Sunday, January 27, 2008

Frozen to the core

Some apparently took Sunday's weather to sip hot chocolate on the newly opened Rideau Canal. Not your truly. In normal Sandy fashion, I determined that the weather report I though I heard for like -2 and sunny was true. To be fair, I did see some sun. Therefor, my mind argued... you have no excuses on why you shouldn't do your prescribed 5 hour jaunt outside. Its not like its cold and windy outside.... Oh wait. Yes it was. Denial and the human spirit is a wonderful thing. It allows a competitive person (yours truly in this case) to don some wind retardant spandex and ride into the wind for 5 hours. It allows you to convince yourself that the fact that you can no longer feel your extremities and can't drink from your frozen bottles ACTUALLY means you are simply "hardening up" for the coming season. Hypothermia is a myth and a good hot shower, complete with the defrosting burning sensations, will make everything worthwhile. I do give kudos to myself. Though the entire first half of the ride was into a glacial headwind, I refused to turn around early. What, and let mother nature win? I'm Canadian. -10 is practically balmy. On the plus side, I had made myself some wicked sammies with my mom's fresh baked bread so my stomach was quite content. My feet, hand and face on the other hand were infuriated, and made their opinions felt in the hot shower later when the blood flow returned. In the end, I have lived to fight another day. Probably thanks to the 18 1/2 liters of tea I have consumed since returning home. I think I'm going to lie under the covers soon. Weekend otherwise, quite normal and excellent. Four hours on the trainer post class Friday. Huge Thai feast was a success in the greatest way on Friday. Hot & Sour mussel soup to start, followed by jasmine rice with a red curry chicken and noodles. Plus a nice Argentinean red courtesy of the LCBO. Saturday consisted of an early morning spin on the rollers followed by a day of work at the greatest shop in the land. A few drinks in the evening with some friends, a schwarma and then bed. Weekend rating: A. Well done. Give yourselves a hand.
Side note: I fully called Lars on the Cross World's win. Just ask "the boys".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yah found it cold out there... puff...
wasn't too bad. Last week was damn cold. Today was alright. Got in about 2.5hrs worth of riding in today (about 60km of dirt, snow and ice road riding - I call it rally riding). Got in the same yesterday.
Came across a snowshoe race out by low (madtrapper.ca).

if anyone wants to ride next weekend - its 75km Sat and 75km Sun. Going at hard intensity.
(the jay winter challenge is the following weekend... 30 miles on snowmobile trail down in vermont!)

enjoy!
(this week will consist of riding to/from work mostly - about 55km a day)

Anonymous said...

email if interested:

gatevent@gmail.com