Tossed Trees
And with that, it's one for the history books.
The first road miles of the new decade have been put into the books and onto this here riding blog.
As I tweeted, guess what?
It turns out that riding a bike is just like riding a bike!
(it has been a while)
38 degrees with a wind chill of 29 is cold, especially for this winter weenie, but the roads were dry. You see it was cold enough to keep things from melting, but clear enough to turn six laps of the old neighborhood crit course. I just had to be cautious in a couple of the corners that had a little ice lurking at the apex.
No problems.
As I turned those laps I saw a lot of tossed trees like this...
'Tis the season, or at least it WAS the Christmas season, which is always a funny feeling when your knees have not been in the breeze for several months and you find yourself out on a road bike in the middle of winter.
Some might think a rider would be in a hurry to get out for the first time in the new year to try out some new gear they perhaps got for Christmas. Funny. Not ME! I thought about it as I stopped after three laps to remove a full booty from my right foot. The Velcro area is off a bit now from wear, and a flap was touching the big chain ring once in a while. All I could think of was that thing getting caught in there, pulling me down into an unpleasant meeting with cold, salt-covered pavement to the face.
A lot of my gear is old.
My shoes are over 10 years old.
Same for those covers.
My winter riding pants are worn thin.
The long-sleeve jersey I wore came from my riding trip in Spain in the early 2000's.
My winter riding jacket has torn and tattered cuffs from a crash years ago.
It ain't pretty, and I'm okay with that.
No fancy new gear for me this Christmas.
Another surprise I found along the way is the fact that my old route has finally opened up. All summer long a stretch of road was torn up and I had to cut each lap a little short. But alas, they finally threw down some asphalt and I am back to my full lap.
And so it begins.
The first miles of 2020 in the book.
I better go wipe off the bike's tires now so the road salt doesn't eat away at them because let's be honest, it may be a few months before my road bike is back outside on the road.
RIDE
Neighborhood Crit, 6 laps
MILES
11
:52/12.8 mph ave.
SEASON MILES
11