Week 4

My training program suffered a serious set-back this week. Saturday was a rain-and-snow-mixed day, and it snowed heavily all day Sunday. We had a couple of sunny afternoons last week, but I was studying for an exam in my French class, for which I felt badly under-prepared. I didn't ride all week, and didn't even make it to my Thursday evening yoga class.

I did go out for a mid-day walk around town on Sunday, to fetch some groceries and take some pretty pictures. There is about eight inches of snow this evening. Earlier in the day it was fairly wet but coming down fast all day, and now it's freezing up.

Not my bikes

The forecast is for more snow early in the week, but warmer, sunnier days by the end of next week. I won't be going for the 30-mile rides I had planned, but I will venture out on my snow-bike. I will. Really.

VanderYacht Park

Someone hardier than me was out riding, but left
the bike lane for the sidewalk as they crossed the bridge

Main Street was snow-ploughed fairly early in the morning, and even the bike lanes were cleared, but the lumpy snow was turned over on the sidewalk. It was still loose and soft when I was out walking, but once the snow freezes over night, it will become difficult and ankle-turning to walk on, and pretty near impossible to bicycle over without a heavy bike and the fattest, most rugged tires available.









My schedule has also been thrown off a bit because, now that I've signed up for a health care plan, I have to catch up on all the preventive-care exams I've been skipping for the past three years. I had a "well-woman" check-up, a mammogram, and a blood-draw for lab tests that required fasting over night.

Everything's coming out normal and healthy. I've lost three pounds since I began my training schedule. My blood pressure and pulse have come up since the last time they were checked, but that was the time when it turned out I had walking pneumonia.

That time, the ARNP said she was about ready to send me to the Emergency Room if my heart rate didn't go above 50 beats per minute soon. So faster is better.

Week 3

Soon after I woke up Saturday morning I realized this is a four-day weekend. There's the President's Day holiday on Monday, then Tuesday is a teacher's prep day or something at the community college, so classes aren't being held. With the extra free days, I almost decided to postpone my 25-mile training ride, then I remembered there's no telling how the weather will turn from one day to another, so I'd better not count on good conditions for the rest of the long weekend. My penalty for stalling was that it started raining about half-way through my ride.

The Bellingham Rain Festival at Depot Market Square

It was a good ride anyway, thanks to Moe at Kulshan Bikes, who adjusted the position of my saddle and put a shorter stem on the handlebars, making it much more comfortable. Too bad to get all wet and muddy just after a tune-up, but that brings me back to my old winter-commuter clean-up routine.

I rode a familiar sight-seeing route from Ferndale to downtown Bellingham, along the waterfront trail to Boulevard Park, then on to Fairhaven. On the way back I stopped at The Woods Cafe in Boulevard Park, which is when it started raining, no doubt as punishment for my espresso and pastry break. I stopped at Depot Market Square just long enough to take a photo, noticed the "no bikes" sign and didn't want to park elsewhere to walk through the market. So I made it a quick ride home, with cold, wet feet.

According to plan

Here it is, the second weekend of my training plan, and I'm still sticking to the schedule. The weather is taking a turn for the worse this weekend. It's been cold, clear and windy, and Bellingham had some light snow fall, though it's missed Ferndale eight miles northwest. But now it's clouding up here too, and we may get our turn next week, or at least some very nasty, cold rain. The grocery stores have brought their potted primroses and spring bulbs back indoors - a better predictor than the groundhog.

Last week I took my bike in for a spring tune-up. Next week I'm going to have a check-up on the fit, probably not the most elaborate professional fit you can get, but I expect to replace a few components to bring the handlebars back to an easier reach.

 Also, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and my mother's money, I now have medical coverage, and will be having some preventive-care testing done in the next couple of weeks. At my check-up last week, when the doctor checked my blood pressure, pulse and heart-rate, she said, "Yep, you're an athlete." Shucks. My weight has gone up by about 15 pounds since I stopped working and commuting 65 miles a week by bicycle, and it's about 25 pounds more than the summer I rode the Seattle-to-Portland in 2007. At a bit less than 145lbs it still isn't enough to be a health problem, but it's getting to the point that my old clothes don't fit, and it's hard to find things that fit comfortably and look good. Actually, my stretchy yoga and bicycling tights are the only pants that feel comfortable, but they're not looking so good any more.

I couldn't resist a couple of shots of the new woodpile developing at the base of the auto bridge across the Nooksack River (the old pile was at the base of the railroad bridge).

Spring Training Kick-off

This weekend is the official start of my training program for the Red-Bell 100, a ten-mile ride each day. On Saturday I rode a twelve-mile loop over rolling hills northwest of Ferndale. The morning was foggy and overcast with temperatures around 38F. This time of year the scenery is a bit dreary - lots of muddy, mown fields and bare blackberry vines, but there were eagles overhead, herons rising from the marshes, and flocks of white trumpeter swans browsing in the corn stubble.

It's not a bad idea to bring a map along if you're meandering around in this area, because it's easy to get mixed up. I rode out of town on Main Street, turned left on Douglas Road and rode a big curve on farm roads that eventually turned into Olson Road. I crossed Church and Thornton Roads then headed back home via Olson and Douglas again, circling around so much I can't really Google-map it.

Now I know how much I've missed the regular one-mile hill-climbs I did when I was commuting. I had some trouble with some of the hills, and even had to dismount and walk up the steepest bit near the top of one climb on Barr Road. But then there were also a couple of downhills where I bent down over the handlebars and coasted up to 35mph without even trying.

I can also see I'm going to have to get the rest of my life in order if I'm going to stick to my training schedule. After my ride, I had to scramble to get to the laundromat and back before the last bus home. And I'll need to get organized about meal-planning, shopping and cooking before I get to the phase in my training where I'm getting hungry every three hours.

The summer I rode the Seattle-to-Portland, by the middle of June I could eat a gallon of ice cream in a week and still lose weight. This year I'm resolved not to do that. Since my ride is supposed to benefit disadvantaged local kids and third-world subsistence farmers, it seems really wrong to let bicycling be an excuse to eat like a glutton.

Not sure yet what Sunday's ride will be - there is a possibility of snow.