Shaking off the "Trainer Blues"

It took all my biking clothes and then some, but today was a BLAST!

In spite of my best efforts to sabotage my setup so I couldn't ride in single digit temperatures, I made it to a trail ride. I was egged on by the appearance of former Ironman, single speed mountain biker from DC. I even hauled out my mountain bike, which hasn't seen any real action in years. Well, it went from 0-60 on the action meter right off!

Weather.com warned, we might be in for the "coldest temps in a decade". I got many "looks" when I answered the question "what are you doing this weekend?" at work.

Big shout out to Cliff for providing some tasty treats for the ride. They didn't have to give me free stuff to convince me.. but I'll take it.

For the curious...

• Titanwear tri-short #1
• Target store plastic bag
• Titanwear tri-short #2
• Smartwool bike socks
• Big ole winter socks (grey w/ the red top)
• Specialized mountain bike shoes
• Trek winter shoe covers
• Lakefront Marathon long sleeve wicking shirt as a base
• long sleeve warm tight shirt (think active long underwear)
  
• Harpoon IPA bike jersey (for karma)
• Pearl Izumi balaclava
• Tifosi eye wear
• Thin 99 cent one size fits all gloves
• Big thick super warm bike gloves
• Pearl Izumi winter bike clothes reviewed late last year (tights and jacket)
  
• Last but not least an illuminted ugly bright blue wind breaking type bike jacket on top of all that.

Lessons:

• If you're bothering to go mountain biking in the dead of winter w/ a bunch of folks that are twice as fast as you (on their single speeds).. And if you're also bothering to bring your Garmin Forerunner, then by all means have the good sense to press start in the parking lot. That way you have a good chance that the rescue team will know in which direction to drag the body. Turns out, I found it again on my own.
  
• Not all dog owners will be completely inconvenienced by all bikers... One woman was cheering us all on. (note there weren't many folks out, much less cheering). Try to be respectful.
  
• Man that was fun! (get the point) Training should sometimes be just plain fun. Forget the HRM number/graphs etc.. Or bring it.. but put tape over it. For what it's worth, I had no time to look at any numbers or watches with my death grip on the handle bars!
  
• If you're going to weigh your bike down with a Gatorade bottle, drink within the first 20 - 30 minutes.. otherwise it will be frozen. For that matter, it might be frozen even after the 30 minute car ride, 30 minutes inside at home, then 15 minutes on top of the radiator while showering, and only drinkable after an additional minute in the microwave. That's frozen! Alternatively, I suppose you could bring a spoon for your Gatorade flavored squishee.
  
• 5 degrees and sweet packed snow single-track vs the trainer.. Think about it.
  
• Not a lesson, but I wonder. Is bike lust wrong?
  

After all that, if you're not amped to go biking in the winter.. Well, consider that Arrowhead endurance race was much farther north and started this weekend. Yikes!! Mad crazy props to all those folks.