Sunday, January 31, 2010

Randonneur cross-training?

Not really. We got about 4 inches (10 cm) of snow here in central North Carolina on Friday night and Saturday morning. All non-essential travel stopped. I even started doing tax forms for last year.

Cars finally resumed driving today, and quickly packed down the snow hard enough to go sledding. Behold a 1-minute video taken on the sled in the daytime today: http://www.vimeo.com/9119856

But the best part was that the sun melted some of the snow this afternoon, and it rapidly re-froze tonight. Rock solid ice. Terrible for cars. Great for sleds. Behold a video from tonight: http://www.vimeo.com/9120494

It really wasn't cross-training. Walking tenuously up the icy hill over and over didn't count. But it was like biking tonight. I put some spare bike headlights and red blinkies on the sled. I grabbed an ankle reflector for good measure. I enjoyed going fast downhill. And I didn't get tangled up with any of the drivers I surprised on the ice, hehe.

3 comments:

bullcitybiker said...

Your videos are terrific Andy! And where is that hill exactly- I need to try that one next time. Branson

dean furbish said...

It is refreshing to see that at least one "kid" on the block was out doors having a great time in the snow and ice as a role model for the others kids!

Nice job! Great videos! Looks like a blast!

Unknown said...

Great stuff, but we need technical content. When you say sled, do you mean steel runners, or a flat bottom wooden tobaggan, or a plastic sled? What type of suspension are you running to get that smooth video? What upgrades are you planning in the off-season (summer) to get better for next winter?