Dec 29th Friday rides

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

DH and I managed to ride 35 miles today in 31 degrees F. Took us about 3 hours 50 minutes (hills, you know). I didn't actually get tired which I was very happy about, but my fingers and toes got very cold. Especially my toes, they were extremely painful and going numb by the time we got home. Had plenty of layering on everywhere, I guess the time factor kicked in with the cold after 3 hours or so.
I must say first it's so GOOD to not have that awful cold I had for 3 weeks anymore and be able to ride again with a clear head and no more coughing or earaches.
We had planned to ride to a little town that had a sweet cafe right on the Hudson river, like 30 yards from the shore. That would be our 18 mile halfway point and from there we'd head home around a different way. Not much else in the village there at all, just the cafe and a post office. By the time we got there we were plenty cold and eager for some hot drinks and to rest, bathroom, etc. Boy were we dismayed when we got there and saw it was CLOSED for the week, until after New Years!
Well, we needed to warm up someplace, anyplace, so we decided to just go into the tiny post office next to the closed cafe and try to warm up inside the vestibule. Imagine our delight when we entered the PO and saw a table full of hot coffee and yummy cookies and homemade lemon cake all laid out with little festive poinsettia holiday napkins!!! I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
The Post mistress expained that they decided to do that during the week the cafe was closed in case there were any disappointed hungry cold people. Oh, BABY. So we put some dough in the donation cup and went to town on the coffee and lemon cake. It was so perfect! The PO lady told us that in the summer she brings her kayak to work and throws it in the river right across the street from the PO during her lunch hour and kayaks. Too cool.
When we were ready to go, I thought about having to pee in some freezing bushes on the way home and I gingerly asked her if I could use the bathroom (no public restroom there) and she let me use theirs in the back of the mail room!!! I felt so lucky and so grateful!
Got pretty well frozen toes on the way home and never was so glad to limp in the front door on my frozen stumps into the WARM house and greeted by all our WARM purring kitties. ...and to top off the day, my new snowshoes were waiting for me in a box on the back porch! Yay, bring on the snow!! (hope, hope...)
An excellent day in spite of the painful "popsicle toes".

[makbike]

We were blessed with yet another day of unseasonably warm weather. Temps today were in the upper 50's F, gentle breeze, clear skies and lots of sun. I took my little blue bike out for a nice 24 mile spin and enjoyed every minute of it. Tomorrow is suppose to be the last day of warm temps so I'm going to pack up my Giro and join in the club ride.

[kelownagirl]

Well I'm jealous of both of you. I did get on the exercise bike today and put in 35 minutes. No where near as fun as real biking...

[salsabike]

Mr. Salsa and I did a 30 mile trail ride in brisk NW weather (low-mid 30s, I think). It was a beautiful day for a ride, really. I had on ski gloves and smartwool mountaineering socks (my fingers and feet get really cold), and did fine. Part of the ride was sunny; then cloud cover and a sprinkle. Saw some young eagles, great blue herons, coots, an otter...was very glad to be out after several weeks off the bike. Saw TE ladies Dakay and LaBiker (see "Salsa, was that you?" thread) without QUITE realizing who they were--just thought they looked familiar. Thought I saw Knot too, but given what she said about staying home, that must have been hallucination.

[KayTee]

We, too, have had an unseasonably warm spell in eastern VA with high in the low 60's. It was so sunny and nice out that DH and I decided to ride from home to the airport, where our little spinning group was planning to start a 2 pm ride. Knowing that this would result in at least a metric century for us, I agreed to ride the tandem (otherwise I might not finish that distance before it started getting dark). It was great - we saw herons, a bald eagle, and a miniature pony among some long-legged Tennessee walkers. When we met the group we rode down near the river and along some Civil War battlefields. The only scary moment was dog-related. On the way to the airport we'd ridden by a large pasture with horses and a white dog who came out and ran after us, but on his side of the fence (which looked electrified). On our return trip the dog saw us early, came flying through the fence and ran hard along the bank after us. Because we didn't know if/when he'd run into the road or cut us off, we put the bike in fear gear and ramped up speed to 31 mph. Darned if that big white dog didn't speed up and run right along beside us for a good 50+ yards! After we finally outran him and got a safe distance past, we had to slow down and recuperate. Total distance ended up at 67 miles. That's way more than I usually ride this time of year, and I'm sore. So Saturday, another nice day according to the forecast, will be a 30-35 mile slow recovery spin (for me, anyway). How I wish we could share this unbelievable weather with all of you!

[btchance]

I went to an hour and a half spinning class bright and early Friday morning (well, not bright at that time), and when I got home, a friend had emailed me wanting to do a recovery ride. Well, the weather was in the low 60s, little wind, and it was sunny. So I got out another pair of bike shorts and went for a 2 hour ride outdoors. It was a perfect day for riding, and my legs didn't feel as bad as I thought. Thoroughly enjoyed it.