Tuesday, April 01, 2008

How Much More

Getting up early sometimes has its benefits. Yesterday morning I had a nice dry ride into work. After a long and challenging ride on Saturday and a rest day on Sunday, it felt good to be back on the bike. Not much in the legs in the way of what I would call “power” but it felt good to ride.

Not long after arriving at work, the snow began to fall. With temperatures hovering around the freezing mark the ride home was a sloppy mess. But, boy was it ever a fun ride home!

Knowing that the roads were clear underneath the slushy accumulation was assuring. I could ride right through piles of snow and slush. By the time I got home, my bike was absolutely covered with snow and slush. High exertion level, good return with fun-factor.

We shoveled a couple of times yesterday and I did again before leaving for work on Tuesday so I did not measure how much snow we received. I did hear on the news that Como Park (just a mile south of our house) received 7 inches.

The amazing public works departments had done a fine job of clearing the heavy stuff from most of the streets to make the Tuesday morning commute passable. The residential streets in Minneapolis had not been plowed, but there was enough traffic prior to things freezing over night to make the center of the street “skidtastic” fun. Riding with wide smooth tires on snow makes for an entertaining ride.

A good summary posted on the TransIowa page as an update from the weekend route scouting. Reading it has me questioning my own sanity more than ever. Sounds like this year will be: longer, hillier, and perhaps with worse road conditions. Yummy.

Wrapped up March with 2,453 miles. As much as I worry about not being ready for TransIowa, I have to take some comfort in trying to answer the question of just when I think I might squeeze in more miles, even if I wanted to? How much more could I ride? How much longer until Spring?

4 comments:

. said...

2,453 miles. please tell me that is year to date. If you rode that in march alone...and are nervous about TI, ugh.

Reflector Collector said...

Ummm, yeah. That's most definitely year to date. March was just shy of 900.

Frostbike said...

I agree, Monday was a blast to ride home. I probably would have felt different if the wind had been at my face instead of at my back.

. said...

good. I feel a little better and less scared...not really. I'm right there with you on milage.

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