October rides: put a little color into it.

[north woods gal]

Hey, Crankin, way to go, girl! Yeah, the dressing part is always the trickiest for me, too. Have an old Gore-tex bicycling rain jacket, but it ain't what it used to be. Definitely showing its age and it leaks a bit, now. Time to get something new, but they are so darn expensive. The one plus I have going for me is that most of my biking is close to home, so if I start to get wet and chilled, I'm never far from home. In my Chicago days, though, I did have a very close call with hypothermia on a wet and cold day. That taught me a lesson. You can always shed layers if you over-dress, but if you dress too light and things turn nasty, you're in trouble.

We pushed our errands back till late afternoon, instead of running them first and then riding when we get back. Cool this morning, but no wind and lots of sunshine, so our morning ride was quite pleasant. Not a lot of miles, but anymore, I don't worry too much about the miles. I'm more interested in getting a good workout and that's a matter of adding a lot of hills on a ride. Oh, yeah, hills we have. Most are gentle, but some are challenging. Riding single speed also makes hill climbing a good workout, too. Not riding anywhere near the total miles I once did, but, thanks to the single speed riding, I think my leg strength is as good as it's ever been. My wind, too.