Week 4

Date
January 24, 2017

Distance
100 miles

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Week 4

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Weather

 Ride Video

Ride Report 
I wasn't looking forward to today's ride at all. The forecast was calling for sunshine, but I waited until almost 10:00 to leave and it was still cloudy and cold out there. I figured it was going to be cloudy all day. The weathermen haven't exactly been on a roll lately.

Luckily for me, the sun finally came out and it actually ended up being a nice ride. It was still cold out there, but the sun made it feel warmer than it really was. It just goes to show you that you should always at least get out there and give it a try. You never know what might happen. In the worst case scenario you can at least turn around and go back home. If you're sitting on the couch and the sun is out, what can you do? You'll never get that time back.

That's supposed to be the end of the snow for a while. I'll believe it when I see it. It's supposed to stay cold for a while, which isn't great, but at least if it's not snowing you know you can ride. I know this has been a super big storm and I'm probably overly emotional about this right now, but I'm not so excited to be living in Northern Nevada at the moment. Most of the year is great, but since I'm not into skiing I don't enjoy winter. So let's assume that December, January, and February are bad months to ride. That means that 1/4th of the year is sort of wasted. That's a lot of time if you look at it that way.

Would I be better off somewhere else? There's always the argument that having a bad winter makes you appreciate the summer more. There's probably some merit to that argument. The summers here really are fantastic. I'm always thinking to myself, wouldn't it be great if I could live here during the summer and live somewhere warm during the summer? That's the dream. So far I haven't been smart enough to turn that dream into a reality.

Week 3

Date
January 17, 2017

Distance
100 miles

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Week 3

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Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 
It's been a gloomy January. I did my last century on a Friday and haven't seen the sun in the 3 days since then. That's the bad news. The good news is that at least the roads were clear enough to squeeze in a ride today. I'm still on track. January will be a low month mileage-wise, but hopefully I can get out of it with 4 centuries and without any crashes.

The ride started out foggy, and I didn't even start until about 10:00 AM, which I figured was the latest I could start and still finish in the daylight. Eventually the fog went away and there was even a period of maybe 10 miles or so when the sun was actually shining. The rest of the ride was cloudy and cold.

There's one other positive to take away from the bad weather. I've had a little extra time to do more weightlifting than I normally do. I'm getting better at squatting. Maybe that will pay off in the summer.

Summer Plans Update

I'm flip-flopping a lot on my S-N ride across America. At first I was planning on this route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/17397532

It starts reasonably close to home and finishes close to Kalispell, so I wouldn't have to waste much time traveling to and from the ride. The main problem is Las Vegas. The city itself is fine. I lived there for a little while and there are good routes through the city. The main thing I'm worried about is riding on 93 north of Vegas. It's just a 2-lane road and it doesn't look like there's any shoulder. I might be going to Las Vegas later this year, and if so I might drive a little on 93 to check it out. I made an alternate route through St. George, UT, but that ends up being a little more mileage than I want to do.

I started looking at other options and I came up with this: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18587885

Originally I had this planned out to where I could camp every night and go fully self-supported. I changed my mind on that and this is the credit card tour version. There are definitely some advantages to doing this route. First, I'll get to add a couple more states to my list. Second, I'll get to pass through Eagle Nest, NM again, which was one of my favorite towns along the Petoji route. I don't know why, but I really like the idea of both routes crossing like that. Third, I get to ride near Rapid City, SD. That's been on my list of places where I want to go for quite a while now.

The main issue with this route is the travel time. The start would be right next to an airport, so that part is great. However, there aren't any airports all that close to the finish and I have no idea how I'd get from the finish to the airport. I guess it's not that big of a deal. I just know I would need 1 extra day off for travel.

Any other routes I come up with end up being in the 1600-mile range. I'd rather keep it closer to 1500 if I can. However, if I need an extra day for travel on that second route, why not do 1600 miles in 11 days with no travel days instead of 1500 in 10 days with no full travel days? Maybe I'll start working on something like that. There aren't a lot of airports close to the Canadian border, though. It looks like mainly Kalispell and Vancouver.

I'm not sure why I'm so undecided on this route. When I planned Petoji the route came to me very easily. I guess I was a little more limited in that I knew I needed to start within driving distance of Reno. With this route I can start just about anywhere between San Diego and El Paso. My mind goes a little crazy and I'm always looking for something better. I have my 40 hours of vacation built up and January is almost over, so I need to finally decide on something.

Week 2

Date
January 13, 2017

Distance
100 miles

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Week 2

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Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 
The weather has been terrible all week. There's been rain, flooding, and snow. I haven't had a decent ride since last week's ride, really. I've been riding in the rain/snow on the road on my mountain bike. Even with those rides I was somewhat lucky that there wasn't ice on the roads. It was either rain or snow. Ever since I crashed on the ice in 2014 I don't take any chances with ice.

Which brings me to this week's ride. I was a little nervous about this week. The weather looked good for Friday, but it snowed quite a bit on Thursday, so I wasn't sure there would be enough time for the roads to clear up for me to get my ride in. I ended up driving to Yerington, partially to check out the roads and partially because there's a flat loop there that I figured would have clear roads. I ended up doing 3 loops plus a few extra miles on the side.

It didn't make for the most exciting ride, but since I haven't been able to ride as much as I've wanted lately I was just happy to be out there.

Week 1

Date
January 2, 2017

Distance
102 miles

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Week 1

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Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 
The year is off to a windy start. I did a windy century on the 1st and was hoping to take it easy and do a little mountain biking today. However, the weather forecast changed and there might be some snow tomorrow. What to do, fight the wind on a sunny day or hope to beat the snow on a cloudy day? I decided to go ahead and fight the wind. It's not fun, but at least I knew I'd be able to finish the ride. It may not snow at all tomorrow, but you never know. I wouldn't want to lose the whole year based on a stupid decision during the very first week.

As promised, it was windy. The weather chart above doesn't match what I was feeling out there. It wasn't all that windy to start, but picked up as the day went on. I did 30 miles or so riding back and forth on 395. The wind wasn't all that strong yet and only started to pick up towards the end of that section. Then I headed towards Yerington and it started getting bad. I did the first half in 3 hours, but due to the wind the second half took me more than 4 hours.

The good news is that the sun was out and it didn't feel all that cold. It was a long day, but it could have been worse and at least I was able to get my ride in. At the end of the year that will be the only thing that counts.