Seems like this year in North Carolina has had more than its share of cold weather this year — including several bouts of snow and ice. Granted, not a ton of accumulation, but enough to force most of us indoors for our workouts. Active.com has done a great roundup of seven ways to make it through the winter.

7 Tips to Ride Through Winter

As the days get shorter, and the temperature cooler, it’s time to break out the layers of clothes for riding in the saddle. Over the seasons of riding and racing, I’ve acquired quite the collection of bib shorts, jerseys and socks. But to this day, the cool to cold weather clothing is still pretty thin. I’ve got a single pair of bib tights, a set of arm warmers, a set leg warmers and a set of arm warmers. I’ve got a couple base layer tops, some heavier socks and a couple long-sleeved tops/jerseys of varying materials, but it still pales in comparison to the warm weather riding collection.

I was trying to figure out why there’s such a discrepancy, and it really comes down to a couple of obvious reasons:

• Frequency - Riding in the summer just happens more often for a number of reasons — longer days mean more opportunity on any given day, warmer temperatures mean more motivation and liklihood of riding on a regular basis.
• Cost – Cool and cold weather riding means layers, which means more pieces of clothes to buy. Even if each individual piece of clothing isn’t expensive (ha), there’s still more pieces, which add up.
• Teams - Another reason for fewer clothes to wear in the winter has to do with another “duh”reason. Being part of a team, you’re required to buy a new jersey annually to support the newest set of sponsors and show off the newest designed kits. But those kits are pricey. Most people sink their money into a kit or pieces they’re going to use for racing. The racing calendars are usually pretty barren during the winter, so most only sink cash into the warm weather gear.

So central North Carolina got its annual one snowfall this weekend to the tune of about 6 inches here at the Keefers’ abode. Last year, we got a similar amount just a few weeks earlier in January. Being born in Pennsylvania and growing up in the early teens in Baltimore, it’s still funny to see how poorly the roads are taken care of here. It’s hard not to laugh. Anyway, our hilly neighborhood is at an even bigger disadvantage — the roads have yet to be finished with their final grading, meaning manhole covers, water main access, etc. continue to protrude higher than the rest. This means a snow plow could never plow our neighborhood streets.

But as it turns out, it doesn’t really matter.

A few brave SUV’s ventured out of the neighborhood successfully, but for the most part, the streets are pretty quiet, as drivers intelligently made it a stay-in weekend. Amanda had a prescription that she needed at the local drug store, but I felt none too comfortable about us taking either of our cars out onto the streets. So instead, I decided to give the mountain bike a try, and it was a pretty successful round trip.

Every time I take to the mountain bike, I’m reminded of just how much of a roadie I am. I like my light frame, with its skinny tires, but the ever-changing combination of ice, slush and snow was no place for a road bike. It was immediately apparent that clipping into both pedals was too much for me, after toppling once on a transition from sun to shade and simultaneous snow to ice. So for the majority of the remainder, I kept the left clipped and the right free.

While the ice left little traction, I found that the bike handled better on that, than getting bogged down in the softer and crunchier snow. Stopping was also more trouble than it was worth, as getting the back wheel going again was a chore.

As I slowly made it up and over the hills of our neighborhood, I realized that the secondary roads that surround our house weren’t a lick better. Now, a few minutes ago I took out the trash (which probably won’t even get picked up tomorrow), and all that slush and melty snow is a shiny, cold and icy mess. Tomorrow morning will no doubt be worse than the midday conditions I rode today.

I’m glad I safely was able to get Amanda’s meds via mountain bike, and was quite satisfied with getting a ride in — granted it was nowhere near the speed, the distance or workout of my normal rides, it still got the heart rate up and the sweat glands going. I’ll probably venture out tomorrow late morning on a similar route to scout road conditions to see if an attempt to go into work is merited. I know first thing in the morning isn’t going to work, and I’m highly doubtful tomorrow’s similarly cold temps are going to allow for a safe trip to and from. There’s a legitimate reason why all the local area schools are closed and many businesses and services are likewise. I-40 and some of the major roads may already be just fine, but we’re a long way from any of those and all the roads in between look to be pretty damn crappy. Once again tomorrow, a bike ride may be the only safe way to get any distance away from the house. We shall see.

Every web-surfing cyclist should already have BikeHugger bookmarked or follow their RSS feed, but for those of you who don’t, or just haven’t frequented the site today.

Here’s a post about hot weather riding, which a ton of cyclists can take advantage this time of year — even Oregon and Washington state with their recent record-breaking heat wave.

Hot Weather Riding Tips

It’s a North Carolina tradition around this time of the year – the nasty dusty coating of yellow pollen. It gets anywhere and everywhere. Cars magically have a duller and different tint to them this time of year. Even during the Tri-Cyclists training ride yesterday, my Garmin GPS even had yellow particles building on it.

We had the windows open late this afternoon, to air out the house, along with assisting in drying the freshly shampooed carpet. Now, despite the cleaning we did earlier in the day, we’ve not got a new layer of dust – of the yellow type all over the place. The window screens need a finer mesh to keep the pollen outside.

So on the heels of last night’s wining regarding my current cycling struggles, I was in the gym first thing this morning doing hugh reps, low weight to tone muscle mass and work more on endurance. Unfortunately, an after work ride was hindered by more rainfall. I was on the trainer instead. Bleh!

I’m not trying to mske any mistake, but it has been frustrating, boring and slightly boring clipping into the trainer for so many workouts cause of all the rain. It’s also reduced my available bike commuting days.

