Fresh Content

Work was a little hectic this week, and I didn't get a chance to update the blog. I didn't realize when I started this venture that it would require so much careful care and feeding. I'll try not to let the content get so stale from here on out. Bear with me for this post though - I have a couple of updates to lump together here...

Back on the horse

Last Friday, Mother Nature showed us that winter wasn't quite over. Instead, she dumped a fresh 11 inches of snow up in Maine, and about 8 inches at home. We knew the storm was coming, so headed up to Maine on Thursday night to avoid driving in the bad conditions on Friday (which turned out to be a good thing - the normal 3 hour drive ended up taking some people over 8 hours...).

We headed up to Sunday River on Saturday morning for some good skiing. The snow was just like granulated sugar - the same consistency and texture. Of course, that meant that it got pushed into bumps pretty easily. Add to that some freezing rain, and the conditions quickly deteriorated. We headed back to the house.

You will recall from some of my previous posts that I have had a few challenges riding my sled this season (including getting stuck, and a tree). Mike suggested that we head out on the sleds in the afternoon, since now the trails would be covered again. Now, if I have a crash on my bike, I get back on and keep going. For some reason, though, the thought of getting back on my sled and going for a ride scared me. I needed to face the demon, and get back on the horse...

We headed out from the house, and had a great (and incident free) ride. Now I'm glad that we went as it turns out it was likely the last ride of the season for us. The conditions weren't great for most of the season, but we still managed to put 1100 miles on the new machines. Oh, and the week before this storm, temps even in Maine were in the 60s, so things were a little soft, and in places, wet.

Little boys who play in puddles grow up to be big boys who STILL play in puddles!

On returning to Bedford, we found a driveway full of snow, with about 1/2 inch of ice on top. It took both Mike and I about 2.5 hours to literally chop all of the snow into small chunks, and shovel it. The snowblower chose an inopportune time to die.

Riding into Spring

After the snow, temps in MA started to climb back up. This was GOOD for quick snow melt, and meant that we could get back on the roads to ride. After a week of riding outside, having to get back on the trainer and put in miles going nowhere was not a fun activity.

We were able to ride on Thursday after work, despite the rivers that were pouring down the roadways. Everything was pretty wet, and even with fenders on all of our bikes, riding behind Mike and PK made me almost drown. I was pretty dirty by the time we got home, after 32 miles.

No, those are not new freckles on my face

We rode again on Friday, and the roads were definitely drier! Again today, out for a big ride with Mike, PK and Nanyee (on their tandem) and AA. Dry roads, and a long ride, ending up with about 57 miles. That put me at 125 miles in three days, and my legs can definitely feel it.

And just to keep us on our toes, the current weather forecast says that Mother Nature is about to dump more S*** on us tonight. Sigh. We were just getting used to spring riding.