In Which I Contemplate The February Dip

Magic of Excel. My bike monthly mileage totals so far in 2014.

Now that winter is over (knock on wood), it’s interesting to see how the biking year has gone so far.

Thursday, I managed to squeeze out an unexpected day of biking. As a rule, CR Biker doesn’t like wet and will avoid a rainy ride. I know, I know, true bike commuters are like mail carriers under the old motto of the U.S. Post Office—neither rain nor snow nor dark of night, yadda yadda. Well, I’m not a mail carrier, and even if I’m not the Wicked Witch the West, I drive a bike that makes me look a bit like her.

I won’t melt in rain, but neither Francis nor I enjoy wet. It’s more serious for Francis. If I get wet, I have to dry off. If my bike gets wet, the cancer of rust spreads.

Anyway, rain was in the forecast Thursday, which normally would have called for a driving day. But, sometimes when it is going to “rain,” that doesn’t mean all day—it means rain now and then, and Thursday’s forecast was of that type. So I checked the radar in the morning (one of the minor positive aspects of modern life—when I was young, no random bike commuter would “check the radar”) and saw that, splotched with rain-green as the state might be, none of the splotches were on me.

So I rode, and I was fine.

On Thursday afternoon, I was lecturing, when I looked out the classroom window to see it raining. I had been talking about my bike at the time (it was relevant to class), and the class interpreted my nonverbal reaction to mean that Francis had been stolen. Well, no, my bike was parked inside the building in the hall by my office—its usual “rain” spot on campus—the dramatic pause was just my reaction to the rain and the prospect of a cold, wet ride home.

Fortunately, as it turned out, the ride was damp and cool, but the passing shower had passed by the time the class period was in the past.

I’ve been keeping an online bike log on Google Docs to track my miles. I had a dip in February mileage, caused, I’m sure, by the harsh winter we had. March was a winter month in Iowa this year, but my mileage nicely rebounded. According to my bike log, I’m up to 324 miles for the year as of Thursday, and just shy of 200 of those miles were in March.

My goal this year, if you recall, is 5,000 miles. I will have to average more than 400 miles a month to get there, but I knew in setting that yearly goal that many of those miles would be packed into summer months. So to near 200 in March isn’t bad.

Here’s hoping for 300 or more in April!

In Which The Maples Bloom As Cold Winds Blow

Sunday afternoon. Lots of traffic on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail north of Hiawatha and Robins.

I just topped 300 miles today, although I’m not sure I’ll get many more biking miles in this week. Rain and possibly snow are to fall, starting tomorrow.

Well, we need the rain. And, while April snow is not exactly a welcome guest, snow falls pretty much every April in Iowa.

Still, there have been good spring rides this week. Sunday was very warm, and on the way to campus I rode north a bit. There were lots of people on the trail. I was feeling pretty powerful, until I turned around—heading south meant heading into an a stiff afternoon wind—a very strong one.

Monday, the morning was fine, but there was rain in the forecast. Some moved through around noon, and I thought I was in the clear, but as I rode home, and it got to be close to 7:30 p.m., storm clouds gathered in the west. Luckily, I did make it home before the next quick round of rain fell.

Sun setting through a bank of storm clouds Monday around 7:30, corner of C Avenue and Blairs Ferry Road. Rain did fall and a quick thunderstorm moved through, but I made it home first.

Tuesday, if felt like winter in the morning. It was in the 20s, but with a very stiff west wind that gave a single-digits wind chill. I had not planned to wear long underwear in April, but I did today, no fooling.

Despite the cold morning, and the wind, I kind of enjoyed the ride. And I noted, when I passed a church that I go by almost every morning, that a stand of maple trees wasn’t pregnant with buds anymore.

The trees are blooming. We’re in for some cool weather for the rest of the week, but spring is still on its way.

Tuesday morning--winter cold, but signs it's spring anyway. Maple blooming in church yard that I passed.

In Which A 25-Mile Ride Features Snuggling Snakes

The world is winter brown, but there are a few tiny signs of fresh spring green. One of the photos I snapped during my mid-ride break. Yes, it's a plant, it is growing, it is green.

