Friday, March 23, 2018

Spring

It seems that bike season is officially here. Looking at March, I've done quite a few miles and a lot of riding in groups. Actually, only 3 solo rides for the month and they were all the first week. Two weeks ago we had the first weekend rides, and last week we started up MBW Monday and Wednesday Worlds. Next weekend is the Polson Speedwagon race, then a few weeks later the Montana Gravel Challenge, which is basically the hell ride and roubaix combined into one event. Then in May we are putting on a road race, possibly a multiple day thing that will use the old Bearmouth course and possibly have a hill climb and crit/circuit race as well.

So I'd better keep up the riding and cut back on the beer and junk food because that's a lot of racing coming up fast.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks








Monday, March 19, 2018

Winter

It's starting to look like spring out there after another pretty long winter. It can be a little hard to stay in shape over the winter in Montana, as the cold, snow, and dark all conspire to keep you on the couch with a tasty local beer. While the couch and beer are appealing, and it is nice to have a bit of a winter break, I don't want to spend too much time sitting around getting fat and out of shape.

With thoughts of springtime bike maintenance, upgrades, and new equipment in mind I tried to keep my winter time expenditures to a minimum, so no, I still don't have a fat bike or a fancy backcountry ski setup. Or even XC skis. Those things would do a much better job at keeping me active during the winter as riding on a trainer is really not very fun. I did at least managed to stay a little active. After an early november snowstorm the roads cleared up and I manged to get a good amount of riding in during november and december. Then around mid-January things cleared up a bit, and despite being a little cold I got in a few more miles in Jan-Feb.