Happy New Year! Weekend Plans -Saturday Time change to 11.

Yeah it's cold, but it's Nebraska in January whatcha gonna do? Some of us are planning to ride at Manawa at 10:00 a.m. The temps don't look like they will vary much tomorrow so get your ride in early and settle in for a day of bowl games (or video games for you dorks). Bring either MTB or cross bike. I rode Manawa today and the trails are in good shape for some winter hours.

As for Sunday, it looks like Mr. Freeze is going to cut us a little slack. Planning on leaving at 11:30 again this week exact route to be determined at ride time.

Man that was fun.

As everyone saw the temp forecast for today, the tweets and such started to fly. Plan was, meet at Wohlners (3 blocks from my house) at 1pm. I got a little busy with stuff during the morning and at 12:20 decided I could fender-ize my Lemond and join the fun. Well, one flat tire later, I was late to the meeting spot. Luckily, Eric O had run behind also. So Eric and I took it easy down the trail and did pretty much the exact route that we would've done had we been 5 minutes earlier.

It was fricken 59° at the start and quickly rose to 65° mid ride. Of course, once we turned North, the wind had to change also and became a much colder NW wind. Eric and I skirted Northish so we could part ways at Happy Hollow.

The ride was just right; not too fast, but a couple surges to get some exercise. I have no idea how I felt so good since it's seriously been months since my last outdoor road ride. Turns out the fenders were nearly unnecessary as there were only a couple puddles on the trail. But soon, that will all change. This weekend is looking ugly with temps only in the teens for Saturday and may 20 for Sunday. I usually don't head out for more than an hour if it's below 25 outside. Just isn't that fun and a better workout could be had on the trainer instead. Which may or may not happen. I do need to lose some winter cheer weight.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and enjoys (but not too much) their New Year's celebration.

Last weekend's rides were nice, due to the holiday we'll skip this Saturday's ride and move Sunday's start time back to 11:30.

Sunday's Plan: Leaving from 5224 Lake Forest, Papillion at 11:30, doing the normal route with extenders if needed. Back around 2:30ish. Free Beer after compliments of Steel Cut Oats (Brady Murphy). Plan on 3+ hours of ride time.

Looks Like Gravel Season is Upon Us.

So, it's that time of year again and I hear the gravel calling my name. I'll be back on Thursday to post a couple of weekend epics. Thinking of leaving from the Bob on Saturday (mostly flat) and somewhere on the South side (mostly hilly) on Sunday.

Let's Plan on Meeting on the West side of the Bob on Saturday 10 a.m. Based on the forecast we'll probably head North on the CB side and pick up gravel near the end of the bike path.

Sunday's Plan: Leaving from 5224 Lake Forest, Papillion at 11:00, doing the normal route with extenders if needed. Back around 2ish. Free Beer after compliments of Steel Cut Oats (Brady Murphy).

I'd like to give all the sheep of the world some love

Wait, that sounded bad.

-4° on the ride into work = need for warm clothing. Enter: Sheep hair, aka wool.

If you don't have any mid to high quality wool clothing, I highly recommend it. I have 3 wool shirts that go on in layers depending on the temps - 2 Smartwool long sleeve base layers (one lighter and one heavier) and a regular cheap-ish wool sweatshirt. The wool sweatshirt is of lower quality, so it itches like crazy against the skin. I only bust that out when it's cold enough to warrant 2 layers of long sleevedness; like this morning. I add a cycling vest in between the layers for wind block since wool, by itself, isn't that great at keeping the drafts off my skin.

I'll wear 1 to 2 of these wool shirts all through the week, then wash whichever ones get stinky. Usually, that's only the base layer if I've worn it every day and had a couple warmish rides in there too. There's no way technical fabric base layers could handle that washing schedule. Or rather, no way I (and my I, I mean my nose) could stand being around it for more than 2 days, max. I have mentioned before, that my manly smell can be quite formidable. Wool somehow doesn't hold in as much funk as newer technical fabric. Not sure how it works, but I'll take it. It's much better than going through 5 tech fabric shirts all week and having a pile of stinky laundry by the weekend. Plus it could be cheaper, depending on how much you'd spend on the tech fabrics, versus how cheap you can find your wool. I like to hit up Canfield's sales in Fall for Summer stuff and Spring for Winter stuff.

When the temp drops and whisks away your wharmth, I whole wheartedly recommend you whear your whool. Cool Whip.