Snow Ride
January 13th, 2007
There’s a scene in the movie “What It Takes”, where Peter Reid is trying to get a jump on his training for the 2005 Ironman season. And there’s been a “big snow storm” in Vancouver B.C. where he lives. All of the pools are closed so he can’t go swimming, and so he decided to go for a bike ride. He gets on his mountain bike and heads out. As he pulls out of his drive way you see him slipping and sliding barely able to keep balanced. When I watched this scene I thought, “That guy is crazy… he’s just going to hurt himself and not get any kind of a workout!”
So what did I do yesterday? With snow still on the ground in Seattle?
You guessed it… I went for a snow ride!
I know, I know… some one’s going to say this was a bad idea. Hell, that’s what I thought when I saw Peter Reid do it… But truth be told, there wasn’t actually any snow or ice on the roads and trails near my house. The sun had been shining all day, and it was really quite beautiful. Whenever we get a truly beautiful day in Seattle, it’s our obligation to go out and enjoy it.
The snow didn’t show up on the trail until about 2 miles out from my house. And then it was only spots. At around 3miles, it got more dense, and at 4 miles I came on to a patch of the Burke Gilman trail that is surrounded on both sides by a wooded green belt. This section of the trail is consistently shaded, and as a result the trail was covered with compact snow and ice. No worries, I just rolled over to the side of the paved trail… to the dirt trail where the runners run. I had plenty of traction there and was able to keep going without much effort at all.
I wasn’t the only one out there. I saw several runners and walkers. I even passed two other cyclists. I chatted with one other runner and asked if I could take her picture to document that I wasn’t the only crazy out here in this weather.
Anyway, I made it as far out as 6 miles before I decided to turn back. I headed home, past home, another 3.5 miles to the gym, and did a quick legs strength training session. Then rode home 3.5 miles home. I remember why I stopped riding my bike to the gym to do leg strength training sessions… it’s pretty hard to ride home with wobbly legs after squats, lunges, and leg press. I guess I should ride a bike with lower gears if I’m going to do that again.
So, to see my Snow Ride slide show click here.
Entry Filed under: Movies, Living Seattle, Fitness, Triathlon, Documentary, Ironman, Running, Cycling, Marathons, Snow, Strength Training, Peter Reid
4 Comments Add your own
1. philsabin | January 13th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I did a snow ride last year. I didn’t intend to do one, there was just periodic snow patches on the trail. I was using my road bike - skinny tires and all. It really wasn’t that much fun. I may have gotten in some exercise, but I would hardly call it relaxing.
You can keep your snow rides as far as I’m concerned. Although, I haven’t really tried on with my mountain bike…
2. dougtales | January 14th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
For me and my cycling team (Drexel University) we always actually love to get out and do riding when it snows. Thus far, there hasn’t been any snow here in the Philadelphia area. I’m sad. Well, nice thing is that I can ride hills and long routes, so I’m not complaining! I appreciated your comment on my site. Next time I’m out, I think I’ll try riding with both my Polar HRM and my Garmin monitor. I believe you, for sure, but I want to know just how much it’s off!
3. zappoman | January 14th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
By the way Doug, don’t get me wrong. I love my Garmin… I pretty much use it exclusively now days… I only use my polar as a “backup” device on an A-Race that I don’t want to worry about my Garmin konking out on… of if I know the bike will be more than 7.75 hours which is how long the Garmin’s battery seems to last on a single charge. I just think that Garmin’s calorie calculations are off base. They will be too high if I go out and do an easy ride that happens to be fast, and they will be too low on a hard ride that happens to be slow.
Anyway, I pretty much don’t use the calorie readings on either of these devices. I just figure that I need to watch my overall intake of calories (make sure they are nice and balanced from a macro-nutrient perspective, and less than I am craving) and watch my weight over the long run to see if I need to make more macro adjustments.
4. Sekhmet | January 14th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Thanks for ;aving a comment on my blog a while back - sorry it’s taken me a while to getting round to visiting
Wow, snow always looks so pretty then I remember what it was like living with i and how fricken cold and miserable it can be in the winter and thank goodness I live in Australia!!! I don’t now how I’d get my running done otherwise…actually, I’d prolly just use it as an excuse to buy more whizzy winter running gear LOL At least the runner you got a pictue of looks nice and warm…
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