Ahhhh . . . The Outdoors

I was able to ride outside today. Hooray. It has been a while. I'm not much of a cold-weather rider, so it's been a month or two since I'd been on actual asphalt. It was great.

It was warmer, but everything was not quite spring yet. The lake was still frozen:


In fact, the trail warned you that you could die. Awesome.


The trail was actually pretty clean, except for the bridge. The shoulders on the road, however, were littered with all sorts of crap.

Coming back down the ramp you could see a smaller section of the water way and how it's still frozen solid.


And the creek that feeds it:


Rinse and repeat for the next few days before we get a new blast of winter. Conclusions? Love my new tires. Bike's riding great. Me? Not as much. Seems that the first thing to go after some time off the road is handling. I was all over the place. Naturally, there was a drop in speed, but I felt like the endurance level was up from where I switched to indoor training. On familiar hills it took longer for me to bottom out than usual. Even in the chilly air, which usually makes my lungs hurt like hell. Ah, lungs.

And my nemesis was out. He rides for a local racing team and, I swear, the man has no joy. No joy at all. Plus he seems to have the same schedule and route as me. what's up with that? Maybe I'll start sticking my tongue out at him. As someone recently said, cyclists aren't noted for their upper body strength so I think I might have a chance in a slap fight. Though he has the long golden mane of hair. Which makes me hate him even more.