Ice on shady embankment of Cedar River. It's several feet thick.

Spring on Cedar Lake. There is ice halfway across, but much of the lake is open water now, reflecting a warm spring sky.

Spring! When a young man’s fancy turns to what apparently snakes may be thinking of, too.

But, let’s save the love, if love it was (maybe it was totally platonic and I’m misreading reptile behavior, or maybe the little snake though it could eat the big one?) for later.

Today, I graded all morning, and felt pretty brain dead by noon. At lunch, my wife discussed taking an afternoon walk. “I know you’ll want to go on a bike ride,” she said.

She is wise and she was right. I got Francis out and lubed and inflated (him, not me), and headed out by about 1:30 p.m. I could only ride until about 4—we planned to go to church at 4:30 tonight—so I wanted to get some quick miles in.

Looking out over railroad bridge that crosses the Cedar River from a fenced trail bridge.

I headed over to the Cedar River Trail via the Noelridge Park route, and turned south. And peddled and peddled. In about an hour and 15 minutes (the time I had allotted until I had to turn around) I rode 12 ½ miles. I thought 25 miles would be a nice number, so I stopped just after Highway 30 at the T intersection where the trail to Kirkwood diverges, intending that to be the turn-around point. I hopped off the bike to take a short break and walked over to an abandoned rail line which runs right next to the trail at this point, and snapped some photos.

A middle-aged mixed gender couple who had been riding from the other way had also stopped. “What are you seeing?” the man asked.

“Just a little green,” I said. “Signs of spring.”

“It’s about time!” the woman exclaimed.

Old rail line near trail.

Well, who can argue with that? The world is still largely in its winter brown, but I don’t think I was imagining a tinge of green on some grass, a swelling of pregnant maple bulbs, a shift in “things.” There was a caterpillar crawling across the trail. A bit of ice can still be seen beside the river, the but the river runs free and the eagles have departed the patches of open water that sustained them in winter—there is lots of water to fish in, now. Today still looked like winter, but felt like spring, and there were signs of the coming season.

I agreed with the woman, it’s about time. On my return ride, I snapped a few more photos, which are what illustrate this post.

But, time was running short and, after I passed by Cedar Lake, I decided I had no more time to snap photos. I must hurry home.

But then I spied something that stopped me.

It was a snake. The first snake of the season, which was somnolently sunning itself on the warm asphalt of the trail, was just off to my left.

Snakes alive! Who put these mother-loving snakes on a trail?

Well, whether I was short on time or not, I wasn’t going to pass up snapping an image of spring’s first serpent! I was a little worried about said snake, which was so still I was thinking maybe it had been run over (fortunately, not by me because I would have felt terrible at crushing the first reptile of the seasons). Anyway, as I paused to snap said snake's photo, it slowly lifted its head and slow-mo flicked its tongue at me in a totally ineffective threatening manner.

Just then, ,as if on cue, another, smaller snake burst from the cover of the grass across the trail, and rushed to the first snake. I thought there was either going to be a quick attack on the paparazzi, or snake-on-snake violence.

Hey pinkie! Why you taking his picture? I want my picture taken, too!

No. There ensued some rather unseemly snake snuggling. I’m not a studier of snakes, so I don’t know what it means, but I felt as if I should gently suggest that these two find a hole.

Well, there you have it. A 25-mile bike ride complete with, maybe, snake foreplay. I saw other bikers, dog walkers, runners and others out enjoying the trail, but I only saw two snuggling snakes. While I would have rather seen eagles, I have to admit it was a very nice ride.

OK you two. I know it's spring, but really.

In Which I Ride The Hill and Install New Technology

Bottom of Bowman Woods hill. This is looking west from the east  side of the hlll--it's a much bigger hill. The steep part is around the bend. This is on the afternoon ride, in the morning I climbed the west side of the hill. After taking the picture, I rode up the hill.

The computer, the lights and Francis.

