Bikes on Ice

Time of departure: 7:00am
Return: 8:30am
Sunrise: 6:37AM
Sunset: 5:32PM
Phase of the moon: Waxing crescent, 31% illuminated, rises at 9:00am

Temperature: 34F
Wind Chill: 26F
Dew Point: 23F
Lake Temp: 34F

Route: Mostly the usual lakefront route with adjustments made for ICE, water, and piles of snow.
Approx Distance: ~6 miles. What is with this sport that it takes 5 miles to feel warmed up?!??? That’s why people think they don’t like running, they’ve just never run long enough to get into the groove. :) It takes patience.
Running buddy: Matt
Clothing: Regular cold weather wear (RCW). Not extreme. Shoes, low socks (still haven’t done that laundry) but it’s warm enough for low socks, army pants (could probably switch to a lighter weight legging anytime now), lakefront 10-miler sweat wicker (my neon one is too rank), t-shirt, purple windbreaker, no gator (if you can believe that, I actually left the gator at home), hat, knit gloves.

The Drive Activity: Hmm…
Xmas tree pile: 3 inhalations of pine scent
Dog beach Activity: 3 people. They probably had some dogs with them.
People tally:

9 Walkers
18 Runners. I counted 18, then I got distracted. I’m not sure I saw more or not...
26 Cyclists
11 Dog walkers
1 Trash collector
1 Snow mover
1 Stander/Map reader
And
2 ice skaters sans metal blades (that would be us!)

Here’s my recommendation for biking on ice based on what we saw:
Stay calm. Don’t steer. Don’t brake. Fighting precarious situations will put you on your back, so just go with the flow. Lower your center of gravity. Be humble. Hot shot attitudes will only lead to more falls.

________________________________

I woke up from a Mary-Is-A-Hero Dream. A boy had fallen down a well and the bunch of men standing around him couldn’t figure out how to get him out. Basically, I walked up, took control of the situation, calmed the kid down, and orchestrated a way to get the boy out of the well. I haven’t had a Mary-Is-A-Hero dream in a long time! It felt good. They often seem to involve me climbing up or down ropes. Maybe I need to start climbing.

So it was 6:44am when I rolled out of bed. I washed my face with my super-duper exfoliating, tourmaline charged Aveda face wash. If you, reader, have never used it…well, you’re missing out. It is some fancy face wash that makes one‘s skin pretty happy. I brushed my teeth with my recycled toothbrush in the usual little circles, paying particular attention to my gum line. I got dressed as I described above, poured some organic Trader Joe’s orange juice down my throat, munched a date or two, and was still stuffing down half of a banana when I got outside and shook out my legs. It was 7:00am.

Do you see why morning runs can be sluggish? Sixteen minutes prior I had been saving little boys from deep wells. My muscles had been blissfully at sleep. And now I was asking them to, well, you know, RUN! That’s a big change in tempo.

So, yea, this was an example of a non-linear progression run. Not that it was bad, or anything, it just started off as more of a jog. But that’s fine, and after 5 miles, I was warmed up and ready to run!

Two things made this run memorable, and I’ll talk about at least one of them. It was icy. And I know you’re thinking, yea, it’s winter, there is ice. But this was eXtreme iCe. The temperature had risen significantly yesterday and so most of all those inches of snow had melted. Which means water. And then the temperature dropped over night. Which means frozen water. Which means ice rinks on the bike path.

The place where Matt and I stretch was just adjacent to one of these ice rinks. It’s at the bottom of a gentle incline and also a turn in the bike path. Bicyclist #2 (in the count) came down this gentle incline, onto the ice rink, and his bike promptly slid out from under him. Shit! he exclaimed, and pounded the ground with his fist. Matt and I called out to him, asking him if he was alright and started to move towards him. But he got up and seemed more furious than injured. In his tumble, his toe cage had come off his right pedal. He picked up it up and angrily threw it into the snow. This is an example of a hot shot attitude. He fussed around a bit, acting angry. He we still on the ice when Cyclist #3 came along.

She seemed to understand that this guy had fallen on the ice and so was braking to slow on down. The problem? She was already ON the ice. You can’t brake on ice. So she went down. And it wasn’t pretty. She fell flat on her back. Her backpack possibly cushioned her fall, but it was one of those falls that kind of hurt to just watch. She got up and decided to walk her bike off the ice. A good idea, right? Well, yes, I would think so, except when you’re wearing biking shoes. They don’t provide any traction. So she went down again, this time falling ON her bike rear wheel. Major bummer. At this point, I think this scene is reminding Matt and me of this video we had watched a week ago.

The both of them continued to fuss with their bikes. He seemed to find his handlebar to be bent, and her wheel looked as though it was rubbing against her brake pads. They both decided the path was too treacherous and headed for the road, he still with his punk ass attitude, and she with an unsightly limp.

When Cyclist #4 crossed the ice rink, he did it right. He didn’t brake and didn’t turn. He rode straight across the ice to the side of the path where it was snowy and gravelly and there was traction, then he changed direction.

Kudos to all you hardcore all-weather cyclists out there!