Two Wheel Blogs

Being sick is never fun, except maybe for the part about laying around the house and taking it easy and maybe even getting waited on. Even that gets old after a while though.

I'm happy to report that today I think I'm feeling a little bit better. This junk isn't gone completely, but I think it's good enough that I might be able to get back on and do a little riding.

I'm sure going to take it really easy, but it would be nice if once I got going I really felt good. I'll find out this afternoon.

Some guys on the team are headed out for a couple hours' ride this morning. They're in for a cold and wet experience. I just saw the first snow flurries of the season a minute ago.

I wish I could wimp out of it. That would be better than spending the day cooped up aching with a cold. Yep, it's the full-on business travel experience for me.

So at least I won't be missing the team ride this morning because I'm a wimp.

This time of year is bad for me. The end of the season and the beginning of a new fiscal year at work coincide. I get turned all upside down as a result.

What I'd really like to be doing this time of year is just riding. Nothing too structured and nothing too intense. Throw down a little when I feel like it and back off when I don't. Log some miles and burn some calories. Keep an edge on fitness and keep an edge off my attitude.

Too bad for me I don't get what I want. The fiscal year kicks off and so does travel. So riding for fun and profit gets kicked to the curb. Worse, travel means late nights, early mornings, unstructured and wholly unhealthy meals.

I got home at 1 AM this morning. Late flight. Shot the week for me. I'm ready for a travel freeze.

I had great hopes of getting out for a quick ride sometime today. As I walked out the door, rake in hand, it really felt like a great day for a ride. Temperatures never made it out of the mid 40's and we never saw the sun, but for some reason it did not feel very cold.

It didn't seem like it would take all that long to rake the leaves and haul them away. There were a lot more of them than I thought and my little 1 hour raking project ended up taking more than three. Thankfully I at least got to see my work finished before the sun set.

A bit cool. That's an understatement. I think it took me an hour to stop shivering. That's certain to be our last aero test session of the year down at the Centaur Rd. wind tunnel. According to reports from the nearby airport's weather station the temperature at start time was 48.0 °F / 8.9 °C. Andy's hand held weather station said it was even a bit cooler in the tunnel. By the time we'd finished it had only warmed up a couple of degrees. This is definitely not weather for skinny guys in skin suits.

I wish I'd had my camera along for yesterday's ride. The colors were astounding in the bright afternoon sunshine. Then again, I might not have stopped much to capture them anyway.

Despite the warm sun it was actually quite chilly. The wind didn't help much, blowing at near 30 mph and gusting to around 40. Stopping to take a picture or two might have been uncomfortable. I still only wore summer kit, though this time out I took along a wind vest.

The vest came along only for the ride in my jersey pocket. I wasn't about to stop to put it on, even if I had really needed it, because I was having one of those no-chain days we all know and love.