It’s unfortunate too that the damn rain keeps hitting strategically on weekends – the days when we cyclists get our longest rides in.

Anyeay, here’s to drier and warmer days in the coming weeks and months.

I really don’t know if it’s just because we already have sprung forward, if it’s the indecisive weather patterns or just being completely swamped at work, but here it is 8:45pm and I’m completely exhausted.

I doubt it’s the time change. Usually, after the springing forward, the later sunset is a bit energizing to me. Plus, I’ve started back bike commuting – also energizing and satisfying.

The swinging and indecisive temperatures and weather in general shouldn’t be my tiredness’ culprit. This happens every spring and autumn and usually doesn’t affect my senses. Sure it’s annoying when one day’s low temp is the next day’s high.

I’m almost sure it’s not work. Adding back my bicycle commutes tends to start my days out right, and flush the stress out on the way back home.

Maybe I’m just tired.

With the early time change less than a week away, it was a little strange to see snow in the forecast early here in March. Such is the weather in central North Carolina. Throughout Fall, Winter and Spring, it’s not uncommon to see temperature fluctuations day to day and week to week. Several years, I’ve biked in shorts on Christmas.

It has become more and more of a rarity for this area of North Carolina to see any snow, especially this late into the season. We just got through a dreary weekend of rain, more rain, with temperatures just above freezing. Late Sunday night, and into early Monday morning, the precipitation turned from cold rain to snow flakes, eventually starting to cover the lawns and streets of our neighborhood.

Upon waking up early the next morning, we had about 4 inches of snow, covering everything, but it was obvious that the snow wouldn’t last, nor were the morning conditions going to merit working from home.

Driving to work with the four wheel drive engaged, the roads were only snow covered and slippery in the back roads in and around our neighborhood. Once we hit the main roads and the highways, everything was just wet, save a few spots such as bridges and the like.

That being said, I was amazed at the number of cars off the road and the accidents visible throughout my 40 minute commute to work. It seems a lot of people in this area either don’t compensate at all for the weather conditions, or tend to overcompensate. Like everything else, moderation driving in snowy and icy conditions is really key.

I was happy that this winter Amanda got to see several snow accumulations, and even her parents from Florida were able to see and experience a snowfall up here. That being said, this early March snow is likely to be the last snow we’ll see til next winter. Temperatures are expected to be in the 60′s then 70′s later in the week. I’ve been itching to start bike commutes back up. Just a few days after snow covered the streets, I’ll be flying down them on my steel-framed bike. Who knows though. While temps will be warming as the week progresses, they could plummet the following week. We’ve already seen it the past couple seasons, and it happens every year. If you don’t like the weather in central North Carolina, just wait a week.

So it’s been a crazy 24 hours here. It all started last night, taking the mother in-law out for her birthday to the locally well-known, Angus Barn, for a good and over-filling dinner. Everything was delicious and we got to tour their large wine cellar afterward.

The real shocker of the night though came when we returned back home to find our beloved Beagle, Bongo had trashed the downstairs, getting into a canister of cocoa that we had procured the previous day at A Southern Season. Bongo got up on the dining room table, and went through Amanda’s purse and devoured that whole cocoa, staining our carpet in like 10 places.

Needless to say, Bongo was sick as.. well a dog as the night drew on. He ended up throwing up twice and had to go outside more times than I can count. He was completely restless and neither Amanda, nor I got much sleep at all. I’m yawning as I write this.

To top it all off, North Carolina got a rare little accumulation of snow. I got to watch the snow fall and eventual start sticking as the night wore on, as I let the Beagle out over the course of the night (and into the morning hours). As I write this, we’re sitting at around five inches or so around the house. But that complicated getting Bongo to the vet, though we did thanks to the four wheel drive of the 4Runner, we got him there early this morning and he was put on an I.V. all day. We picked him up late this afternoon and he seems to be back to normal, but we’ll be monitoring him to make sure.

Besides that stress, it’s been rather nice having a little winter weather here in North Carolina.

One thing I love about North Carolina, and hate at the same time are the wishy washy season transitions.

A few short weeks ago, the beginning of a group ride I did in downtown Durham left us all frozen on the downtown ups and downs. Granted, by the end of the ride, we had all shed layers and it ended up being a very comfortable, if not crisp autumn Saturday.

Yesterday, was much the same, with my group ride with the Gyros starting out a bit cool, but warming up to a fairly comfortable, yet still on the chilly side. I had a long-sleeved base layer with a thermal long sleeve jersey over top of it, along with tights, doubled-up socks and toe warmers. I had long-fingered gloves and a fleece head covering under my helmet.

Fast forward to my solo ride this morning and the layers were all shed – back to regular race gloves, short sleeves and bib shorts. Today’s afternoon solo 24+ mile ride of the roads near our home started with 65 degree temps and an hour later, the temperature hadn’t changed a bit. The only time I felt any chill at all was crossing over Falls Lake at near 30 miles per hour.

It’s technically the off season right now, where outdoor riding tapers off, but I’ve signed up for a race two days after Christmas for when we’re down in Orlando for Christmas. Speaking of Christmases, just a few years ago, I was even comfortably cycling in shorts and a short-sleeved cycling jersey on the Durham section of the American Tobacco Trail – we’re talking December 25th!

On top of just seeing family, I look forward to the warmer Florida weather to cycle in, but now and then, the central North Carolina winters still throw us cyclists a bone.