Hot and Cold

I started my ride yesterday at 8 am. It was cold. I put on my Gore Tex jacket, leggings and full-finger gloves. My first descent, coming five minutes after I started, was 1 mile long, completely in the shade. My face almost froze.

By 9, however, it was getting warm. And I was doing a lot of climbing. By ten, I looked dopey because almost everyone else on the road was in a normal kit.

Not much you can do about that.

It was a relatively short ride, a bit more than 30 miles, but i did a lot of climbing, including short hills with gradients of 18 and 14 percent. In all, about 2600 feet and 1800 calories.

I have one or two more outside rides before the Alyn ride and I will be focusing almost exclusively on nasty climbing.

At this point, you are either ready or you're not.