warm feet, warm fingers, warm heart

Louis Garneau shoe covers $59

Louis Garneau cold weather gloves $59

Heading out for a 55k bike ride on a beautiful sunny saturday, outdoors, almost mid- November, in Canada.... Priceless.

There was no way I was going to waste the day... so I checked mapmyrun.com to play around with different routes. I knew I wanted a longer route than I normally do, kind of looking for a flatter route and to keep it easy today since I'm starting my new training plan on Wednesday... more on that in a later post. Started plotting and realized that I was heading towards our friends' place. Actually, my original chiropractor/ART doc. I knew he was teaching at the clinic, but his wife is home on maternity leave... maybe she'd be around. About 30k to get to their place from home, good turn around point. Told Jay of my plan (since I usually give him a pretty good idea of my route ahead of time, just in case), he agreed that it would be a pretty cool surprise.

Mostly uneventful getting there, except that I pulled off to the side as a funeral procession passed me. Nice tail wind heading both north and east, such a treat. The construction that had begun when they moved in last year, still not completed, but thankfully it wasn't difficult to get through.

Got to their place, took off my helmet and hood so that I wouldn't scare the kids and be recognizable, knocked lightly on the door, just in case the girls were napping. No answer. Hesitantly, rang the doorbell. Still no answer. Too bad. Time to head home.

Took no time to realize how much help I really had getting there, the headwind now was brutal! I have a new appreciation for buildings and homes that shelter the wind! Being in the country, with nothing but wide open fields, blew me around like a raggedy-Ann doll -- thankfully traffic was lighter since I changed the route a bit on the way back. Wanted to avoid the construction, a single-lane road, and give me a bit of a break from the northerly winds while heading south.

Best.ride.ever.

As an afterthought, and much to my shock, I realized that I hadn't been passed by any large group of fully-kitted cyclists. Didn't wave to any going the opposite direction. Didn't even see any! Hello cyclists, where were you today!? Please don't tell me that the wind and cooler temperatures scared you indoors already! (hopefully you were hardcore and woke up and headed out much earlier than I did... I slept in till 10, and headed out at 11...shhhh).

Congrats to the B2B HIM/IM participants and Ironman Florida! You guys inspire me!