In Which We Await Spring and RAGBRAI Training

Tuesday morning--first bike ride since Spring Break. Foggy, dark, damp morning--running with lights on. Fancy Beast in background.

I got a message via the Messenger app on my phone yesterday: My brother-in-law was reminding me that the deadline to register for RAGBRAI is upon us. I promised to register later that day, and Wednesday evening I made good.

I’m in the lottery. We’ll see if the village pulls my name out and stones me. Oh, wait—not that lottery.

It’s been a heck of a week. It’s good to be back home and bad to be back home. Jet lag is a real thing, as the return from just a week in England is proving to your fuzzy brained biking correspondent. The spring break trip to the UK was totally worth it, but I am paying the price this week.

And, it rained Monday, so I drove the Dodge.

But, luckily, I’ve been biking ever since, and experiencing the dramatic weather changes Iowa offers at this time of year.

Snow fell in Iowa Saturday, the day before my wife and I jetted across the pond. By all accounts (and the amount of white stuff slowly turning to water on the ground), quite a bit of snow.

Tuesday morning it still looked damp out, but nothing was falling from the sky, so I got out the winter beater bike. The Fancy Beast was quite nice to ride, except for on a stretch of sidewalk on C Avenue that, days after the snow, was still a frozen, frosty snowscape. I bogged down and had a sloshy walk—later sending a complaint email to the City of Cedar Rapids.

I know that sidewalk was new last fall, but come on, business park at the corner of C Avenue and Collins Road, shovel your walk.

Sidewalk that also serves as bike route on C Avenue. I'm an Iowan, so snow doesn't always make me sad. But it does make me sad when it's on a bike route.

Wednesday morning was cooler, but also sunnier. I still rode the Fancy Beast, figuring that I would encounter some snow on the sidewalk. Fortunately, by the Wednesday ride home, it appeared that ambient radiation from a nearby star had caused a state change in matter on the pavement—the solid sidewalk snow was now a liquid.

Wednesday--still very cool, but a clearly more pleasant spring day. Parked at bike rack near library at MMU.

So this morning, I decided it was time for the hybrid bike, my main commuting bike. I don’t mind riding the Fancy Beast, but a mountain bike is a mountain bike, and a hybrid is a lot more fun to ride, if you’re riding on pavement.

As it turned out, the strategy seemed to work. The morning commute was foggy and cool, but also largely dry. The only snow-related glitch was that the bike rack behind Warde Hall was still blocked by snow, a problem I solved simply by parking Clarence on the “wrong” side of the rack.

Spring! Let’s see more warm sun, blooming flowers and green—soon, please. But I did bike three out of four days during this short work week, and started a few extra hill rides to get ready, just in case I do win a slot on RAGBRAI in that lottery.

Thursday morning--Clarence parked behind Warde Hall--nice ride in, even if there is snow blocking the other side of the  bike rack.

In Which The Mornings Turn Dark and Pretty

Pond on C Avenue this morning. Still stark and brown--and cold--but still a pretty, clear sky.

We love to bash Daylight Savings Time, and maybe it is an empty gesture that makes little sense.

This March in Iowa, setting the clock forward an hour has made the mornings, still winter chilly, a bit darker, too. But, at least the afternoon rides are lighter (I’m writing this at 6 p.m. and won’t be riding home in the dark).

And the morning sun as it comes up is very pretty, something a biker gets to appreciate a bit more, I suppose.

I used all three bikes this weekend, going for a road ride Saturday, using the mountain bike for the gym commute Sunday morning and bicycling to campus for newspaper work Sunday afternoon.

Statue on MMU's Rohde Family Plaza seems to glow as I arrive on campus this morning.

I have not tried to persuade my wife to bike to church on Sunday morning, and I don’t have high hopes of even trying until the weather warms up.

Still, I noticed this past week that my miles are increasing a bit. I’m not really in RAGBRAI training mode yet, no 60-mile weekend rides, but as the days slowly lengthen and the afternoons, at least, feel a bit springy, I feel that good biking is coming soon.

In the meantime, at least the morning light is pretty!

Now it is my bike, just parked at Warde Hall, that appears to be flowing in the morning sun.

In Which The Air Is Just So

Dry Creek, March 9, 2018. A bit of ice on the creek as the sun starts to rise on a chilly March morning. My phone said it was 18 degrees.

March: In between winter and spring, and right now winter rules the mornings.

The ice melted a while ago on the C Avenue pond that I ride by each morning on my commute—but it was 18 today, with little wind. In the cold, still air, a thin layer of ice had again formed, and the pond was mostly frozen over, except for one small open patch where a rather chilly looking duck slowly moved.

Pond on C Avenue--not sure you can see it well, but a thin layer of ice has formed on this cold morning.

Tiny bit of open water with a cold looking duck.

I rode Clarence this morning, for the second time this week. On Wednesday I had ridden the mountain bike, but Thursday and today it was clear enough for the hybrid.

I was gambling that the pavement would be clear, and for the most part I won. I should have gone directly to campus, but was drawn by the cool but pretty morning to take the trail. I encountered some snow in Noelridge Park, but otherwise the way was clear.

Two views from Noelridge Park. A bit of snow on the bridge at the east end. Nearer the west end, where the community flowers gardens are, two geese stroll during the cold morning.

And the morning ride was cold. My toes were suffering a bit by the time I got to campus.

Bridge work along the trail. I thought the crane looked pretty in the morning.

View of artwork in garden behind Warde Hall, near where my bike was parked this morning.

The afternoon was also cool, but probably 30 degrees, which is better than 18. The ride home was still chilly, however. But, the March sun had warmed the city enough that the pond which was frozen in the morning had thawed again by 5:15 p.m.

C Avenue pond again, in the afternoon, almost the same spot. Water after sun was shining on the ice all day.

March—it’s not very much like spring yet, but you can tell it’s coming. Meanwhile, the air is just at that point where it will freeze ponds in the morning, and melt the ice by afternoon. This weekend, we have the spring time change—may it be a sign that the weather will soon make the turn from the frozen season to the time of new growth and more pleasant bike rides.