January 30, 2009

28 degrees
very cloudy
My plan called for a cross bike ride today. I checked the weather yesterday and it was calling for a high in the upper 20′s which fits within my parameters for ‘warm enough’ to ride outdoors. So i started to pull together all the stuff. tights, warm socks, shoe covers, foot warmers, layers, merino wool, balaclava, big jacket. on-and-on-and-on-and-on. that’s a lot of stuff and i was sorely reminded about how little I needed in AZ last weekend.
I launched my ride (once the temp hit it’s high point for the day) from my gym down the street. We have a shower and changing room at work, but i’m just not that keen to have all my co-workers gawking at me as i clump out to go for a ride. i’d rather have strangers gawking at the oddball going out to ride a bike. 
The ride was about 75% paved roads and 25% dirt. A little sloppy, mostly it wasn’t too bad out there. the dirt roads were slick under the slush and i ended up letting some air out of my tires for the 2nd dirt section for additional traction which helped a lot.

In the end I really enjoyed the ride. After my last snowy ride, which was miserable cold, I was apprehensive and not really looking forward to it. But putting more thought into my route (more climbing, as little descending as possible) made a big difference.