Four Degrees

Fahrenheit. 

That was the temperature as I loaded my mountain bike into my trunk yesterday morning. My friend (that is an avid racer) and I try to organize a ride almost weekly. But, as he has three boys, and I have one of my own, plus a wife that has an abnormal work schedule, finding several hours of daylight to myself and making them mesh with his schedule rarely happens. 

Yesterday proved to be an exception, though, and we decided a few days prior that we were going to ride, rain or shine. 

It turns out that neither of those factors came into play though.

We met one of his teammates down at the trailhead, making a threesome consisting of two very experienced racers and me. My last experience with his team, back in August, ended up with me doing an endo over a ledge onto a river bank, sucking wind for 13 miles of singletrack, a nice gash on my shin from climbing over some fallen trees with my bike over my shoulder, and a new helmet as I crushed mine on a low-hanging branch that I thought I could squeeze under. It was a blast. Really, I mean it!

As we were putting our wheels onto our bikes (needing to disassemble them to fit them into my car) and packing our jersey pockets, the other guy (which is really nice, btw) recommended I put my water bottle in my pocket rather than on the bike frame. The thought hadn't occurred to me, but unless I wanted to actually drink the water and not make a cocktail with the ice from my water bottle later in the day, I felt his advice was good knowledge to take. 

The cold isn't something new to me, as I actually like running outdoors in the winter. So dressing for the weather wasn't a big concern, and I was quite prepared heading into the ride after a quick stop at the bike shop for some bike-specific gear that I didn't already have in my closet (shoe covers and cycling-specific two-finger gloves). The keys to extreme-cold activities are layers and moisture control. The hardest part is figuring how many layers are too many, thus making you sweat and get wet, thus making you cold and wet. Really, it takes just one or two cold workouts to figure out what's right for you. Every body regulates its temperature differently, so I'm not even going to try to recommend what will make you comfortable. Just remember: layers. 

My biggest concern was simply how I was going to handle my bike in snow. We've had a few inches of snow in the last week or two, and I've never ridden a bike after the first snowflake. Ever. After letting the guys know this one last time before departure, I was reassured that it wasn't that different than everyday riding, just a little slower. Within minutes I found that this was actually pretty accurate. 

After falling 3 times in the first mile of singletrack though, the most apparent difference (other than the cold, of course) was that I had way too much air in my tires. My front tire was sliding all over the place, and I could literally feel my rear tire spinning with each push on the pedals. At the first water crossing, we stopped and I asked the guys' opinion, and they immediately said it wouldn't hurt to deflate the tires a bit. I'm not sure what I deflated them to, but there was noticable give in the sidewalls after I finished, and it made a world of difference in the grip of the trail. 

Our plan was to do an out and back along the eastern portion of the  Minnesota River Bottoms Trail, starting under the south side of the Cedar Avenue Bridge. 

We crossed the narrow foot/bike bridge over the newer section of the bridge that crosses the actual river channel, then wound around the inlets and ponds on the north side of river banks. Unfortunately, as I was concentrating way too hard on balancing for the majority of the first half of the ride, I had tunnel vision and was just focusing on the wheels ahead of me, trying to follow their tracks, so I didn't really keep track of which trail diversions we followed. We did cross a few sections of open creek beds with running water, and a few boardwalks, then looped back under the north side of the new Cedar Ave Bridge and went east for about a mile or two, winding around some of the man-made run-off ponds in the area. 

We checked out the ice cover below the old Cedar Bridge with hopes that we could cross the water and join up with the trail leading off of the new bridge and get right back across the river to our cars. We walked our bikes on the ice out through the reeds about 30 feet. No cracks or creaking, but we unanimously decided that it was probably too early in the season to take any chances. 

We saw a few others enjoying the quiet trail early on a Sunday morning: a few people walking their dogs, two runners that, incidentally, weren't actually running when we passed them, and a group ride from one of the other local bike racing teams that was fairly strung out along a portion of the trail. 

Overall, my first impression of snow-riding was that I couldn't believe I hadn't tried it until now. The trails were in excellent condition, and the little snow cover that we have was already quite firm. I never knew any of the wildlife areas we encountered existed until yesterday. There are gorgeous trails winding all around the "islands" next to the river, complete with trail signs and scenic viewing areas. 

As for the weather, had it been any warmer, I definitely would have been too warm with what I wore. I'll probably dress lighter the next time I'm out, just so I don't sweat quite as much, but will most likely pack a light insulatory shirt in a pocket just in case. 

My only regret was not taking a camera. I plan to make it out again very soon now that I know what to expect. I'll definitely take more time around the scenic areas, and try to document the beauty of them with hopes that more people will check out the alternative way to cross the river, well, at least half of it... 

