Going OUT When You Wanna Stay IN!

Ride #: 19
Date: January 19
Miles: 20.5
January Miles: 344
Time: 1:36:27
Temperature: 12
Weather: Sunny, wind NW 14-19mph

Been reading a bike blog from a woman in Alaska of late. It's called Up in Alaska. I really enjoy the way she writes about her rides and, especially, the photos she takes. So I've sort of thieved the format she uses a little bit and would like to make more entries for my rides. Here goes...

Slept in today (not the way I wanted to start out!). Was going to try to make the club ride, but slacked. Temps were very cold and the roads were covered in a light snow. Around 11am I went downstairs and put the studded tires on the Giant. Kept wasting time and eventually realized I wouldn't have time to ride before Nico's wedding.

The wedding was at 2pm and we were out by 2:45pm. My kinda wedding. Then I realized that the reception didn't start until 6pm. This bode well for a ride! Got home and changed into cycling clothing and headed out.

This was a cold, cold ride. The temp was 12 degrees, but the wind was the thing. It was very windy going out west today. Found myself really having to push to keep the bike moving forward, especially cresting Cass Benton hill going NW. As usual, I was dressed properly. Could've maybe used a pair of glove liners and another light pair of socks, but no worries. Note so self for next time I suppose.

Found myself thinking back to twelve days ago when the high temp was 65! Seems like a long time ago. Today the lakes were frozen over quite a bit. Even the river along Hines was showing signs of the cold. Where tree limbs were dipping into the river there was ice forming around them.

In the morning I took the time to switch out my tires to the studded tires. The roads were looking snow covered and slick, but by the time I got out to ride this afternoon/evening, I didn't need them. The roads were in great shape. One thing I've got to figure out is how to keep my water bottle from freezing. Went to take a drink a couple miles in and the top was already frozen shut. I've seen a few photos of folks riding with what look to be thermos type bottles. We'll see.

There's nothing like getting a nice ride in when the weather is contrary. Makes me feel like I really accomplished something special.