Since We Last Spoke

I'm not sure why I ever bother checking the weather the night before I'm planning to ride in the morning. I guess I at least want to know if it's supposed to rain before I bother waking up two hours earlier than I normally would. If I'm going to go by that logic, then I shouldn't even bother looking at the temperature. I checked Thursday night before I went to sleep, and it said 40° by 6:00AM. Great! 3/4 length tights! No shell!

Yeah right. I woke up Friday morning at 6:10, looked at the temperature, and it said it was 29°. Full tights! Balaclava! Shell! Shoe covers! I don't like being cold. Oh, and there was a fog advisory.

Let me tell you something about fog. Fog and glasses. Fog, glasses, and cycling. Those three things? Man, they just don't work out so well. When I got outside and saw the fog, I should have turned right back around and gone inside.

Less than a mile from my place, I could barely see, thanks to the fine layer of mist on my glasses. I almost missed one of my turns. After another mile or so, I stopped to wipe off my glasses. That only helped for about a mile, but that was long enough to get me to the Southside trail, where i worry less about cars and more about rabbits and squirrels with suicidal tendencies.

Needless to say, I could hardly see any squirrels or rabbits. All I can say with any certainty is that I didn't hit any. Or if I did, they were really, really small. By the time I crossed over the Hot Metal Bridge and made my way to the Greenfield end of the jail trail, I was blind again.

The rest of the ride was more of the same. Ride for awhile. Stop when it was absolutely necessary to be able to see what was going on around me. Wipe off. Start again. I was really glad that the Wendy's on Brown's Hill was open for breakfast because I was able to stop in there and grab some napkins, which worked a lot better than my (now sweaty) mid layer by that point.

By the time lunch came around, temps had risen a bit, and I was able to go out with the 3/4 tights and fewer upper layers. Lighter gloves, too. It was really nice. Was it sunny? I can't remember. That was three days ago.

I added another 30 miles on Saturday. I wanted to get some riding in, but I had to take Heather to the airport at noon, so I woke up at 6:30, got out of the house around 7:15 and rolled back in by 9:30. I was pretty happy with that. It was a gorgeous day. If I hadn't had to play chauffeur, I probably would have stayed out another few hours. But there will be other nice weekends, right?

Yesterday was my second trip to Frick with the Commençal and much like the first time, it was plenty muddy. Which meant I fell quite a bit. There was one section where I could tell it was only a matter of time before my wheels went right out from under me. Not wanting to disappoint me, they did just that. On the way down, I managed to smack my left knee pretty good off of my handlebar. A day later, it's starting to bruise up nicely.

I took today off, but I'm getting up early tomorrow. High 20s be damned. Every time I get all bundled up this late in the cold season, I keep hoping it'll be my last ride with all of that crap. I really hope that tomorrow is my last ride with all of that crap. And I hope that by lunch it really does make its way up to 55° or so. If only it could just stay there.