First ride of '09

The 2009 season is officially underway.  Headed down to Boulder on Sunday morning, where I met up with the bravest of the Boulder crowd to endure the elements on a short jaunt along the countryside.  It seemed a little ironic that I should drive all the way to Boulder just to ride in 22 degree snowy weather whilst it was sunny up in Summit... However, it all payed off when i found that the roads were dry and my group had not bailed.  In fact, more came than anticipated...  Jill and Ellie were there, as well as Sam, Brae and Ben.  I felt a little awkward riding with all the Tokyo Joes kits, and me in my SoBe chamois, but this ride was less about style and more about staying warm.  The girls dropped out at about the 10-mile mark, and headed home.  Brae, Sam, Ben and I continued on our country road (somewhere north of Boulder) and ended up beating the girls back.  We weren't frozen to the handlebars... no, it was much worse than that.  We spent most of the ride no-handed, attempting to warm our hands in our armpits, or shaking our arms to get the blood flowin'.  Damn, it was cold.  

The inverse of temperatures on Monday created a heavy layer of smog over the valley on my Sunday ride, which made for a environmentally-incorrect beautiful view.  This time, I had some idea where I was going... I headed out to Lyons, along the Foothills Highway, trying my best to keep from sliding into oncoming traffic due to 50 mph wind gusts that threatened my life with every truck's passing.  Because of the wind, I rode about 30 miles in 3 hours.  Somewhat sad if you think about it.  However, my legs feel great.  It's quite refreshing to be back on the bike.  Unfortunately, I'm off to work again tomorrow and the rest of this week, and I doubt I'll get enough time to clean my road bike off to bring it inside for a spin; so much for that weekend training...

Everyone's back at school today, and it's finally hit me that I'm done with it all.  This comes as good news and bad news for me... I have to work all week anyway, so really, what's the difference?