Winter has Arrived...

Around six inches of snow has fallen in the last week. There's enough (barely enough) so that I did a little snowshoeing at the park on Monday. The cross country skiers have been out too, although, a bit more snow would really improve things for them. The photo above is almost from the same location as the photo from January 13th. North winds and cold temperatures have resulted in lake ice. There's still plenty of open water away from shore which means we could still get significant lake-effect snow if the wind is out of the North. The beach is frozen and snow free. A wonderful place for a morning run!

Oh yeah, we got some snow...

January 17, 2007-Trail #7 at the Dunes State Park

Trail Running Series

I've been on the fringe of the planning for a little trail running series in dune country. The XYZ Race Series will join some existing races with a couple of new races throughout the year. It should be a good time.

Calm Before the Storm?

The weather-people are promising snow, sleet and freezing rain for this weekend so I put the serious looking snow tires (Nokian Extreme 120's) I picked up awhile back on the commuter bike. I've got this good deal from the running shoe store where I work a few hours a week so I didn't have to pay retail. Now I may actually get a chance to try them out! The lake had those slow low-roar waves breaking on the beach this morning when I was out there for a run. With no lake ice, any storm has the potential to seriously erode the beach. I saw water marks within feet of the dune grass and the wind was not really blowing that hard yet. The last predicted storm was a dud. There's only been a trace of snow at the park all winter so far. Oh, if you look real closely you can make out some of the Chicago skyline in the distance.

Bike Commuting #5

I have had 13 more round trips to work since I lasted posted. That's another 325 miles. My total for the year is 1650 miles. I haven't figured the cost savings for the last 600 miles. Using the cost per gallon of gas as $2.25 (it's been right around this price since I last figured cost savings), that's another $54.00 in savings. My total for the year is $160.30. Of course I've spent more than this for bike stuff!

Down but not Out

I fell down while bike commuting home about a week ago. I'm sure many of the skeptics at work and elsewhere had a moment of satisfaction-"You do something crazy (by local standards) and that's what you get". Here's how it happened:
I'm heading north on Campbell Road, it's dark, and I'm beyond the streetlights of Valparaiso. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I get to this point in the ride. I've got one more tricky section-a left turn from Campbell Road on to 550 North. I say tricky because I pull off to the right and slow down to check behind me rather than get out into the northbound traffic. I'm not too confident that oncoming cars will stop for me if I'm out in the northbound lane. There's lots of traffic in both directions this night. When I look at the oncoming car it takes a moment to refocus on the dark pavement below me when I look down to see where I am. My headlight is pretty useless in these conditions-it's meant to illuminate the road in front of me not below me. Well as I'm easing to the right I guess I eased a little too far and went completely off the road. In some spots this would not be too big a deal but there's maybe a 4-6 inch drop where I am. Oh, and when I feel myself going off the road, I jam on the front brakes! You guessed it, over the handlebars I go. I wind up mostly off the road, twisted around and my feet still in my toeclips! I get up quickly and move completely off the road. My left calf muscle has knotted up and is now a throbbing ball about four inches below my knee. Apparently the fall has aggravated an Achilles injury I have been struggling with for a couple of months. At the moment I only want to remount my bike and get across the road to the county road on the other side. I can't swing my leg over the bike (I'm a left footed swinger) so I'm compelled to lay the bike almost sideways to get my foot over the bar. Once I do this I am still obliged to wait for traffic to clear. It seems like I've never seen this much traffic at this location. I eventually make it across the road. The first pedal strokes do nothing but confirm that I've done some damage to myself, but the bike seems okay. A week later, I can cycle comfortably but my running is still a problem. I'm working on another route home so I can cut out this turn (I'll go west at the light a mile south of this turn) and I've been looking at new lighting.

Merry Christmas

It's a gray snow less Christmas Day. We've really not had any snow worth talking about yet, however, we continue to get regular periods of fairly heavy (for around here anyway) rain. I decided to post a photo I took a couple of days ago at the dunes. You can see Dunes Creek in the center of the picture. The water was gushing out into the lake from our latest rains. The road from my house (Waverly Road and State Park Road) to the state park was flooded in a couple of spots. Dunes Creek drains all of the marshy areas south of the beach including the areas along these roads.