Training for PALM: March

As I mentioned previously, my goal is to start riding three times a week, to start at 20 miles, and to work my up to be able to do 50 miles on one of the rides. You may ask, how is it coming along? Not so good. I rode only three times in March, each for 20 miles. Not very impressive if you remember how much warm weather we've had. (I consider anything over 50 degrees warm enough to ride.)

We're still at the point where we can't pick the days we want to ride, we have to ride on the days that we are allowed to ride. I do a Tuesday night ride with a group of friends all through the summer. We bike by old Tiger Stadium, Mexican Town, the Ambassador Bridge, Renaissance Center, Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and Wayne State. I never plan riding based on the weather forecast. I won't start riding if its raining, but it's got to be raining first. Last Tuesday it was supposed to rain but it wasn't raining when left work to drive down to meet my friends. Then it started to sprinkle. Well, in Michigan it can sprinkle and stop so I kept on going. Then it started to pour. In Michigan when it rains hard, it doesn't rain long so I kept on going. Then it started to mix hail with the rain. It was so loud in my car I thought I was going to have stop under a bridge. In Detroit all the expressways are built in ditches so that stopping wasn't going to be a good idea, so I kept going. It didn't do any good. It rained until dark and we couldn't ride. The thing was Monday was a beautiful day. It was in the 70's and the sun was shining. I should have biked then. I forgot that this time of year I don't get to chose which day to bike on. As I'm writing this, the sun has come out. The forecast is for rain. I'm going to go out riding right now. Get it while you can.

Registration update: I sent out a new batch of confirmation letters. We have 729 people registered so far with 22 more still to be registered when the problems with their applications are resolved. Our cutoff date this year was March 1 so it's taken a whole month to get caught up. Thank you for your patience.