Warmth and road bikes

The beginning of spring is my absolute favorite time of the year, save the beginning of fall. Everything greens up and blooms in a riot of color. The weather here is amazing with cool mornings that evolve into moderately warm temperatures. It's that magical arm warmer/knee warmer start to short sleeves/shorts finish kinda riding weather. Pure bliss.

The downsides of this time of year are the shockingly pasty white arms and legs of some of the people showing up for group rides. I contemplate wearing something other than clear lenses on my rides just to minimize the damage to my eyes from the glare coming off of my legs, but then again the difference between me tan and me pale is best described as an exercise in evaluating the varying shades of white at your local paint store.

The real bummer is rain. I just built up a new extra small Niner EMD for my wife, Golden. At 5'1", the idea of a 29" wheeled mountain bike seemed out of the question until Niner released this new size. I finished up the build Saturday evening (after a long day at Appalachian State University taking my comprehensive exams - just a month to graduation!) and we made loose plans to go for a family mountain bike ride on Sunday.

I woke up early (4 am?) Sunday morning to the sound of rain. "Heck, it's Sunday..." I thought, "I'm sleeping in." Woke up at 6 - raining. Woke up at 8 - raining. Woke up at 9:30 (when was the last time I slept past 8?...) - raining. Oh there were moments of promising sunshine off in the distance; parting of clouds to reveal blue skies, but never did the rain abate. Hard rain, slow rain, soaking rain, pouring rain, all the rains were on hand on Sunday. Golden looked out the window, ever hopeful; eager to get on her new bike. But it was not to be. All told, a little bit of rain isn't an insufferable price to pay for the wonders of Spring, but it would be great if the bad weather could confine itself to the times I'm sitting at work rather than my limited weekends...

vomitus maximus

After an awesome ride at Warrior Creek with Owen, Golden and Jeff, sickness hit shortly upon our arriving home. Owen rocked out an hour and a half on the trail and got to experience that sweet, deep, coma-like sleep that comes after a long and satisfying bike ride. We got home and Owen crawled into bed, still pooped. We called him to dinner and he got up, but hardly touched his food. He took a shower to get all the mud splatter from the trail off of him, and then went back to bed. At about 9:30, he showed up in the living room fire engine red, crying, and saying he didn't feel good. Needless to say, a 102 F fever and some vomiting later and we figured school was out of the question.

Monday, Golden stayed home with him and it was more of the same: fever, lethargy, nausea. I stayed home with him Tuesday and after a rough start to the day, he perked up and we actually got to enjoy what turned out to be the first real spring day of the year. How awesome were the warm temperatures, bright sunshine, cool breeze, and blooming flowers after a mild, yet no less depressing, winter?

Thanks to the time change and the break in the weather, it seems that the group ride season is fast upon us. Anticipate group ride announcements through the forum in the coming days. Not a member of the forum? Then go join so you can keep in the loop, add to the loop, loop de loop, etc...  In addition, we are putting all of our winter clothing inventory on sale! If it covers your knees, elbows, fingertips, or the top of your head (under your helmet) it's on sale! Let's hasten the demise of cold weather for the year!