Fickle February

You've heard the jokes about having all four seasons in one week, but by golly that really has seemed true this February in Georgia.

Groundhog Day

One of my favorite holidays is Groundhog Day.  I love the ridiculousness of it.  (However, I fear that a lot of Americans really do believe in meteorological marmots but don't think climate change is real.)

For the third year in a row, I went to nearby Dauset Trails to see General Beauregard Lee, Georgia's Official Weather Prognosticator, make this year's prediction.

Beau said we'd have six more weeks of winter.  I was disappointed but not surprised.  It hasn't been a very cold winter.  That doesn't mean we haven't had other notable weather phenomena...

Snow

Middle Georgia has been spared snow thus far this year.  (Yea!)  However, it did snow during the chapter MATHCOUNTS competition in Atlanta on February 8.  Fortunately, it was just enough to be pretty without wreaking havoc on the roads.  I love the contrast of the snow with the early blooms in this photo:

I didn't get to ride on MATHCOUNTS competition day, but I compensated by riding the day before, making Saturday my day off instead of the usual Friday.  Math and cycling are both important.

Early Spring?  Psych!

Four days later was one of those warmish February days.  The daffodils in my planter have been hinting at spring:

That afternoon I did an interval workout.  It was warm enough to ride in shorts and a short-sleeved jersey with no base layer.  But Beau was right; winter is definitely not over.

Cold

It turned cold again for last Saturday's Augusta 300K brevet.  It was in the upper 30s when we started.  Happily, temperatures rose to the 50s by the afternoon.  The sunny, calm day was nice for February.

I really enjoyed the route, which I had ridden only once before, back in 2014.  In fact, that was my first ever 300K!  I had forgotten what a great course it is - beautiful rural roads with very little traffic.  My riding companions were excellent, too: David B., Dick (until he broke a spoke and had to DNF), Graham, Ian, and Jim.

By the way, we had a memorable encounter at the first control, which was a convenience store.  A woman asked, "Are y'all riding for a cause or just for fun?"  I replied, "We're just riding 'cause."

The hardest part was after the sun went down.  Being fatigued after spending all day in the saddle, the nighttime cold seemed even colder.  I finished in about the time I expected (9 hours, 29 minutes), but those last 50 miles felt extra tough.

I drove home with my car heater and seat heat on high.  It felt so good!  Even so, it wasn't until the next afternoon that my body finally didn't have to work so hard to keep up its core temperature.  Of all the adverse conditions I ride in, cold affects me the worst.  Between the Monticello 300K last year and the Augusta 300K this year, I've found that wintertime 300K's are tough!  At least it wasn't raining.  I've decided that out of dark, cold, and rain, I'll ride in a maximum of two of those conditions.

Rain

Rain has definitely been the most prominent weather feature this month.  Robert had to postpone his Bridge to Bridge mountain bike ride, which was supposed to be February 8, the same day I went to the MATHCOUNTS competition.  I hope the river goes down and the trails dry out enough for the rescheduled date, March 7.

Robert has been paying particular attention to the flow rate of the Ocmulgee River the last few months.  He does trail work by the river as often as he can, and he's been trying to determine the flow rate that makes the river overtop its banks.  Using USGS data from their website, he knows the Ocmulgee is definitely out of its banks when the flow is greater than 10,000 cfs.  This has already happened three times this year.  This ain't normal, y'all.

Here are data from the current flood.  We hadn't returned to normal flow following the second flood event before this third one occurred:

I much prefer riding outside, but sometimes Zwift is a welcome option.  It's very unusual for me to ride Zwift more than once in a single week, but today I'm looking at my third Zwift ride this week!

Velo Love

Regardless of the weather, we still got to celebrate love on Valentine's Day.  My gift to Robert is one that I get to use, too - the best kind!

I served us a tapas-style Valentine feast of cheese (on this plate!), crackers, wine, mixed green salad, fancy olives, rosemary cashews, and homemade truffles.

February has been fickle, but my love for cycling (and Robert!) isn't.