I Rode This Morning

african-daisy

I woke up at 5:30 and checked the weather radar.  There were a few light clouds about, but they didn’t look like much to worry about.  I headed downstairs to the basement.  The temperature was about 32 degrees, so I decided to go for the Michelin Man look.  To get this look I put on the following clothes, here they are in the order that I put them on:  Wooly-Booly socks, bike tights, Gortex socks, and a second set of bike tights with a windshield, bike shorts for seat padding, bike shoes, over-shoes, long-sleeved base layer, long-sleeved micro-fleeced jersey, long-sleeved Gortex-fleeced wind-shell, balaclava, goggles, neoprene, skull cap, my bike helmet, Gortex glove liners and lobster claws.  By six o’clock, I was dressed and ready to ride.

The roads were pretty dry and there was still plenty of salt on the road from yesterday’s ice.  I headed towards the Park.  There was more auto traffic out and about then in the past.  This is an unwanted by product of the New I-64 construction.  Usually, I just look left and right and then cross, today I actually had to wait for traffic, how inconvenient.  I eventually made it to the Park.

I biked mainly on the flats today.  There were patches of ice around and I wasn’t willing to risk a decent.  As I turned towards home it started to flurry.  By the time I neared home it was beginning to stick.

Getting up early and going biking always give me a moral sense of superiority.  On cold mornings like today this sense is only enhanced.  I like to think that the passing motorists see me and think, poor guy, has to ride a bike to work, he can’t afford a car.  Meanwhile I’m thinking, poor guy, has to settle for driving a car through the Park, he can’t afford the time to go biking.

I saw one other cyclist in the Park this morning.  I don’t need no stinkin’ sanity quota.  I got 15 miles.  This post’s picture, dosen;t really have anything to do with the rest of the post.  It is just intended as eye candy.

5 thoughts on “I Rode This Morning

  1. Well Jane, that was sooooo yesterday. Today I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Anne, today is my morale superior. She got an hour before I did.

  2. What actually *are* your thoughts about snow-biking. I see people doing it quite frequently — in several inches of snow on top of ice. I’ve never seen anyone fall but it always makes my whole body kind of hurt thinking about the possibilities…

  3. Now, I generally avoid it. In years past I was not so timid. Even then though, I didn’t ride in more then newly fallen, less than an inch deep snow, but occasionly like yesterday I would be caught out when it started to snow. But then I live in Saint Louis, the snow melts by noon most days.

  4. As we have had a recent cold spell in England layers seem to be the solution in the dry cold for us. And riding when others are safe indoors helps warm you through.

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