in like a lamb, out like a yeti
Yesterday it was 52°, our warmest day of the year. Today we get a late snowstorm, up to 12″ expected (it’s still falling). It snowed hard and sideways all day, and it was the perfect consistency for snowballs and one more snowman for the year.
spring cleaning the fleet
This is what happens when i’m not riding enough:
Black & red diamond weave on the bottom, rim tape on the top with a long twine finish because the rim tape wasn’t quite long enough.
Actually, it’s spring cleaning time for some of the bikes, and the Surly was first up. I didn’t treat it with framesaver it when it was new, so i stripped the frame down and did it last weekend. I’m going to do the same to the Rivendell, but since the Surly is a singlespeed now, it was an easier job. The bar tape on this bike was in shreds and came off in pieces. I might give this tape job a couple of coats of shellac so it lasts a little longer.
tuning up and dropping out
Despite the optimism of my last post, i’ve had to drop out of the Ragnarok 105 for this year. Since i wrote last, i got me 2nd nasty bout of the flu for this year, and i’m still coughing crap out of my lungs. So even if i had a chance of building up a little fitness, i think my reeling immune system would probably conspire to put me back in bed yet again. So, i’m out, and not all that happy about it. I’m trying to think long-term though, and it’s not all THAT nice out yet anyway, right?
As a way to help keep my mind off riding for a bit, i decided to finish building a wheel i’d been collecting parts for. It’s a motley collection of weird parts; used Mavic G40 rim, NOS generic Suntour hub, used Simplex Q/R, and new Wheelsmith spokes; so i decided to give it an equally odd lacing pattern. Here is is:
It’s a 2-leading, 2-trailing pattern, a take-off of the much cooler-looking 3-leading, 3-trailing pattern that requires a 36-hole wheel. Alas, this is a 32-hole, so i get a 4-point cross instead of a big triangle. Still kinda neat, and seems pretty solid so far.
This will be the front wheel on my city fixed gear, to go with the nice rear wheel i built earlier this winter. Unlike that wheel, with its shiny new parts, this one only cost about $40. The rim isn’t perfect, but i’ll happily live with the 1mm dip it has in one spot for a cheap, experimental wheel. Now to just get healthy enough to put some miles on it…
the beginning of spring
(photo of me grinding it out at the December edition of the coldsprints, thanks to Ted & Cyndi for the photo)
The last edition of the local winter indoor racing series Coldsprints was on Friday, and i continued my twin streak of both attempting to qualify and not making it to the bracket. It’s obvious how a winter mostly off the bike has slowed me down. I haven’t been tracking my numbers, but the first 3 rounds had a precipitous dropoff along with my post-CX fitness. This month was a little better, but i still found myself after 12-13 seconds watching my legs slow down and futilely trying to will them to spin faster. I’ve been on the basement trainer a bit lately, but 2 solid weeks of getting over the flu really killed the early training momentum.
Training is getting increasingly important as i get closer to the Ragnarök 105. I really have about a month now to get as fit as possible before riding 105 miles on gravel. I think i can do it, but it’s gonna hurt. Luckily, we’ve been on a good streak of warmer weekends, and that should continue for at least this coming weekend. I was out on Saturday, and the temperature went up 10° over a couple of hours in the morning, and my hands were sweating profusely in the icebike mitts before i got home. Here in Minnesota, we greet spring as a mixed blessing. It’s a relief, but it sure makes it harder to get the layering right.