Week 52

Date
December 27th, 2012

Distance
100 Miles

Time
6:37:41

Route Map/Profile

Sparks to Pyramid Lake and back

Weather

Picture

Pyramid Lake with some snow

Ride Report
I felt like going to Death Valley, but I decided I should stay in Reno and earn that final week fair and square. It was snowy and cold, but after the first hour or so the snow began to melt off of the roads. As usual, things could have been a lot worse.

So there it is- mission accomplished. I wish I could say I felt a huge sense of accomplishment after the ride was over, but the truth is that I was more happy to get in out of the cold than anything. I might need a little more time to reflect. A few years ago when the thought of doing a century every week crossed my mind, the next thought was, "It sounds like fun, but I could never do that." Yet here I am, and this isn't the first time that I've reached a bike-related goal that I had previously believed was impossible. Now if I could only cross this over to non-bike-related goals, I'd be all set.

Week 51

Date
December 19th, 2012

Distance
100 Miles

Time
6:41:15

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

395- The snow made it down to about 5,000 feet.

Ride Report
This was the same route as week 48. Temps were low, but the sun was out most of the day and there wasn't much wind, so it could have been much worse.

Week 50

Date
December 13th, 2012

Distance
100 Miles

Time
6:23:40

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

Fresh snow in the mountains (from Washoe Lake)

Ride Report
It's cold out there, but there hasn't been any real snow in the valley that has affected riding. I can already feel the winter slowness creeping in (Icebike has a good list of reasons why we're slower in winter.). Today was the first day that I had to break out the Pearl Izumi AmFIBs, which is the true indication of winter riding for me.

It's hard to believe there are only 2 weeks left. Let's hope there aren't any major snow storms coming in the next 2 weeks.

Week 49

Date
December 6th, 2012

Distance
100 Miles

Time
6:11:48

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

Morning fog

Ride Report
We've had a lot of rain lately (I know you love to hear a guy who lives in Nevada complain about rain.), but today there was fog. The fog is actually fun to ride in and by the end of the day it was sunny and clear out there. Best of all, there wasn't any wind to worry about.

Week 48

Date
November 28th, 2012

Distance
100 Miles

Time
6:09:06

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

Storm blowing in

Ride Report
A storm was blowing in, bringing high winds and rain. I decided to try to cheat by starting early, heading into the wind, and hoping for a good tailwind on the way back. The plan almost worked except that I had a lot of crosswind to deal with and the rain hit me on the second half of the ride. 40 degrees plus rain is a bad combination and I was nice and cold by the time I made it back home. The good news is that the wind got much worse over the next few days, so at least I was able to avoid one of those miserable 7-8 hour fights with the wind. My little 11-mile commutes home into the wind were bad enough.

Week 47

Date
November 23rd, 2012

Distance
101 Miles

Time
6:14:33

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

Ride Report
Forget Black Friday. Today was Bike Friday.