I rode the neighborhood hill this morning as the start of more serious RAGBRAI training. I ride up the MMU hill each morning when I commute, so I get some hill practice—but getting ready for RAGBRAI is not just putting in the time and miles (even if it is mainly putting in the time and miles), but also getting comfortable with a lot of uphill riding.

Which is a minor problem in Cedar Rapids. We’re not exactly a flat part of Iowa, but we’re sure not Dubuque (or Muscatine). There are a fair number of modest rolls in the land, but not many monster hills. And even if this is a relatively short, relatively flat RAGBRAI, don’t let that “relatively” fool you. On certain days there will be plenty of hills.

So there needs to be hills in my practice. Luckily, I live near one of the big hills—the Bowman Woods hill. You head up Brentwood Drive and then Crandall Drive to reach the summit, and it’s pretty good RAGBRAI practice.

I rode up the hill twice today—once in the morning during my ride to the gym, and once in the afternoon. More on that ride soon.

The ride up the hill actually felt pretty good. My RAGBRAI legs from last year aren’t totally gone. And it has me thinking—is this the year? Once in my RAGBRAI career, I want to do it.

The 100-mile loop. Maybe in 2014? I’m not sure, but I’m thinking about it.

Anyway, we had to take our van in for service today, and while we were waiting for the work be be done, we did a little shopping. I picked up a new bike computer and some spoke lights.

At around 5, I decided to install the new computer. It took about 30 minutes, and when I got all done, I decided to go for a ride. And the computer didn’t register anything—would not detect the motion of the bike.

Well, I’m sure 100 percent of you bikers know what the problem was. I needed to move the magnet and detector closer together. I fiddled with it several times in the first half-mile of my ride, and by the time I got to the corner of C Avenue and Blairs Ferry, the computer was working.

It’s not has fancy as one I lost—it has no thermometer, for example. But it’s bigger, and my old eyes will appreciate that.

And I never used the old one for the thermometer anyway. What do you think, blog fans? Should the new computer record a 100-mile ride this summer?

Installation done, ready for ride, or so I thought. It took some playing before the new computer would register the motion of the bike, but eventually I got it working.

In Which I Ride X Miles and Lose the Computer

My tracks in the morning snow Tuesday. And bonus shadow theater going on with my bike and my hands. Looks like a chicken milking a cow on the right side there.

Tuesday morning was white and chilly. Another dusting of snow overnight, just as the snow had fallen the day before.

I decided, nonetheless, to ride my bicycle to the gym in the morning. It was not a really great decision—the slightly warm pavement meant the that a layer of the snow that had fallen overnight had melted and then frozen—what looked like a light dusting was a light dusting on an icy layer.

Still, I was on sidewalks almost the whole way to the gym and made it, slowly, with no mishap.

That afternoon, I had a bell rehearsal at Mount Mercy and a sister in the hospital to visit, so I hit the road again. The day was windy and cold—the high was in the 20s—much colder than it has been lately or has any business being this late in March. We’ll have some warm days coming—in fact, today is much nicer—but the lamb is taking its time showing up.

Anyway, due to the chilly air, I had on two pairs of socks and my long winter underwear. It felt like some crime against nature to wear long johns in the final week of March, but the windy cold made it a good idea. So despite the cold, the ride was fine. By the afternoon, even in the cold, the sun had cleared almost all of the pavement. I rode to campus, had a pretty good rehearsal, and then rode downtown to Mercy Medical Center.

At about 7:15, I decided I would leave to beat the full dark—better to ride when it’s slightly light out, still. I turned on every blinking light I had and hit the road. On my way up Third Avenue, about 7 or 8 blocks into my ride, I glanced down to find out my speed—and there was no computer on my bike. I had knocked it off somehow during the day’s ride.

Well, shoot. I am going to give myself credit for 16 miles—2 miles for the ride to and from the gym, 7 mile round trip to the hospital and home. At least I think it’s 7 miles. My mileage for a while will be the vaguest of guesses. Not having a computer won’t keep me from riding, but it will keep me from having some information about the ride that I like to have. My guess, by the way, puts me up to 222 miles this year. One third of a beastly number, about half a RAGBRAI.

