Back from Florida, back on the bikes...

I got home from Florida about two weeks ago, and as usual, the weather followed me back. My work schedule plus the extreme temperatures (with the heat index topping off at 111ºF!) kept me off the bike for most of those two weeks, but never fear, I am back riding again.

Most of those rides were on a new single speed I got for riding around campus. (I'm going back to MSU, in case you didn't know! I can't remember if I mentioned it here...) The decision to get a single speed was based on several factors, but mostly I just wanted a simple bike to get me around the flat town of East Lansing. It goes against my morals to clod around on a 40 pound mountain bike from Walmart, so for about only $50 more I bought the cheapest bike on Nashbar and put it together myself.

No bike of mine is complete without some pink, so I threw on some hot pink Oury grips and called it a day. (I also tore off the cheap houndstooth stickers that came on it.) The whole thing, complete with fancy-pants grips, cost me $213. I think it's a pretty decent bike for being pretty cheap. There are more tweaks I want to do (like getting a seatpost and saddle for it that don't suck), but all that can wait.

I'm in a minor dilemma about the pedals. For a campus bike, platform is okay, and maybe preferable. I hate riding without clipless pedals, but I don't want to come back from class and realize my means of putting power to the cranks has been stolen. I've been thinking about throwing some toe clips on there, but I dunno. Worth it? I also figure, if I want to take it to the track, I can just put my spare set of Speedplays on it. (That's another thing I like about this bike—flip the rear wheel and throw on some drop bars...boom, super cheap track bike.) Speaking of the track...

I'm officially digging it. Had my first track experience today, and it was awesome! It's been a while since I've had that much fun on a bike. I can't wait to go back.

There was one small hitch: about halfway through when we were doing some paceline exercises, all of a sudden I noticed my right pedal didn't feel quite...right. I promptly moved off the track and onto the infield, only to discover my pedal was hanging on by a thread. Literally, one thread. The rest were stripped out.

I believe the appropriate reaction is "EEP!"

After a quick swap, I was off riding again. I find myself wondering why I didn't try it before, especially since my boyfriend (who I've occasionally mentioned on this blog as TrainerDan™) started prodding me to give it a try over a year ago. What can I say? I may be late to the party, but I'm glad I'm here.

Race reconsiderations...

I've been riding a lot lately. And I'm loving it. I'm following a few guidelines laid out by TrainerDan™, and I'm seeing improvements. I still don't like the one-legged pedaling exercises. But, I hear they're supposed to be good for me, so I do them anyways (kind of like vegetables).

I'm feeling better than I ever have before on a bike, and strangely, I'm wanting to race less than the "six race minimum" I committed myself to. I'm even questioning whether or not I really want to do Ore to Shore this year.

Now, Ore to Shore was a great first race for me. But I'm kind of dreading the long drive, crazy mass start, and boatload of sand that is O2S. And entry fees aside, it's a very expensive race when you factor in the hotel stays and gas costs. (Which are now over $4.00/gallon again! Crazy. Makes me glad that my work commute is short, and my car is very fuel efficient.)

I'm starting to see my priorities shift a bit (what with school starting again soon, and various other life changes—though I won't go into detail here), and saving money where I can is pretty high up there. So, I'm going to shift my attention to closer races. (I am, of course, still counting on doing Iceman. I will have my revenge this year.)

Snippet from my last ride.

This was on Bullock Road, where a low-lying segment got flooded over. The road commission "solved" this problem by placing a ton of rocks in the low lying area, for about 30 meters of road. The rocks were all about fist-sized and jagged, making it very difficult to traverse on a cross bike's skinny tires. After just a few feet I dismounted and walked it, not wanting to bloody myself up if I fell over.

Still no real trail riding this season, but I plan on getting out to Addison as soon as it's dry, and joining one of those Wednesday night Stony rides as soon as my work schedule allows.

Bike bike bike.

Bike bike bike. Yoga yoga yoga. Music music music.

Rinse, repeat. So far I'm liking spring.

Hooray for longer rides!

Hooray for not getting dropped on group rides! (The plan from TrainerDan™is working!)

Hooray for the wonderful taste of beer after a few hours in the saddle!

Hooray for iceless dirt roads!

Hooray for mean people honking at you when you're climbing a hill!

Wait...scratch that last one...

Almost all of the snow and ice is gone again, and I'm feeling good about the upcoming season. It's time to start planning out the races.

These are a given:

Logsplitter (7/16)

Ore to Shore (8/13)

Iceman (11/5)

These are the other races I'm considering:

Barry Roubaix (3/26! Soon!)

Tree Farm Relay (7/23...need a team!)

Stony Creek XC (8/28)

Addison Oaks XC (9/11)

Grampian Challenge (10/1)

Six Hours of Addison Oaks (10/8)

Suggestions? Recommendations? I can't sign up for all of them because I'm a poor librarian, so I want to narrow it down to about six races this year. I really, really want to do an endurance race, but I'm not going to commit to 6 Hours of Addison until later on in the year when I know I'm up to par.

I have a feeling I will be, though. I'm already in better shape and weigh less than I did at Ore to Shore last year, and my pace then was more than decent. Plus, my cross training with yoga is working out great. I haven't had any soreness post-cycling since beginning yoga, and I can feel myself getting a lot stronger and more flexible. However, after nearly falling asleep during shavasana after yesterday's ride, I'm thinking it's a good idea to stagger cycling and yoga so they're not only two hours apart.