First Wipeout

It appears there was some kind of turkey convention at the bottom of my driveway this morning.

My ride today, again on my road, was quite different from yesterday's ride. We had received about an inch of snow overnight, so the world was newly white and fresh.

I thought I would be more comfortable on today's ride. After all, it was 22 degrees F--warmer than yesterday. LESSON 1: It's not all about the temperature. I actually felt more cold today. There was no sun and the wind was blowing at 11 mph. During much of my ride, there were big, fat snowflakes falling. Quite pretty.

I have renewed respect for winter athletes. It is really challenging to work this hard when the bitter cold is assaulting your muscles and everything else as well.

When riding on snow, the tires of my bike make such loud squeaky-crunchy sounds that I keep thinking there is traffic approaching from behind me. Today I was taken by surprise when a vehicle passed me. LESSON 2: Just because the bike tires give me false warnings sometimes doesn't mean I can stop paying attention entirely.

I was surprised to discover a couple of spots along the road where my bike unexpectedly fishtailed. LESSON 3: Until tire chains are purchased and used, this is probably the deepest snow my bike and I can handle.

About three miles into my ride, I had my first wipeout. It happened so fast, I went down on my side with the bike--like I was glued to it.

Do you see anything here that is particularly troublesome or concerning--that might cause a wipeout? Exactly. LESSON 4: When headed for a spot at which your bike has fishtailed twice already, it might be wise to avoid riding straight through that spot again. LESSON 5: This experience reaffirms my decision not to ride on regular roads; this wipeout on a regular road would have put my head right under a car. LESSON 6: Any doubts I had about needing a full-face helmet have been laid to rest.

I didn't get hurt in this fall. (Correction: Turns out that I ended up with a large, deep bruise just below the outside of my left knee. It was in such a weird place, though, that it didn't prevent me from continuing to train.) Notice that my first inclination, while still on the ground, was to get up and take pictures! LESSON 7: Falling in the snow is way better than falling on pavement. (This time, there were no bruises or scrapes and no torn clothing.) LESSON 8: Those very wide, straight handlebars serve a good purpose during a fall. They protect the cockpit; it's almost like having a roll bar.

When I stopped riding because of this fall, my glasses immediately fogged over and I had a devil of a time getting them functional again. LESSON 9: Always carry a good glasses-wiping cloth.

I may have just fallen, but check out this great view looking south downriver:

I finished the rest of my ride without incident. Needless to say, I stopped carving out new ground through the snow and stuck to the well-used tracks.

I used the Road Bike app on my phone to record my entire ride again today. I kept the phone in an interior jacket pocket this time, though. When I finished my ride, my phone still had a 65% charge. LESSON 10: Keep the phone protected from the worst of the brutal cold.

Isn't it great when a simple hour-and-a-half workout yields so many educational opportunities?

[Update: The photo below doesn't illustrate it as well as I'd hoped, but it turns out there was a very deep rut buried by snow--right where I had my wipeout. I think a tire either got caught in the rut or fell into it. Needless to say, I've been avoiding this rut ever since.]

Disaster Redeemed

I spent yesterday working on the fat bike brakes. All day. No exaggeration. From mid morning until well into the night. After I had worked for over an hour on the front brakes (back and forth, repeating the same steps over and over and over, every time hoping that time would be the magic one), I gave up, took a short food break, and switched to the rear brakes. In less than ten minutes, I had the rear brakes adjusted just right. Tight enough to have good stopping power, and no drag at all--perfect. This reassured me enough that I switched back to working on the front brakes. I tried everything. I researched online for more tips, I tried creative approaches with shims and washers. Still, I could not get those brakes adjusted right. I ended up leaving them with a little bit of drag. I figured it was better to have a little drag than not enough stopping power. Thankfully this doesn't apply to everything in my life, but there are things that I have such a hard time leaving alone when they are less than perfect!

I have been having trouble identifying places to ride. Not for lack of research or enthusiasm. I have swung by a few snowmobile trailheads near my house, only to be discouraged that the snow there was deep and soft--not packed down by snowmobile traffic. I have looked for other trailheads that remain elusive--some of the maps I have found online are rough approximations. I'm thinking you kind of have to know where some of these trailheads are in order to find them in the wintertime.

