"Messed Up"

2019 Outdoor Season

Ride Number 2

-Route: Neighborhood Crit, 10 laps

-Miles: 19.0

-Time: 1:24

-Ave Speed: 13.4 mph

Weather:

-Mostly sunny

-45 degrees

-Wind 5-10

2019 Outdoor Season Total Miles:

29.0

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The Story

Yeah, I'd say things are a little messy out there on the roads this time of year. Take a look at the picture I snapped of my old Klein after today's effort. These kinds of conditions are exactly why you keep a 'backup' road bike around.

I'm pretty sure it's going to take me a while to get this bike cleaned up, at least getting the top layer of grit and grime off the thing before my next outdoor ride.

Speaking of outdoor rides, now that it appears the new outdoor season has really begun, I have changed up the way I record ride stats on these pages reporting my rides. This season I am going to keep track of how many times I actually get out there and take a ride, no matter if it's a joy ride or a more serious training ride. The point is to ride, and I'll be curious to see how many rides I actually get in this season.

I'm not quite sure why I continue to post average speed numbers either. I mean, there was a time 6-7 years ago when that mattered as I dabbled in a couple of local races. I remember the days of training with a heart rate monitor, but those days are long gone now. There really is no reason to track average speed in my case, other than it's a habit with me now. But every once in a while I still do try to push it on a ride, knowing my goal is to come up with a better-than-average number for that average speed.

I had a cold wind hitting me right in the face for most of the second half of each of the 10 laps I did today.

45 and sun may sound okay, but out there with wind coming off the lake there was still plenty of bite in the air for this cold-weather weenie!