Speaking of which, the City of Bloomington, owner of the defunct "Old Cedar Ave Bridge," announced that it is currently conducting a feasibility study on the demolition and reconstruction of a pedestrian bridge to reconnect the trail that is now barracaded on either side of Long Meadow Lake (the "pond" on the north bank of the river). I've been following this project for the last year or two as it's made the local news a couple times, and because I've taken to the roads on bicycle a bit more lately. The city has supposedly allocated a couple million dollars for its renovation, but initial studies have pretty much ruled out the possibility of restoration and inclusion in the National Registry of Historical Structures/Places without additional funding...which is pretty much out of the question with today's economy and local city and state budgets being announced. 

Not Much to Write about...

There isn't a lot to write about since my first/last post here. I haven't raced at all yet, as the cycling season is over for the year here in Minnesota. 

We had an excellent autumn: several weeks of mornings with temperatures in the low 50's and upper 40's (Fahrenheit), then afternoons in the 70's. I commuted by bike a couple times a week, which I found to be a lot more convenient and refreshing than I ever imagined. It's about 9 miles one way. After a few weeks, I left earlier in the morning and extended the route to add some mileage. I'm fortunate enough to have accessible showers and lockers at work, so getting sweaty is not an issue. I'm not die-hard enough to bundle all the way up and sweat it out in the freezing temps, but I'm really looking forward to next spring. I'd like to shoot for commuting at least 3 days a week. I don't see myself commuting by bike everyday due to activities after work with my son, and my wife works one or two nights a week, getting home around 8 am. If I were to bike to work, I generally wouldn't be at my desk until after nine, and that's just a little too late for my taste (and my boss' taste, I'm sure). 

Winter finally came just a couple weeks ago, and with one last weekend ride outdoors (29.5 miles), with the afternoon temperature reaching a high of 33 degrees, I decided to officially switch the rear tire to the bright orange trainer tire. The bike is now mounted into a stationary trainer like this:

The whole set-up:

I've started my own training regimen, that consists of elements snatched and pieced together from different cycling blogs and forums. Right now, I'm taking a shot at intervals, trying to boost my power output. I have no idea what my current power output is, so I have no before/after stats to compare, but I'd like to think that the burn is helping something. 

I typically do a 10 minute basic warm-up, consisting of a couple minutes at an easy spin with very little resistance, then slowly build up the resistance (by switching to higher gears) one minute at a time, then take 2 minutes of an easy spin at the end, then hop off for a very quick, light stretch. 

The two different interval sets I'm trying are 1x1' (one by one minute) and 2x20' (two by twenty minute) intervals. 1x1's consist of one minute at near-peak exertion, then one minute at a low resistance spin for recovery. I usually start with 30-45 second intervals at first, for 4 or 5 sets, then bump up to one minute sets until fatigue, which is usually after 7 or 8 sets. 

For the 2x20's, I typically spin at about 70-80 percent of my perceived exertion (as that's all I really have for reference) for 20 minutes after the warm-up, then take a 5 minute recovery at a high cadence/tempo with very little resistance, then do another 20 minute interval at a slightly higher resistance. 

I've already seen vast improvement in my level of comfort in just three weeks of doing these intervals, rotating them every other workout, just two days per week. What's nice about these is that each workout only takes about an hour, including warm-up, stretching, cool down, and stretching afterwards, and I'm pretty spent at the end of each of them. Anything longer than a hour of staring at the wall and out the window, and I think I might go Jack Torrance on my family. 

This is hockey season as well, and I'm still playing in a "competitive" men's league once a week. So I've been counting that as some lower body cross training. I also get some short runs in about every other week, and get some high-rep upper body lifting once or twice a week to keep the core and auxiliary muscles in shape for other activities. 

Right now, I'm setting my sights on my first bike race for Mid-April, as that's what I'm seeing as the beginning of the racing season around here. 

For the record, my goal is to achieve Cat 4 level by mid-summer (which simply consists of racing in 10 mass start races), and entering at least two sprint triathlons this summer. The first triathlon is in late-June back in my hometown in southern Minnesota. Haven't picked out a second yet. 

The swimming is going to start sometime in January. That is my worst event in the triathlon by far, and my least favorite for which to train.  But I did see progress last winter through my very limited training, so I'm kind of looking forward to tracking my progress this year as I have a little better idea of what I'm doing. 

So for now, don't expect many posts. If I come across anything that I add and find interesting or worthwhile, I'll write about it. 

Otherwise just assume that I'm spinning away in my basement with my earbuds and playing beer league hockey.