Hard Core Cycling

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Today was my first “COLD” weather bike ride. Our Tri-Fusion Club President, Roger Thompson, extended an invitation to the Board of Directors (Tri-Fusion is a Triathlon Club that we have spent the last several months forming and will officially launch on November 8th.) to join him on his first “easy” recovery ride since his Ironman World Championships Finish in Kona, Hawaii last Saturday. Roger challenged some of us girls and oldies to join him saying this would be a great opportunity to actually be able to ride with him and stay together as a group. Kevin and I took the bait. Sounded like fun to us.

The ride was to take place at 8am Saturday morning, we were to meet at the Fairwood shopping center just off of Hastings and the ride would be 2 hours long. Kevin and I got our winter clothes boxes out and decided to lay our clothes out Friday night. Saturday morning when we arose, the temperature on our front porch thermometer read 32 degrees!!! We both started getting out another layer of clothing from our boxes. Kevin brilliantly says to me “Honey, today is the day that we discover what kind of gear we really need to ride in these conditions!”

Kevin and I got dressed in the first layer, loaded up the van and drove to Fairwood, which is only ¾ of a mile from our house, but we wanted to be able to take the camera for pictures, so we drove. Everyone was there and they were all putting on their many layers. Among us all we had every kind of warm cover they make from, gloves, shoe covers, skull caps, beanies, neck warmers, face protectors, leg warmers, arm warmers, etc.By 8:30am we were riding away from our parking lot. We would be riding out Peone Road to Mt Spokane. It was now 34 degrees and foggy outside, not sure what temperature it was for our bodies if you figure out the wind chill factor at 15 to 20 mph. All I know is, that I was so cold the first 30 minutes of the ride I considered turning back several times. The moisture from the fog was freezing on my glasses so I had to take those off. My feet and hands were freezing. My fingers were so cold and numb they were burning. I was literally afraid of frost bite and Kevin and I had an 11:30am couples massage scheduled!! So, for the first 30 minutes I rode with one hand and rotated placing one of my hands in the pocket on my cycling jacket to get it next to my body for warmth. Jessi actually suggested that I increase my effort to try to get my heart rate higher to help get my blood pumping through my extremities. So I decided to go to the front with Sam and step it up, and it worked!!!! Now I wouldn’t say that I felt warm by any means but I got rid of the burning and aching and no longer felt in fear of frostbite!!!!!!!

When we got far enough out Mt Spokane Road we broke out of the fog into some sun and I was happy that I had gone on the ride. Today I discovered another benefit to the Tri-Fusion Club, not only is there power (energy, motivation etc.) in numbers; there is fun in numbers. I can assure you that if I had gone on that ride today alone, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have turned around in the first 15 minutes and been back home in the comfort of my warm house.

Tri-Fusion Rocks, I love you guys and gals and look forward to making more “hard core” memories this winter.