Last Pre-Trip Ride

The best laid plans... It seems like I start every other post with that phrase--or at least I could.

The Plan: Install the 29er wheels on the fat bike and do longer rides on sunny Sunday and Monday.

The Reality: I got set up with all the parts outside (and, yes, my trusty "helper").

I cleaned the bike well, installed the disc brakes and quick release levers on the 29er wheels, and put the wheels on the bike. Here's the bike--transformed from a fat-tire bike...

...to a 29er-wheel bike.

Things were ticking along fine...until I hit one small problem: The rear tire would not hold any air pressure. I could hear the telltale hissing of leaking air. Clearly there was a hole in the tube. I didn't have any spare 29er tubes, so I had to wait for a bike shop to open on Monday.

In the meantime, check out George--sound asleep, draped over this lumber pile.

Even when he woke up, he just couldn't convince himself to move. He just kept dozing off.

I spent a good part of Monday getting the 29er tire functional, then adjusting the disc brakes. Finally, I was ready to ride. Just before I did, I noticed these ducks in the river. Big slabs of ice forced the ducks to move south quickly to avoid being overrun.

Rather than ride back and forth on my road, as I had with the fat tires, I took off towards Gardiner, following the river along the way.

The bike handled well--sort of between riding on the fat tires and riding my road bike. I told myself to just have fun, not push it too hard, and to stop often to take pictures. It was warm (low 50s). This is the only ride I've done so far without warm gloves over my cycling gloves. Bare fingers! If anything, I was slightly overdressed on this ride. It's about time I could say that!

I rode through the Gardiner waterfront. This year's BikeMaine riders will spend the night of September 9 in this park. I've been asked to work on the Gardiner committee making plans for this stopover and, since I have decided not to do the ride myself, I agreed.

In downtown Gardiner, I got on the Kennebec Rail Trail. I was glad I'd decided to use the fenders on my bike because the trail had a lot of wet spots and even a few icy spots. I nearly wiped out on that slab of ice pictured ahead in the following photo; on my way back, I got off and walked through it. Can't injure myself this close to leaving on my trip!

The two ends of the trail--in Gardiner and Augusta--can be especially crowded with walkers, strollers, and dogs, but there are nice long in-between stretches that are quiet and pretty.

It wasn't the marathon ride I had originally planned, but the round trip ended up being 25 miles. I felt strong and, even without road gears and while fighting headwinds the whole way back, it didn't feel too taxing. I felt like I could just keep going and going. The ride boosted my spirits a lot, as I was having a minor-freak-out kind of day prior to the ride. (You know...What am I thinking?! I must be nuts to be heading out to do this! blah, blah, blah) My hands felt slightly better than they have recently when riding--probably because 1) the 29er wheels send a little less vibration to my hands than the fat tires do, and 2) I cut some pieces of memory foam and added them to the insides of my cycling gloves--but my hands still hurt more than they should. I'm worried about them holding up for the trip--so I don't think I will do any more cycling on the road before I leave for the trip. I will still work out at the gym, but I hope to spare my hands any more abuse and let them rest up.

Spring Riding

Up until the end of last week, I was riding my fat bike five days a week (in addition to working out at the gym six days a week). Unfortunately, my longest ride was an hour and a half; it stayed consistently cold, and my frozen feet just couldn't tolerate riding longer than that. I didn't ride last weekend due to pouring rain and muddy roads. Finally, this week we have warmer (great road biking) weather! I have shipped my road bike to Mobile, though, so I'm still riding my fat bike. Today I rode 22 miles before I had to stop. What made me stop--my cold feet, my aching butt, my creaking knees? No, no, no. It was my sore, nerve-racked hands. If the snow/sleet/rain tonight and tomorrow keeps me from riding tomorrow, I think I will see if I can install the 29er wheels (narrower than the fat tires, more like mountain-bike tires) on the fat bike, which I hope will allow me to do longer rides next week.

Here are views from my ride today:

This next one is for you, Janet. I think of you and your dad every time I see a contrail.

Predator Drama

On my bike ride today, some birds were acting strangely, which had me looking up in the trees more than usual, when I saw this! I nearly crashed into a snowbank in my scramble to stop pedaling and get this shot before one or both eagles flew off.

On my next lap around, only one bald eagle was still in the tree; I didn't see the other one at all. Then, on my next trip around, one eagle flew two low, lazy loops before landing back in the tree, while the other one called/talked to it the whole time. On my next trip around, both eagles were flying low figure-8 swoops, right overhead. When I left them behind, I figured nothing would be in the tree, but there was a third large bird there! At first, I thought it might be an immature eagle. But, then, I realized it looked larger than an eagle--so maybe it had actually chased the eagles out of the tree. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was; it had a white chest, but most of the rest of it was mottled brown. As I tried to take its picture, it flew off (of course!); I thought I'd caught its flight in the following shot, but I guess I missed it. (I think it's out of frame to the right.)

I missed the bird drama on the rest of my ride; when they were around, they helped distract me from how cold I was. I froze out there today! Without the birds for distraction, I thought a lot about how many things I must have missed these last few years when I didn't spend much winter time outdoors. I also wondered how much I will fat bike during a future winter when I don't have an upcoming epic tour as motivation.

