I debated back and forth whether to go for a ride or not today. The weather LOOKED beautiful; sun, blue sky and a light breeze. Very spring-like. The only thing missing was the spring-like temperature. I think when I headed out the door it was less than 20˚. To say I was less than thrilled to ride in such temps (yet again) would be an understatement. But the prospect of the trainer was just NOT that appealing and since I gotz handfuls of fat that need to be burned off ASAP, that meant layering up–yet again–for a ride in cold ass temps.
I used my cross bike during my last ride out on Mount Peezy’s dirt roads and got beat up a bit from all the fresh pot-holes and tire ruts. Then I used it at the Barry-Roubaix and it got covered in even more crusty mud that I have yet to clean off, so this time I opted for my hard tail 29er. It proved to be the right choice for sure.
The paved roads were perfect, and the first 10 miles of dirt roads were as I expected; dry, rutted and lumpy. Then I got to one dirt road that was having some major drainage construction done on it, so I took a detour to avoid being crushed by a dump truck. The first part of the detour was paved and I was feeling good, then dirt, then some ice… then snow. WHAT? SNOW?? What the fuck??
I have no idea where this snow came from! I was just out on the dirt roads on Friday and they were all dirt and mud with a few sections of ice. Today I got onto Battle Road and shit went winter-tastic! Seriously, where did it even come from? We got an inch of snow Friday night, but not enough to clog up a road like you see above. UG!
I picked my way through the snow with little to no incident and started moving well enough. Only to come to the next roller and see it covered with ice. Fuck. Oh well, no turning back now… I found a line and gently spun my way up, hoping that no cars would suddenly make an appearance. I was more than a little happy to get off of Battle and back on dry dirt, heading back to pavement and home.
With the snow behind me, all I had to deal with was the cold, which now that I was heading into the south-west breeze, I was starting to curse more and more. It is not unusual to get these sort of temperatures in Michigan or even back in my home state of Pennsylvania in March, but day-um, it’s been a long, LONG-ass winter. I swear, I will NEVER bitch about it being too hot again (at least until it’s too hot).
On a side note, about 5 miles into my ride I got confronted with yet another canine beast. Rather than stop and deal with it, I out rode it. Who knew I could get my hulking ass from 17 mph to 25 mph and 170 bpm in the blink of an eye! Yikes! I must have looked like a Goddamn fool pedaling away from it like that, screaming “YOU BITE ME AND I WILL KILL YOU MOTHER FUCKER!!” Need to have that thing chase me during races.
Oh well, two hours in the saddle is pretty good for a weekday ride whether it’s 20 degrees or 90 and despite the cold my legs felt real good, so I’ll take it.
Later.