These are the type of things I think about as I ride my bike. I usually don’t bother to post them because that would actually require that I write it down. Since my Giro helmet with neuro-dictation and the “think it-blog it” plug-in is on backorder until it is actually invented, this probably won’t change. So consider this a special treat or a waste of your valuable time you will never recover. Your call. 

The forecast was good for an outdoor ride this week. The thermometer was supposed to hit almost 60º. Not hot, but for the end of January in the midwest it was downright balmy. This warm spell wouldn’t last long so I plotted my ride for Tuesday and kept an eye on the hourly forecasts. It looked like the best time would be around 11am. Nice and sunny and close enough to call it a long lunch.

Unfortunately work got in the way so all of my glorious sunshine was now somewhere over Ohio. 1:30 still worked as late lunch. The sun was gone and the wind was howling but it was still warm and better than riding rollers in my basement. After a quick change of sunglasses,  I hopped on my cyclocross bike and was on my way. Well almost. Wrong shoes. Urgh! Road ride equal road shoes but road ride on CX bike equal MTB shoes.

Shoes changed, now I was really gone. I got my CX bike for days just like this. The road was a mix of wet, dry, sand and salt. Not conditions I like to take my road bike into. Since I was on the CX bike I figured I should hit a couple of the dirts road just for fun to try out my new tires and test my condition. 

As I rode out of the neighborhood I immediately felt the 16mph wind hit me and at times felt like these guys.

The wind wasn’t that bad for most of the ride but there were a few wide open sections that seemed like 16mph might be a little on the low side. I think they forgot to mention gusts to 26mph. When I am crunched for time I normally ride a 20 mile loop so that I can be back home in about an hour. I knew at this time of year on this bike in these conditions I wasn’t going to come close to that. I didn’t want to push it too hard so I decided to just watch my heart rate and not worry about speed. My goal was to keep it under 160bpm 165bpm 170bpm ok lets make it 175bpm. I guess my transition from weeks on the couch to the bike wasn’t quite as smooth as I had hoped. My 12oz curls have been going well and I have amazing channel flipping skills but I guess those don’t transfer well to cycling. 

My ride started out on my normal road loop but I changed it up and hit the dirt section of Yankee street off of Beebe. This was easily rideable but already had me questioning wether it was a good idea to hit the dirt roads. I was almost immediately coated with little tiny brown dots of mud and my speed took a significant hit. Not to worry this section was short I would be back on the road in no time. 

As the road turned back to pavement I was delighted to have a lot more speed for my effort on the pavement. As I was pedaling up the hill taking it easy and recovering a little from the dirt section I was approached by a very fast moving horse or dog or horse dog? I didn’t see him until until he was at my back wheel and let out a deep BARK that could only be delivered by a dog that must have been over 200lbs. My hands were resting on my brake hoods which are just over 3 feet off the ground. If I wanted to pet this dog I would have had to reach up another foot to reach his head. Luckily he was going so fast that he overshot me and crossed in front of me to the other side of the road. I didn’t feel like chatting so I hit my pedals as hard as I could and took off up the hill. Of course it had to be an uphill section. As I sprinted off, the dog came back at me and just missed my back wheel, I kept my head down and hammered up the hill as fast as I could. About 100 yards later I saw the dog trailing off and knew I was safe. The deep bark fired off my adrenaline glands so I doubt anyone this side of Mark Cavendish could have kept up with me at that point. You can probably guess where I saw the dog as you look at this heart rate section below. 

Just about the time I was feeling normal again I had a decision to make. Go right on Anderson and hit the steep but short hills or go straight and see what the next dirt road section of Yankee street would bring. Straight it was. 

This was both a good and a bad idea. It is always nice to explore a new areas. It also confirmed the theory of what goes down must also go up. This time the up while not as steep as the Anderson hills seemed to be longer and was a mix of mud, ice and water. This made things a little more challenging but also a better work out. There were sections that you rolled along just fine and others that made you look down to see if your tires had suddenly gone flat. I can see this being a good training road for Iceman later in the fall. 

With Yankee behind me it was on to Conrad road before my next dirt section. Conrad would have been totally uneventful has it not been for a redneck in a pickup truck. As I was heading down the road on the white line on the other side a red pickup headed the other direction started honking his horn and flipped me off as he sped by.  I could understand if I was in his lane or near the centerline but at that moment I couldn’t have been a more polite cyclist. I was barely on the road and minding my own business. Not really sure what I did to piss him off so much but I will credit it to youth. I am sure I did stupid things when I was young. 

One last dirt section and I was home. As I hit May road I noticed it was particularly sketchy. I train on May quite often when I want a quick short workout and it is amazing how the speed changes from day to day. Today it was slow going. I was just wishing my way to the last downhill section that would take me to the paved section and get me home. As I slogged through the mud more than once I wished for a little more air volume of my 29er mountain bike tires. I finally made it to the last downhill and as I looked down I noticed a mix of mud and ice. That made the down hill much faster than the mud to this point but it also made it much scarier as I spent most of my time trying to steer on to dirt, mud, sand or anything that my tires would grab onto so I didn’t end up on my back only a couple miles from home. 

Now that I am home safe on the couch I am glad I went and hope I can do it again soon. My wife just told me she brought home a snickers ice-cream bar just for me. Bitch! :-) Looks like I will need to hit the bike again tomorrow. 

Anyone want to wash my bike?