I looked out the window, yesterday, and saw some little birds flying around my trees. It took about two seconds for me to realize that I hadn’t seen birds for a couple of months. It has been too cold and snowy, and I don’t feed them so there is no reason for them to hang around.

The thermometer reached 38°F, today, and I saw the little birds, again. It is a repeat of yesterday. Over the last few days, snow has been melting. It has been crashing off of my metal roof. It has taken on the brown color of the sand used to give us traction on our roads. It is really kind of gross if you think about it. Thinking about it is exactly what I did.

Really, what else would a girl like me do on a sloppy, dirty day? It didn’t take too long to figure it out. I ran upstairs, grabbed a bandana, and fit it to my head. I grabbed a base layer shirt, cycling jersey, cycling shorts, ski pants, cycling socks, and a windbreaker. Then, I searched for all of my can’t-ride-withouts: multi-tool, tire levers, spare tube, pump, cell phone (turned off), and two water bottles. I was prepared. Now, it was time to prepare Jake.

I went out to my porch (screened-in with a roof) and pulled Jake out of a corner. I gently leaned him up against a chair and lubed his chain. The cyclocross tires were already on, so I pumped them up to 50 psi (minimum for those tires). As a finishing touch, I added a second water bottle cage. Everything was set.

Jake and I began our ride with a hike-a-bike along my driveway. The thick, slushy mess was too much for Jake’s narrow tires. Once we reached the end of the driveway (1/4 mile), I mounted my trusty bike and headed out for a rather enthusiastic ride. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t ridden my bike since mid-December. I thought a small, ~22-mile loop wouldn’t be that bad, and I expected it to take about 90 minutes – enough time to ride, shower, and get to class.

The biggest decision I had to make was which way to go on this loop. There is a stretch along Lake Superior, and it is sandwiched by two roads that descend to the lake. Naturally, I would have to climb one of these roads, but which one? One of the roads has a couple of small uphills on the way down to the lake, so I would coast-climb-coast-climb. The other one has no hill changes except steep versus not-so-steep. It is the latter road that I chose to climb away from the lake. Just to give you some perspective, this road is a 2-mile climb. Yeah, I was feeling a bit confident.

By the time I reached the top of the climb, I was ready for home. My stomach was starting to nag me for food. I headed back down the hill via the second road, mostly descending with a little easy climbing. I had a little fun trying to sprint on the descents and reached 30 mph at one point. Once I reached the bottom, I hit the home stretch. It was time to climb back to my house. Yes, it is uphill almost the whole way.

I made it home, safely, and quickly got some food. I was a little surprised to find that my 90-minute, 22-mile ride was actually a 2.5 hour, 24.3 mile ride. That’s not too shabby. Unfortunately, I missed my first two classes and had to rush to make it to the third. All-in-all, it turned out to be a great day, and I got to ride my bike. You really can’t ask for much more than that.