We’re having another wet spell here in Durango. The trails are too wet to ride. It’s in the mid 40’s out. Rain comes and goes, but the skies stay gray. I needed to hop on a bike to ramp up my last week of intense training. Don’t have a bike trainer, don’t have any rollers, don’t have a gym membership. Time to suck it up. Pull out the wool, take out the rain jacket, hop on the skinny wheels, and head for the mountains.
I generally like to knock road riding, but in times like this, it’s all I got for putting in some miles. I did do my first Insanity Asylum workout today, and it was pretty killer, however, my arse and legs need some serious saddle time to toughen up for the beating they’re gonna take in 10 days.
It was nice to change it up with a road ride. I decided to do an out and back route to Lemon Reservoir. Never been up that way, but always heard it was pretty, along with Vallecito a few more miles to the east. Heading out of town on Florida road, I could see the high peaks to the west were getting snow. It probably won’t be too long before we get snow in town.
Fall is in full swing here. All of the deciduous trees are turning from green to vibrant hues of reds, yellows, and oranges. It is quite spectacular, and I must admit, best appreciated from the steady clip of a road bike. I wanted to take a camera, but I was afraid of getting rained on.
Water didn’t start falling until I got close to the CR 240/243 fork. Up to then, my upper body was nice and toasty in a wool jersey and wool arm warmers. I didn’t think it would be cold enough for wool leg warmers, so I just brought my lycra ones. Big mistake.
I stopped and threw my rain jacket on and that kept everything dry except my legs and feet. It’s a little bit of a climb to the dam from the fork in the road, and even though I was getting pretty wet, I was working hard so it didn’t bother me.
Once at the top I took a few minutes to enjoy the view. I turned around and started heading back to town. The descent was bone chilling, and kicked water all over my shoes soaking them completely. My core was still warm, but everything from the thigh down was painfully cold. It did not help that the ride into town was mostly downhill and I would clocking 35-45mph quite easily. Well, moving at that pace did get me back quicker, but just made the cold worse. Strangely, I yearned for some climbs since they would slow me down and help me build some heat back up.
There were a few climbs, but my momentum pulled me up and over most of them. The cold got to me mentally, at first. This was a good thing. I took those wussy thoughts and buried them deep in the hurt locker. It was very uncomfortable, but nothing life threatening, I knew some dry warm clothes were only a half hour up the road. Thinking about how nasty the weather was only wasted precious energy. Instead, I chose to enjoy the changing leaves, the smell of smoke coming from mountain cabins, and the thrill of spinning 125 rpm in the 53×11, in the rain.
I didn’t have a camera, but here is a pic I stole from another site:
