Today, March 15 I took my first ride outside for the season, 32 miles around one of the smaller Finger Lakes in western New York state.  While I am not as out of shape as I thought I might be, it was a slower than usual ride of 32 miles.  Now that the weather is getting warmer and dryer (a little dryer at least) I should be able to get out a few days a week since I can now ride almost any time of the day.  In 2 weeks we head to Florida for the month of April where I should be able to get in a lot of riding.

Its early March and in less than 2 months I will be starting out on a bicycle ride across the US. This ride has been a dream of mine for a number of years and now I finally have the time and energy to go.  I have signed up with Adventure Cycling and will begin this ride in Williamsburg, VA with 14 other riders from around the world. Beofe the ride I will be spending the month of April in Florida putting on base miles on the bike to build up for the ride.  It is difficult to ride a lot in western New York State at this time since winter tends to hang on well into March.  However I do hope to get a few rides in before we leave for Florida.

I will be riding an older (1990's vintage) Cannondale Touring bike that I have put a lot of upgrades on.  This year I had a set of wheels built by Peter White in New Hamphsire. The wheels are set up specifically for touring.  The bike now has a triple crank and the rear cog set is 13 to 36 so climbing should not be an issue even for an older rider.