Happy confession

[Lise]

wow - you mean I gotta RIDE to post here??

YOU! Ms. All-Time-Personal-Low! You're the one I use to motivate myself! "C'mon, Lise", I say, "CorsairMac is out there when it's -23 with the windchill, and she rides uphill both ways!" Notice that scolding myself hasn't actually gotten me on the bike! And today it's in the 30s, and flinging wet snow everywhere, so it'll be awhile before I get back out there. I'm mostly freaked out about the possibility of wiping out on a city street and getting run over by a car. A reasonable fear in Chicago.

As Denise said, though, all my cells feel alive when I'm on the bike. I feel like a superhero. The trails some of you write about sound really fun. But there's also great adventure in managing traffic and city parks with dogs and kids and whatnot... My biggest complaint is roller bladers, but they're not out right now! (Don't they know, they don't own the path, we do! )

My burning triathlon question, Denise, is: How early in the season I can get into Lake Michigan with my new, full-body wet suit? As in, how much protection from hypothermia will I really have? It doesn't warm up to bathing suit swimming until July, in my opinion. Even then, it's cold. But I'm going to give it a try end of May in my wet suit, and maybe even neoprene booties. I'm glad you got in the pool when the heater was off. Makes you strong like bull! Iron strong! Although...77 degrees is laughably warm to those of us in northern climes!

Today was Ride Your Bike to Work Day in Chicago (no, I did not ride my bike to work), in commemoration of the coldest day in recorded history; in '85 it was something like -76 with windchill. Only in Chicago would we think it was a good day to commemorate with a bike ride!

L.