And no, I can’t use a map app on my phone to track my treks. My phone is too primitive for that—it’s just a phone that can text, not a minicomputer with apps.

Oh well. At least the sun is shining now, and although I have lots of work that I will tackle in the next few days, after Thursday’s rain I should get some biking miles in. None today due to visiting with grandchildren—but there’s always Friday for the next ride to take place and mileage to be guessed at.

In Which I Ride, Pray, Pay and Pass 200 Miles

Sun sinks low over Cedar Lake March 23 during my ride home. No eagles today--must be more open water so they don't have to hang around the lake any more.

It will snow Monday. As expected, spring break is a bit more like winter break, as the long, cold winter season of 2014 is still hanging on. The calendar says spring, but Mother Natures turns a cold shoulder to that idea.

We had four grandchildren as house guests this weekend. And we watched a movie my wife had just purchased. It was “Frozen.” Not sure it was the best choice. It is a cute movie, by the way, although I think the resolution makes no sense. And why cut all trade with another nation because one skinny old guy is a jerk?

Anyway, today we met the kids’ mom at a fast-food restaurant for the handoff. Then, after an afternoon nap, I decided it was time to hit the trail and get some weekend miles. It was mildly cool, temperature in the 30s, when I headed out.

I wasn’t sure how far I would go. I left about 4:15, and intended to stop at Immaculate Conception Church to attend the “sinners’ Mass,” the 5:30 p.m. Sunday service. As it turned out, I only got to downtown Cedar Rapids before turning north along Third Avenue to make it to the church.

By the time Mass ended, it was cooling a lot. I headed off again along the same trail route. My water bottle was starting to ice up as I peddled home. Still, even if it was cold enough to freeze water—the temperature had dropped to the 20s—the lack of wind meant it wasn’t an unpleasant ride.

And I do like riding at sunset. Yes, I need lights, it’s probably not the safest time, but there is something especially pretty about the golden light of late day just before the sun dips below the horizon, and the early blue and pink light of twilight as we slip into the shadow of our planet.

When I got home, I had a cup of hot chocolate and a bunch of pizza to warm up. And decided it was time. I “closed” the RAGBRAI group so that I could pay and be officially registered. So now Team Joe is officially me, my sisters Brigid and Cate, Brigid’s husband Eldon, and Susan who is my sister-in-law on my wife’s side. Five of us, ready for a summer ride! And ready for summer, too.

I also updated my mileage numbers on my Google Drive bike log. With the 17 miles today, I have topped 200 miles of bicycle riding in 2014. Only 4,800 to go to my year’s goal—about 10 RAGBRAIs, I guess.

Happy biking!

In Which A Mirror Cracks During A Good Bike Week

Me this morning reflected in a cracked mirror. Well, the sky is blue and the sun is shining and it was a fine biking day anyway. (And yes, I put on my helmet before I started biking).

One day this week, Wednesday, I think, I drove a car to work, due to a wet morning.

The other days I was on Francis, and the weather has been pretty kind to a biker. Of course, we’re in a dry pattern that is a bit worrisome, what with last year’s drought and all—but I guess if you’re going to have a dry month of no consequence, March is not a poor choice.

There is snow in the forecast and colder temperatures next week. So I may not get a lot of extra miles in during spring break, but I do plan to ride some tomorrow, even if it’s cold.

And I’m going to “close” the RAGBRAI group and officially finish the registration process, probably tomorrow.

Anyway, I did have one minor mishap. Thursday night, I parked the bike too close to the garage door, without realizing it, and when I closed the door, it smacked and cracked the bike mirror.

It’s been a good mirror, but I probably will have to replace it.

Still, all in all, it’s been a good week to be a bike commuter, and despite some early spring winter-like weather next week, I think we’re getting to that part of year where the nice biking weather will become more and more common.

May your peddles spin, your tyres hum and the trail be fine and clear for you! Bike on!