Cold Snap
Not much to report here in this brief weekend re-cap. The bottom fell out of the weather like I feared it would.
You may recall my anxiety last week. It seems I could feel that opportunities rides in sleeveless jerseys were about gone. Those feelings were spot on! The temperature dropped to freezing the next night, and wind-chills have been freezing since.
Now I know that some have it much worse and ride temps in the mid 30s are nothing to cry about. However, when you literally are riding comfortably in a sleeveless jersey and enjoying mid 70s weather one day, and putting on layers for freezing wind chills the next day...it makes me a little whiny.
In Saturday I rebuilt my MTB and took it for a spin out at Binder with a couple good 'ole boys. It was a good time and we managed to not fall in the lake. The trails are in great shape, but a bit hard to see in places (lots of leaves). It was a great way to attempt to acclimate to the much colder riding temps.
On Sunday I met up with another guy willing to ride the roads. Between the slightly colder temperature and the higher wind you experience on the road, we got a better dose of the cold. It was a good ride and thankfully we did not have any mechanicals (stopping was not an attractive option that my core temperature wanted to experience).
I am so glad that my better half is really into sewing. We are in the process of designing some gear to make winter a little more livable. Recently some new items have caught my eye in the bike catalogs. I will be the first to tell you that good gear seems priceless on a cold ride, but it seems that they are taking it a bit far when you can spend far north of 500 bucks for a cycling jacket.
Bundle up, and get out there...it is still better than sitting on the couch.
Losing the will to ride...
It's just sooo much harder to motivate yourself to get on the bike in this weather. I mean, even though you CAN keep warm, it just can't be compared to a pleasant ride in the summer sun. I find my everyday rides have dwindled to more like every other day (at best) - I guess fitness HAS to suffer in winter for that reason alone.
You mention leaves and stuff - can be a problem too. I did a long endurance ride (on my own, not as a race), following the route of a local race a coupla weekends ago and even then the trail was 4-5 inches deep in leaves and quite treacherous (and I put in an appalling time - the leaves were to blame, honest guv'nor!). So even if it's dry AND reasonably warm, it just ain't the same... Roll on spring...