Traditionally, President's Day means a longish road ride, taking full advantage of the day off from work. Today, the motivation to stick to this tradition was just not there. Fatigue from yesterday (despite no ride and a 4 hour afternoon nap), combined with the first temperature check showing 9 degrees seriously dampened my enthusiasm. Sitting around the house surfing the web and eating, I kept waiting for the ambition to come. And I waited. The forecast said afternoon temps would be in the mid 30's, and with the bright sunshine it seemed possible. Hourly checks showed the mercury climbing at a glacially slow pace. By noontime, it was 26. I started to think about a trainer ride.
I just did not feel like another cruise around the local trails on the MTB. There will be plenty of those in the weeks to come when that is all I have time for in the morning. Constant checks of CyclingNews for live updates from the Tour of California yielded nothing. I cooked an omellete, had some pancakes and a smoothie, and even made a slice of garlic bread. Still no motivation.
Around 2 pm, the thermometer struck 30. It was crunch time, do or die. Figuring that I would have to take my own advice and keep my water bottle in my pocket to keep it from freezing anyway, I put some road wheels on the cross bike. It has been dormant since snowy Nationals, as it came home nice and clean. This way I also got to wear my MTB shoes, which are roomy enough for thick wool socks, and much warmer than my Rocket 7's.
I was on the road at 2:15 pm. It was damn cold, and I thought if I could last an hour, then head in the house for another 40 minutes or so on the trainer then it would be a victory. The wind was out of the southwest, and I headed straight south for about 5 miles before turning straight into the wind. After about 30 minutes, I started to get more comfortable, although some effort was required to keep my hands away from the bare metal areas on my handlebars. Now 1.5 hours seemed doable. I rode a nice flat loop, around roads I know very well from years of riding. At one hour, while stopping in a cowfield for a nature break, I pulled on my rain cape to see how that felt. When I rode away I was much more comfy, and when the the "go home or keep going" intersection came up, I took the "keep going" option. Circling back west for a bit before going north and then toward home, I wound up with 2:20 total, and was not critically chilled in any area. Tradition was saved.
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