4luvandlife

been in a bitter battle with old man winter the past week or 2. for some reason the same gloves that worked fine last year were not working. painful fingers on a few rides made me decide to give a pair of Gore gloves a go. the first ones i tried had me briefly wondering about frostbite about 30 minutes in. turned around and went home with plans on returning those to REI later in the day. got some pearl izumi lobster gloves and i think i am all set to keep my fingers in March.

getting off to a sporadic start this year. trying to fit rides in between W throwing up (he calls them "big burps"), snow storms, and other "stuff". when i do get out it feels great. i am pretty much running (or riding) on faith that the legs will come around to what my head is doing. taking it pretty easy here in early February. out the door at 7 again today. temp "felt like" 8 and a beautiful, calm AM in MPLS. went out and around Cedar Lake and cut off about 3 minutes from my time. was back to the house in about 42 minutes. short ride but it is fun to be back for breakfast with H. he has some pretty funny hair at that time of the day and i don't want to miss that. it was pretty bright at the start today. i think i will get out at 6:45 next week. maybe even add Lake Calhoun to the trip.

got out to ride before work today. felt good. first ride before work of the year. nothing like starting in the dark and riding first light. out the door at 7 and the temp "felt like" 16. no wind and about 70% himidity I think. felt pretty good. rode for about 45 minutes and then back for breakfast with H. if it was clear i probably could have started about 6:45 today. i had 3 layers on the legs and 4 layers on top. tights, shorts, and windreaker pants on the legs. long sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve jersey, and then 2 fleeces up top. had the new shoe covers on and the new gore helmet liner over the baclava. shoe covers and helmet liner were good additions. sunglasses today, no goggles needed. race at Hillside on the 21st. Pugfest. something to ride/look forward to. lets do it old man Winter.

3 rides over the last 3 days. the first one lasted for about 30 minutes and went about 5 miles over the path. turned around and went home in pain from underestimating the weather (lobster gloves or goretex gloves are now on the wish list). 2nd ride remined me about the mini-heart attacks i was introduced to last year at this time. it was probably the iciest i have ever seen the path. rode out to Theo Wirth and it took me almost an hour to ride the same route it takes 15 minutes on a good day. it is not an exageration that i could have ice skated 25 to 30% of the way to the trail at Theo. i am actually now interested in possibly skating the bike path someday just to be goofy. the idea reminds me of a time growing up when i ice skated a creek with friends. that was a good time. growing up in Iowa forces a kids imagination to stretch if your going to have fun. 3rd day was a reward for trying it again. B was amazed that i was going to give it another go after cheating death so ma