I decided that today was going to be my day for a nice, long trail ride. I packed my fat bike on my car using the new bike rack, loaded a bunch of gear in the car, and headed out. (Look how filthy my car is! I had just washed it the day before. Trying to keep it clean this time of year is an endless losing battle.)

My first destination was a mountain biking trail in Augusta. I might have found the trailhead; I did see footprints heading into the woods. There was no place to park, though, that wasn't right next to a fire hydrant, and the snow looked too deep and soft. So, then, I headed to a trail system in Waterville. I definitely found the trailhead and it looked perfect! The snow looked well-packed and there was no problem with parking. I add the fenders to the bike, threw on my helmet and backpack, and took off.

Not so fast! Riding around the parking lot worked great but, once I headed down the trail, I couldn't move! The wheels just spun; they wouldn't grab any traction. Great, just great. I loaded everything back onto/into the car and headed back home. The whole way home I was doing this catastrophizing thing I can do so well. What if I don't find anywhere to ride my fat bike? What if I can't do the workouts I need to do to prepare for my trip? Etc., etc., etc.

When I got home, instead of going in the house, I jumped on the fat bike and rode up and down my road--five round trips. Turns out that, in these conditions (18 degrees F, sunny, 6 mph wind), my road is the perfect place to ride. Packed snow and dirt surface, enough hills to get a workout, no car traffic, pretty views. I ended up riding over ten miles (a little more than an hour). I felt I had had a good workout and, surprisingly, I did not get bored.

Good News:

• If I can't ride on snowmobile trails as much as I had planned, maybe I can ride on remote (quiet) dirt roads. I guess more research is called for. Of course, once the weather warms up and these dirt roads become pea-soup soft, a Plan C will be required.
• It was cold today, but I seemed to have the right clothing on for this ride. I was a little cold when I was heading northeast (into the wind) and a little warm when I was heading southwest (toward the sun). Any colder or windier, and I would need my Moose Mitts to keep my hands warm.
• I love my fenders! They didn't impede my pedaling even once, they protected me and the bike from flying road/snow debris, and the rear one did not slide down the seat tube at all (as some reviews had led me to anticipate).
• The bar mount for my phone gives me easy access to it, but I guess I should research gloves that conduct through the fingertips so I don't have to remove them to operate the phone.
• The app I used to record my ride (Road Bike) worked great--right up until the phone completely died (see Bad News). 
• Not once did I hear the front brakes dragging. In fact, the brakes worked so well that I didn't even think about them until the ride was over.

Bad News:

• During the first four miles or so of my ride, the seat felt comfortable. Then, discomfort took over. Good wake-up moment. I need to get a lot more saddle time in to get adjusted to that discomfort so I don't notice it any more.
• My hands and wrists were the most uncomfortable parts of me on this ride. The hand position on straight handlebars does not feel comfortable after a few miles and there are only so many ways to creatively change positions. I'll have to experiment with gel pads, etc. I will be happy to switch to my road bike and have all those additional hand-placement options.
• The tube to my hydration pack froze up solid. No surprise there! I was wearing the pack mostly to assess whether I would find cycling with water on my back to be comfortable--and it is. I guess the hydration pack won't work very well in this weather, unless I come up with warming strategies for that tube. (Update: My son says there are insulated covers made for those water tubes. Of course there are.)
• Riding around in this kind of cold drains the phone's battery really quickly. I guess during this cold I should carry the phone against me inside my jacket, and maybe not continuously use the trip-recording app. More experimentation is warranted. I probably should explore options for powering the phone (maybe a backup battery for the tour?) and for recording sporadic "moments" along a ride instead of recording the entire ride. 
• I had been planning to take photos during this ride--but the whole phone-dying thing interfered with that idea.

All in all, a good day and a successful ride. Strange way to get to this result. Put the bike on the car and drive around for an hour and a half, and then ride the bike straight out of my driveway.

Ice on the Inside?

The last handful of times that I have gotten in my car, I have had to scrape ice off the inside of the windshield. And not a little of it either. Not being able to remember this happening before, I started thinking about air or moisture leaks around the windshield and other worrying things. Then it dawned on me: I leave the gym every day a sweaty mess, and drive home--filling the car with moisture, which then freezes overnight. Great, just great.

Brain on Holiday

Note to self: If you tell your brain it is okay to go on holiday, it is likely to vacate the premises...leaving you short of important bits. Just sayin'...