Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Year's Ride

I messed around all New Year's Day trying to get myself to go out for a ride. The roads were basically clear but it was butt-astically cold. Still the thing is as a cyclist you try to be able to say things like, "I went riding on New Year's Day!!"

So I finally geared up and made it out there. I dressed as follows:

  • Long Sleeved Thermal Base Layer (think Under-Armor)
  • Thermal LS Jersey - Heavy Winter Type
  • Pearl Optik wind vest - the best
  • My winter jacket.
  • 2 pairs of tights - 1 that fits correctly and one that is larger but has wind stopper material
  • heavy wool socks
  • booties
  • gloves
  • balaclava
  • wool riding hat

I seem to have left my brain behind, but I definitely had everything else.



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The bike ready to go.

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Me in the reflection. Best I can do.

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Rollin. I got to the end of the road and felt the heavy headwind kick in. It was pummeling me hard. It started to freeze me pretty good too. I figured I would go to the end of the road and turn around. 5 miles is OK right?

Well I got there and decided I should go further.

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Desolate frozen corn fields.

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Crossing I-90 on Powers rd. The "climb" of the ride.

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Road salt everywhere. Man I need to wipe down the rig.

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Your's truly. Rollin when you weren't.

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Done and cold. Can you tell? It might shape up to be a bad winter, but I am still out riding. I put in just under 20 miles. It was very refreshing mentally too. Hope my competition was busy recovering from hangovers....

5 comments:

BBVP-Bob said...

I sadly had to work that day :(

So was it worth taking 2 hours to get dressed for an hour ride? The answer should be. Hell Ya

By the way you have the wrong guy for grizzly. Your guy looks like he starred in fiddler on the Roof.
Just joking hehehehhe.

CyLowe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CyLowe said...

Hang on a second here, mister.

I'm suspicious of that trainer in the backseat.

How do we know with certainty that you didn't just set up the trainer by the car and then go take those pictures from the car??

Not saying you didn't ride, but, well, you know the whole 'trust, but verify' deal.

Runner Susan said...

Are you sure you don't live in Alaska?

Shaver said...

I can't find "butt-astically" in the dictionary. Is that a Great Lakes colloquialism?