The Sunday "Frig" Ride

Today did NOT go as planned on several fronts. 1st, my normal trip to my Dad's house to visit and ride was aborted due to B-Man rocking a head cold. So it was just laying around the house most of the a.m.

After some house cleaning stuff with Wifey I got the all clear to hit the rail trail for a couple hours. Since it was in the high 30s with flurries, I had to first track down all of my cold weather gear and start the layering process.... Gay Man Shirt (Wifey's term for my long sleeve winter base T), knee warmers, tights, bibs, 2 pairs of socks, a jersey, winter gloves, balaclava, wool cycling cap and a pair of Lake winter shoes (bought off of Andew Freye last season).

The end result of my layering is me looking even dumber than usual (although warm)
and a bit like a terrorist/bank robber.

Off to the rail trail I went with a plan for 2 to 2.5 hours of tempo riding. iPodious was set with 2+ hours of muzak to get me through the boringness of the R.T and I was looking forward to burning off last night's re-fried bean burrito bake. I started off... Immediately I felt all cattywompass on the bike. WTF??? Then it hit me! The SHOES!! The Lakes have a MUCH thicker sole and throw off my saddle height. I felt like my saddle needed raised over an inch! I thought my knees MIGHT hit my chin. I usually keep a multi tool in my bike box in the car, BUT I took it out to install the new Ergon grips the other day and didn't put it back. Frig!! I also usually keep my regular shoes in the box, but I took them out yesterday to dry. Frig!

OK, It wasn't the shoes it was my own friggin' stupidity!!!

I figured I could make do with being askew for two hours. Then a rain/snow mix started. Now my desire to be in the rain/snow, on a rail trail, feeling like shit position wise was right at about ZEROE! So I took a wiz on the side of the trail, and turned around. Aborting the ride and finishing with a whopping 30 minutes on the bike. It took me longer to get all those layers on then did to ride! Once again I say- FRIG!!

If the weather would have been better I would have just drove home, got a tool and headed back. BUT then again if the weather was better I WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED THE FRIGGIN' WINTER SHOES!!! Good grief!! A winter ride Catch-22 of giant friggin' proportions!!

So a day of sloth it is! Laying around, eating junk food (OK, not sure Kashi GoLean Crunch counts) and having a couple Sam Lights. We now have a dusting os snow on the ground and I have come to grips with the fact that I indeed will have to lube and ready my stationary trainer, and that I need to organize my Annual Training Plan for 2009.

I still plan to avoid the trainer as much as possible, and refuse to let it rule my winter as in the past. But my desire to get quality work outs in and enter 2009 ready to race is stronger than my desire to not be in the Stankment® The biggest down fall is that for '08/'09 I will need to use my Salsa Campeon on the trainer, since I never got around to building up my old Trek to use on it, and the Booger (an old Jamis) has official shit the bed in a variety of ways. Now I need to sweat guard my Campeon and switch out my rear skewers to avoid damage to my "too sweet for me" red Salsa Flip Offs.

Time to write today off and start anew tomorrow. NOW I just need to buy a friggin' HR monitor. Than again, maybe I'll go back to perceived efforts? Not sure I fancy the idea of buying ANOTHER HR monitor. EVERY SINGLE ONE I HAVE EVER BOUGHT HAS DIED A HORRIBLE DEATH!! Just so you know that was all caps because I was LITERALLY screaming that. If you get get me a quality one on the cheap, let me know, but for now I think I just might go with P.E.. How will I know when I go anaerobic? When I can't breath, my legs are screaming and I vurp lunch on the Stankment® floor! :)

Later.