Caught in the snow again but this time no cross bike. It was so cold I did not even make a saddle adjustment becasue I did not want to take off my mittens. Oh and look closely at the new shorts!

Slippery Road. Stopping distance on road bike = two miles!
Car accident on the belt line.

Day 26 = No Diet Soda
Holy “crumb cake” today’s ride was sketchy! It was cold out once again so I had to bust out the “Everest climbing gear” in order to get my two and half hours in. I ended up wearing four layers of clothing: thermal base layer, long sleve jersey, thermal cycling jacket, and North Face parka. I also had tights, leg warmers, cycling shorts, several pairs of socks, two pairs of booties, three pairs of mittens, a neck gaitor, hat, and shades. I am not shitting you either!! I took thirty five minutes just to get ready to ride…………that was tiring itself!
Ten minutes into the ride it started to snow and it accumlated rather quickly. At first it was pretty fun busting through the snow knowing I was the only cyclist out but then it got slippery. I almost went down a handful of times………….manhole covers and railroad tracks are slippery when it snows! I even motorpaced behind a snowplow for a bit but I did not feel too safe since my stopping distance was about two miles when I would get up to speed!!
I made it back in one peice but had frozen toes again. I really don’t mind when my toes freeze……….the pain actually feels sort of good! I am not sure why? My feet really don’t do anything when I ride so it is not necessary to have feeling in them anyway. Frostbite would not be good because I enjoy having ten toes but I think I would have to run barefoot in the snow for ten miles before that happens.
Wearing all those clothes got me thinking…………a company like Mountain Hardware should sponsor a team. They could supply all of the clothing with the condition that all of the riders live and train in cold climates such as Wisconsin, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, etc. It would be interesting to see how the team would do in the early season races?? Maybe I was just thinking about that because I want a new Mountain Hardware jacket……….oh well, it is still a good idea.
I wonder if Frank has been training?
later,
g.