Snowy ride on my cross bike!

After feeling miserable from late Wed night, Thursday and Friday I finallly started feeling better Friday afternoon. I had an appt with Christiine and she always opens up some blocked areas. By late afternoon I was feeling human. Had a brief visit with a good friend, he picked up some riding gear he let me borrow. Then had dinner with Heather. That was nice.

The crew sent out an email about a trail run this morning. I thought seriously about doing it, but forgot to turn up the volume on the alarm clock and slept til 7:15. They were going to meet @ 8. I fixed myself a potful of oatmeal, enough for 3 days and read through email. Someone posted a 10 am ride on The Loop with mtn bikes, but cross bikes would be ok. I decided to do this and got my gear together, dressed, hot tea and hot water in bottles, etc...

My landlord hasn't done anythiing about the parking lot, so I got a first taste of the morning's ride right off the bat. Not bad as there was plenty of snow that wasn't packed to ice. As I rode to the ride start I started to talk myself out of this idea. It was cold (not that cold), they were going to be fast, and on and on. I pulled into the left-hand turning lane away from the start and was going to head to the parks. From somewhere my voice asked, "what are you doing? you want to ride outside and this is the only chance with others". I waited for traffic to clear and turned right.

4 guys in their 20s and 30s showed up, all on mtn bikes. I had only met one of them previously, though knew of or seen the rest before. We took Beargrass trail to Spring/Adam to the loop. Almost the entire route was snow covered. The pace was good for me and these guys were slipping and spinning at times. One started talking about who would crash first. I slid on the bridge on Beargrass trail and had to unclip briefly. Didn't really enjoy that. But for the most part I kept my legs spinning and wheels under me. I started losing ground somewhere before we got to Shawnee golf course, but kept the others in sight. I caught up to them at least once, but there was ice under the snow in places. This made it very sketchy for me. By the time I arrived at Shawnee Park I'd lost sight of them.

I could've continued on and spent some time thinking about doing just that. My toes had gotten wet from stepping in the snow and were starting to get uncomfortably cold. I decided to head back solo. As soon as I got onto Southwestern pkwy, one bottle cage came loose. I stopped to fix it and the screw fell, it took forever to find it. by the time I got back on the bike riding I had gotten cold and my right had was wet.

Maybe it was the fact that I stopped, but I swear I was warmer riding on the trails in the snow than on the pavement. We were protected from the wind in many sections, but once on the road the wind became a factor for me. My face started to sting at some point along Bank Street.

All in all, I had a very good ride. Interesting listening to the guys talk. They kept it fairly tame at first but loosened up and talked the way guys do when they're together. I got home and ran a hot bath. It was damned difficult to get out of the tub. I started shivering and wasn't sure I'd stop. Grabbed some lunch and took a nap. My legs are talking to me, what a workout that was. I'm hoping I can get back out tomorrow and ride, maybe just through the parks. It'll be the trainer on week days.