Cold riding lately

But hey it is supposed to break soon. Just in time for a trip south to have t'givin with family.

I was all set to bag the whole weekend. Had a nice ride lined up for sunday. The wind was supposed to die down and be pretty calm on Sunday to boot. Then skinny calls.
"Hey, do you want to ride up to Easthampton together?"
Oh the dilemma.
"What time ya leaving?"
"6:30-7"
i'm thinking there - forget that, i want to sleep...
"I'm gonna stick with the plan for sunday."

and i did.

A nice long ride in the cold.

But

I was not cold. I was toasty. Warm and actually the base layers were all wet when i got home. Inside of the jacket was wet, socks and shoes wet. From sweat. Even with a nice mellow 8 mile cool down (that started at the top of Waterman).

Got in about 60-65 miles in the 3.5 hours I was out there. Much of it felt like motor pacing sessions. Me on the giant cyclocross bike with my commuter tires and wheels. The nice beefy tires that push the 1kg mark each, heavy old school spoked wheels. Thick tubes. And the rest of them on fancy plastic bikes (a trek, specialized and fuji, and a look until the guy riding it pussied out) with pretty fancy wheels, eastons, reynolds, and fancy light rubber.

I was severely out bicycled by the crew. But hell I didn't want some mellow yellow ride. I wanted to get my ass kicked. I wanted the pressure put on. And when I wasn't working to keep up on the hills, it really felt like I was motorpacing behind the guys. It was not a slow ride.

I've ridden with Murat only maybe one other time than Sunday. That was Palmer Road Race. He quit mid-race there. Yesterday he quit the ride. After turning off 116 and starting the long ascent up some road or another he set a nice mellow pace that Aaron and I were digging as Nate and Mark shot up the hill. Then, he pulls off and Aaron keeps the steady slow pace and Murat drops back. I motion for him to get back on my wheel. A couple times. But no, he says "I'm cold, I'm going home."

He was depending on some Marshalls chemical warmers that didn't last as long as he had expected. The rest of us were just depending on our clothing and bootie choices. It was cold. But we hit enough pavement that tilted up that it was mostly work. The down hills were shorter and we mostly drilled those too so not much idle coasting time. Esp for me even in the draft. We were all pretty freaking toasty. It was an amazing ride.

No cold feet. No cold hands. Heck my head was overheating with just the Ibex wool beanie under my Specialized helmet. Didn't even tape off the vents. The sun certainly helped, as did the size too small windfront leg warmers I stuffed on under my bib tights.

The key is the jacket. Ya need a Verge Warsaw or Voler or Campy (like nate) nice technical winter cycling jacket. That is the key. It was a great ride. The duration of the sustained efforts were so dissimilar to cyclocross that my legs began employing muscles I haven't had to recruit at that level since the summer doing TTs.

And. With the Reverend in mind the whole time. I truly was embodying the spirit of the church of the big ring. Big ring the whole ride. I needed to bail into the 27 a few times and stand and work it through to get up the hills with the gang, but I stuck with the big ring. On a couple of the long downhill stretches where Aaron went to the front i needed to spin that 12 to stay in contact.

The cross race would have been fun. It sounds like fun. Skinny won the masters race and that is always good. But it is also a sign that the course probably didn't suit me well. And I was home at noon. With 3.5 hours of solid riding. Of course I left late and had to do a 10 mile full out time trial out the door into a wind blowing around 25 mph (so much for it being calm). And then there was a minute or two before we took off and headed out once I got there. The legs were pretty hosed when I got home. One thing that caught my eye on the way home just getting on the bike path was a bright yellow/green bird. I was shocked. What the heck is a goldfinch doing around here in this weather. I stopped. looked closely. Holy crap it is a Parakeet. Poor bird must be cold as hell. But he wouldn't have anything to do with me. No coaxing him down for a ride home.

The ride in this morning was mellow. Quiet. Still. No wind. Glassy calm. Ice all over in the coves. Birds everywhere. Saw a Kingfisher, Brants, american Widgeons, Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers, mallards, swans, canadian geese, Bonapart's Gulls, Black headed Gulls, Herring Gulls. And a handful of small birds that I couldn't even begin to identify.

I stopped to watch an Ore/Coal ship receive a handful of loads of scrap steel/iron. It looked to have first off-loaded coal and now was being loaded with steel... Pretty cool to watch. From across the water the scale appears to be reasonable until you notice just how small the people are walking around over there. Still tossing around the idea of racing down in MD on the way home. Leaning towards doing it. Not racing for two weekends in a row going into the big weekend wouldn't be wise at this point.

well, we'll see

heddwch
G