Winter in Minnesota

I've finally admitted it; it's winter! Eid al-Adha has come and gone. Winter Solstice has come and gone, whew, we made it through the longest night without any ghost issues. Hanukkah has begun and is soon to pass. Christmas is over. Boxing Day is over. All of this means, I ain't ridin' my bike. I have moved everything into the basement and put the road bike on the trainer. It's not much fun but I can at least catch up on all the movies I've been wanting to see. 

I've plugged the TV in and hooked up the DVD player and the cable box, all by myself! The bike is strategically placed in front of the TV for better viewing. I have a stack of wood near the fireplace just in case I don't workout hard enough to stay warm. So far that has not been a problem but you never know, we still have January coming up. I also found my weights and workout balls so I have no excuse for not staying in condition over the winter. The gym I belong to has closed the location closest to my house so I don't know if I will be makin' it to the gym. I'm not much a gym person anyway; somehow I just can't get myself to go and having everything I need right here at home works much better. 

I certainly miss my long Friday morning rides and my afterwork rides on the Gateway. I'm sure we will get a couple warmer days and I will be able to try winter riding again.  I can also spend this time figuring out next years rides; that's half the fun anyway. 

40 degrees in December

Dint wanna waste the bright, bright sun shiny day so I pulled the old Kona out of the garage yesterday. I haven't ridden this bike for quite some time so I wasn't sure what condition it was in. Mike's boyfriend Curt had been riding it over the summer so I figured it should be OK. I brought it into the house to warm up a bit, even at 40 the bike was super cold; call me a wimp but I dint wanna put my butt on a cold bike. I added air to the tires and lowered the seat and it was ready to go. I headed to the park down the street, getting used to riding on the snow. I have zero experience with riding in the snow. I went out one time early this year to check out the Gateway trail and ended up riding in some snow but that was all. Anyway, the snow on the street was pretty well packed and not too bad to ride on; the snow in the park was something else entirely. Super fun! I rode around the neighborhood for a while just testing things out. The slushy snow was probably the worst, the hard packed stuff was a little slippery but not too bad to ride on. I only hit one spot of nastiness where I thought I might lose it and as expected I had a car behind me but I just pedaled harder and stayed upright. 

I think having the hardtail and a heavier bike made things a little easier, like putting sand bags in the back of the pickup. I really enjoyed my ride through the neighborhood, the neighbors probably think I'm nuts but that's OK. It felt good to be out riding again, I haven't been on my bike since October. My back is starting to feel normal again, now I just have to keep it that way. I have some space in the basement set up for my bike trainer and workout equipment, so I should be good to go for the winter. 

The weather today has been yucky, it was raining when I drove to work at 0530 and now the temperature has dropped and we are getting snow. I guess I wont be doing any outside riding for a while again. Good thing I bought those cross country skis to keep me entertained through the winter add that to my curling and yoga and my evenings are pretty well filled.