On my last loop around, in a totally different spot from the eagle spot, there was a huge black bird with a red head sitting in a tree. A turkey vulture maybe? Didn't get a photo of that one, either.

I was surprised to find this photo on my camera when I got home. Apparently I managed to capture my own shadow when I was scrambling to photograph the flying bird.

Some Days I'm Just a Hack

My brother, who is a runner, says that some days when he runs, it goes well and he feels great. In other words, he feels like a runner. Other days, it's a struggle, and he feels like a hack. Today was my day to feel like a hack. After weeks of riding almost every day and feeling great (even if a bit cold), today I felt all wrong. I did the miles, but it was a grind. I didn't pass any walkers today, so hopefully nobody heard me singing, groaning, and giving myself little pep talks. May tomorrow be a better day!

It's Cold!

How is it possible that it feels colder to me in March than it did in February? I have become accustomed to having my feet turn into solid blocks of ice while I'm biking--and having that limit my riding to an hour or an hour and a half at a time. Yesterday, not only did my feet freeze, but my hands did as well--and I only lasted half an hour on my bike. (I admit that it occurred to me about 10 minutes into that ride that I had bought the moose mitts for a reason [so why wasn't I using them?] but I was too stubborn to go home and retrieve them.)

Today I took a smarter approach. First, I actually used the moose mitts for the first time. They work great! My hands stayed toasty warm.

I also wore my rain covers over my shoes for the first time because it occurred to me that they might serve as a wind break. My feet still froze, but I managed to ride for an hour and a quarter, so I think the shoe covers helped.

When I left the house to go to the gym today, I scared a bunch of turkeys in my yard. They scrambled up the hill, acting all spooked and stupid. They are the oddest creatures.

Riding Through the Muck (Day -48)

I missed a few days of riding because the dirt roads around here became too soft. Nice weather, and a nice hint of spring to come, but not good fat biking. Today, I got out there early, before the road softened up too much. Even so, my bike was absolutely coated in mud when I was done. My brother thinks my readers deserve to see that I actually ride and don't just talk about riding, so he took these photos.

More Winter Riding

What kind of creature leaves these tracks?

Answer: A person wearing studs on her feet who is walking her fat bike down the driveway and trying not to skid on the treacherous slab of ice that lies hidden under that innocent-looking snow.

When I go out for a ride, I wear my Stabilicers to get down the driveway. Then I take them off and leave them in my trash bin at the bottom of the driveway. I have also been leaving my Moose Mitts in the trash bin, so they're handy in case I need them. I haven't used them yet, which surprises me. I thought, based on what I had read, that I would need them when the temperature was below 32 degrees F. In reality, I have been having more trouble keeping my toes warm than my fingers.

I have been continuing to ride on my road. No more dramatic spills, I'm glad to report. Every day the conditions change. In fact, sometimes the conditions change from one moment to the next throughout a ride. This has been a sobering realization. I'd hate to be stuck out in the middle of the woods on a trail when everything softened up and became unrideable. I had romantic notions of what fat biking would be like before I actually started riding. (For example, check out the photos in this article and this blog.) Now that I have read more about what it takes to create and maintain a fat-bike trail (like this trail system in Wisconsin), I'm realizing how new fat biking is to Maine. I don't think we have a single trail in the state that is created and maintained for this purpose. I'm lucky to live where I live because I can ride pretty much every day.

One great side benefit of all this training: I am enjoying winter! Probably more than I have in a decade or more. (It helps as well that I can stay home and avoid driving during the worst of the snowstorms.)

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.

It's Here! (Day -68)

I did not get to the gym today because I had to hang out at home so I could sign for the delivery of my fat bike. It arrived at 2:00--before the coming snowstorm, and early enough that I could unpack and assemble it outdoors.

The initial setup (installing handlebars, seat, front wheel, and pedals) only took about 30 minutes. Thankfully, the bike arrived mostly assembled. The derailleurs and cables were all installed.

The adjustments took awhile. The brakes were clearly dragging and in need of adjustment. I've never had a bike with disc brakes before, so I was mystified about how to proceed. A quick Google search and a few YouTube videos later, and I knew just what to do. It was a bit of a challenge to implement what I'd learned. When I opened up the brakes enough that they didn't drag, they were not tight enough to work effectively. When I tightened up the brakes enough to work effectively, they dragged again. Back and forth, back and forth. They ended up better--at least good enough for a test ride--but I still need to fine-tune them.

I took off for a test ride on my dirt road. It was fun! The whole time I was riding I was making a mental list: raise the seat a bit, turn the handlebars, tighten the brakes, etc. By the time I got back and made some more adjustments, the sun was going down.

Here is my new beauty. Yes, the helmet sitting on the seat is new, too; I figured I should have a full-face helmet if I'm going to do this kind of riding. Given the spectacular wipe-out I almost experienced on a patch of ice on my test ride, I think it's a good thing I have it!

My new bike rack (for carrying my fat bike on the back of my car) arrived today as well. On the way but not yet here: mud flaps, to keep me from getting coated in mud when I ride.

For those of you who may be confused: The fat bike is not the bike I will be using to ride the Underground Railroad route. It is for training for the ride. For the tour, I'll be using my regular Trek road bike.