. However the thought of being a "roadie" or cycle cross'n again is becoming appealing.
But, I know again that towards the end of every sprummerfall, I will look forward to winter riding again. The shear beauty of it, the challenge, the survival tactics, and everything else that goes along with that style of riding. Learning to ride the season of winter keeps my bike legs and butt ready to ride, no break in period required again. It also seems there is a connectivity with those that choose to ride with this season. I blog along with many of you winter nutters.
So winter ride I will do, and probably do until I can't do it anymore.
Thanks for stopping in, be safe, and ride.
Dave