16 Degees

Today the options were suffer on the trainer for a few hours, or ride outside and suffer there for a few hours. I haven't ridden outside since Portland USGPs last weekend, it hasn't been much above 20 all week, but I had an easy week planned so a few easy hour spins on the trainer were good enough, but today I wanted a bigger ride and anything over an hour on the trainer is unbareable. When I left it was 16 degrees with a mild NNW wind. I got in my ride and never got cold amazingly enough. One ls baselayer, one long sleeve jersey and my Planet Bike winter jacket were perfect with my $5 Kmart mittens, shoe covers and Sidi Toasters. Nice. My cheeks froze instantly, but some Burts Bees chapstick on them quickly took away the bite, I also scored a pair of Oakley Factory Pilots from my sister and they cover everything from my mid face up which was pretty rad. I decided that after today's ride, every ride hereafter would feel warmer and not be as bad, we'll see about that. One thing is sure, it beat the monotony of the trainer and I already watched Rambo 1,2 and 3 this season already.
It took me a week to clean all the mud and grass out of my wheels and bearings from last weeks races. I think I replaced cables and housing in two bikes, regreased two BBs and two wheelsets, and nothing still feels as good as it did pre Portland. I don't my shifters will ever be same, although it's been so cold here I haven't had the chance to power wash the dirt and grime out of them properly yet.

I think this is the first December in a long time that the ski trails have been groomed with enough base for good skiing. I rode past the trails today and they looked really good, it was almost tempting. I'll bet by January when I'm done riding it will be 35 and slushy or we'll get rain and ruin it all. So far I'm sure the skiers are pumped though.

I'm racing in Illinois tomorrow, they're expecting freezing rain and a wintery mix, should be an interesting drive down. It's their state championship and I'm sure there will be some guys going for it, hopefully it's a good course and the weather should be brutal. This is first year in the last 3 that I haven't raced in RI this weekend, they are pretty fun races but this year I opted to skip the travel and double race weekend to recover and race locally without much travel. I'm hoping it pays off next week in KS with some fresh legs.