Turtle!

Cycling, like many other sports, has its own set of rules and etiquette that every rider is expected to follow. There are of course the rules of the road that are designed to keep a cyclist safe while "sharing" the road with motorists. Then there are the rules for riding safely with other cyclists which I must admit I am still learning. The cardinal rule when riding in a group is this: never do anything suddenly! Riders will use hand signals and vocal commands to alert other riders in the group about auto traffic, potholes, road kill, etc. It's common to hear someone shout "car back!" as a car approaches the group or "stop!" as the group approaches a stop sign.

OK, so here I am the newbie cycling in the middle of a pack of fifty riders at the Waterford track last Tuesday. We're speeding around the track at about twenty-two miles per hour when I hear someone shout "turtle!". Turtle? What the hell does "turtle" mean? Am I supposed to pull in my arms and legs? Is this some new formation that I haven't been taught? Well, none of the above; instead, a rather large turtle had decided to walk across the track and someone at the front of the pack yelled out "turtle" when he spotted the eight inch reptile in the middle of the track. Cyclists swerved and I was almost on top of the hard-shelled road hazard before I realized what it was and that hitting it was sure to bring me into painful contact with the pavement. Luckily, the little guy had decided to "go turtle" and sit motionless as I veered to the right missing him by just a few inches.

So now I'm a little bit smarter about riding in a group. "Car back" means a car is coming, "stop" means there is a stop sign ahead, and "turtle" literally means turtle.

Spring is Here!

I think anyone who spent the entire 2007-2008 winter in Michigan will agree with me -- it was awful! It was the 5th snowiest winter on record. If we weren't busy preparing for snow, we were shoveling it. If the snow and the three hour commutes to the office didn't dampen your spirits, the gray, sunless days of Michigan surely did. Have I painted a bleak enough picture for you?

So much to my surprise, the first signs of Spring appeared this past weekend! It was sunny and 60 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday and most of the snow had finally melted. I pulled my freshly tuned bike out of the basement and saddled up for my first ride of the season.

I'm blessed to live in beautiful Clarkston Michigan where there are plenty of sparsely traveled roads to cycle on. I decided to take my normal route up Holcolm Road which was newly paved two years ago. Holcolm was still in great shape despite the harsh winter and county snow plows. I rode thirteen miles and worked in a couple of sprint drills to see if all of the spin classes I took this winter made any difference. The sprint drills felt ok, so I guess the spin classes must have helped.

The kids and I stopped by the Waterford Raceway on Saturday morning to watch the Spring Training Series races sponsored by the Flying Rhinos Cycling Club . I spoke to one of the club members who told me that the races are divided into A (experts), B (novices) and C (amateur) groups. It looked like a lot of fun and I'm thinking seriously about joining the C group race next Saturday. The Rhinos hold a training session on Tuesday nights at the track, so I'm going to give that a try this week.