Today was one of the hardest rides I've ever done and definitely the coldest. Marshall, Lynne, and I drove to Loveland High School where we met a friend of theirs who would lead us on a new route to Boulder.
The forecast called for sunny and a high of 62 so I wore what I knew would be comfy for that temp: shorts, short-sleeved shirt with sleeves, light jacket that I planned to take off after an hour and then, as an after thought, I grabbed some light-weight mittens on my way out the door, just in case (and I'm sooooo glad I did!).
As we drove to Loveland at 7:30 AM, we were noticing quite a few dark clouds but most of them were in the north and we were heading south so we thought it would be ok. When we got to the high school, it was very cold - way colder than I've ever biked in. So cold that I put a hat on under my helmet! But I thought for sure I would stripping layers off after an hour or so.
We started out and I had one other problem: I was not feeling well. Suffice it to say that I had a bad stomach-ache. Not good when you're heading out on a 5.5 hr ride with very fast people! And this was weird: my jaw started to hurt really bad. Huh??? Tooth-ache? Who knows! All I know is that after 30 mins, my entire head was throbbing, I felt like I was going to vomit, and my abdomen was cramping badly. Ugh.
But I kept pluggin' away. Trying desperately to keep pace with Lynne. I couldn't and dropped back. She slowed to let me catch her and the guys went on but they eventually slowed to our pace and we rode together for awhile. Beautiful course! The backroads to Longmont and Boulder are just gorgeous.
We turned around just north of Boulder and at that point the sun was still out but there were dark clouds brewing to the north and east. The wind picked up and by the time we got back to Loveland, the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees. It was totally cloudy and just plain cold. I was freezing.
We rode back to Lynne's car and the plan was for her to ride home and Glen, our fearless leader also went home. I was very close to saying I would just ride back with Lynne...it was cold and getting colder by the minute. But I decided to tough it out.
She left and almost as soon as she did, the wind started blowing harder and a soft mist was coming down. We rode fast through Loveland on 29th street and turned south to get to Highway 34. By the time we did, I was almost shaking and the mist was turning into a light rain. And we had to get back to Greeley! It was so dark and foggy, cars had their lights on!
We turned east onto 34 (with all the traffic) and I rode as fast as I could on the shoulder. Cars and trucks were whizzing by us and the visibility was getting worse. It was almost impossible to see out of my sunglasses. My legs and feet were getting really cold.
Marshall turned us left to go behind the outlet stores so we could go under I-25 and get up to Crossroads Blvd but it was raining harder by then and he pulled over and said to call Lynne and see if she could come pick us up - yay! Good idea!!!
So, she did. We ended up with about 60 miles (60 very fast miles - at least for me!) in 4.5 hrs (I think). Not what we had wanted but at least we got more than half of the ride in. I thought about riding my trainer when I got home but I was so cold that all I wanted was a hot shower. And I'm not riding again after a shower!
The one thing I'm really happy about is the run yesterday. I think we ended up with 18 miles and I felt relatively good at the end. Now with one more long run and ride coming up, I should be in good shape (and several brick workouts coming up too, which I'm really looking forward to!).
I'm getting there! Slow but sure.
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