Saturday, April 12, 2008

Recent Goings-on

Spring is here! Or is it? The weather of Wisconsin has held true to its name. Rain, snow, wind, sun, warm, and cold. It seems like we are getting hit with everything. Making it even better is the fact that one day is completely different than the day before and the next day too. The original goal was to stay in shape this winter and come spring, I would be in race shape. Well spring is here, and not to my surprise I am completely out of shape. I think my last ride for the winter was in December, and I did no training all winter long. I did some weight training here and there, but no hours on the bike. I brought the trainer down from Green Bay to try and do some indoor riding over winter. Even with the rubber mat and other isolation, the trainer would quickly get me evicted if I decided to use it due to the noise. So that did not help my cause. I recently brought my trainer back home because it was collecting dust and wasting space. In hopes of using my trainer I had installed a cheap tire on my road bike as to not destroy my good tires.
As I went to swap the tires I was greeted by a flat tire on not only the rear wheel of my road bike, but also the front tire on my fixie. Apparently, not riding your bike can still cause flats...
So, part of my spring cleaning was doing a few tire and tube changes on my bikes.
I also thought I would try to re-arrange my bikes next to my bed, so that I would not be so worried about getting oil and grease on my sheets. I quickly realized that this placed the handlebars quite near my head and could cause problems, and I put the bikes back where they where originally.
With the tires changed and bikes at the ready, all I needed was some decent weather. I admit, I was looking for sunny and 50, but that is more or less out of the question.




















Finally, I caught some free time after classes and a break in the rain to get out for an epic ride of ... 10 miles... (And oh did I feel out of shape). I took a short trip because the rain was coming fast and the wind was high, so I headed South looking for a route without a headwind on the return trip. I ended up heading into downtown on Lincoln Memorial towards the Art Museum with the sweet "wings."
I took a quick break to snap a few shots and then I turned back towards the apartment because it was looking like rain could hit any moment. Now that I have actually got out for a ride I think it will come easier, especially if the weather does what the "experts" say it will.
Now it is off to address some problems with my car.

1 comment:

Hauser said...

Giddy up my friend, Iola will get you into shape real fast....real fast!

No fears though, winter may just have been really tough on lots of people? Me, I am freakin' ready to rip it up, gooooo time!