Windy Spring Weather

Today the weather was going to be questionable all day. Chance of rain and very windy conditions-25-35 mph. I finally got out to do a short 15 mile ride. The wind was out of the east-southeast and my ride was on a north-south road. There was a few times I had a little trouble keeping from being blown off the road.

This is a picture of my wind sock out at the end of my driveway.

Biking Club Rides

The last 4 or 5 days have been nice enough to get outside and bike. Two nights ago I attended my first club ride of this year. The Melon City Bike Club simply calls this their Tuesday night ride; however, most of the riders that attend call this race night or hammer night.

There were 8 of us that showed up for the ride. The wind was blowing swiftly (20+ mph) out of the southwest. We headed into the wind and we let the fastest riders do all the pulling on the first half of the ride. Averaging 18-20 mph into this kind of head wind was amazing. Since I am the senior citizen in the bunch, I let everyone else do the work and I drafted. Hopefully, as the season progresses and I get into better shape I will be able to do some of the pulling. Coming back was real quick, averaging 28-30 mph. The wind had started to die down a little, but it still gave us a good boost. Two riders turned around before we got to the halfway point. I got dropped before we got back to the starting point, but ended up with a 20.9 average for the 34 mile ride. I found out that you don't get much of a draft from a good tailwind.

My Colorado ride this year is scheduled for June 28-July 3. So far I have several that are planning on going. Hopefully, I will make our lodging reservations in the next week or two and put the final plans together to make this ride happen. If you would like to see a preview of this year's ride, you can go to my web-page: www.crazyguyonabike.com/iowacyclist

St. Patrick Day's Ride

Yesterday the Melon City Bike Club had their annual St. Patrick Day ride. Patti and I took the tandem and we counted around 25 riders in our group. We headed south of Muscatine on Stewart Road. The wind was coming out of the southeast at 5 to 7 mph. The sun was out and it was close to 60 degrees. Such a great day for a leisurely ride. We ended up with around 24 miles for the day. It was the first time getting out the tandem this year and the first time that Patti had ridden outside since last fall.

The weather is looking good for the next 2 days as it is supposed to be in the upper 60's to lower 70's. I am hoping to get out on the Tuesday night club ride this week.

The sunset picture was taken in late January during our vacation in Jamaica.

Spring Around The Corner

After a very long...long winter things are looking up. Yesterday it got up to 73 degrees (a record). There is still snow in ditches and on the north slopes, but it won't last long.

I went out and did a 50 mile ride yesterday, riding into the wind (15-25 mph) for the first half of the ride. The return was very enjoyable with the wind at my back.

I started using a different training program for my cycling a couple of weeks ago. It is called "Power To The Pedals". It's structure uses 2-1 hour sessions per week that are very intense and work on different approaches to building cycling strength. It's too early to tell how this compares to my previous cycling training methods.

Will be taking a couple of days off and going to an in-door water park with our daughters and grand-kids.