Cold Front's Coming...

another cold front's moving in today. so what i'm faced with are headwinds with gusts high as 20 mph, a nice frigid north wind, and sand on the road from cdot's (colorado department of transportation) ice melting campaigns. saw a dude biff it on a particularly sandy switchback last year. his compatriots had to call the state po-po where they immediately contacted an ambulance. either way he still got a ride down the mountain. i'll ride my training bike today instead of my race bike just in case the rubber side ain't down (know what i mean?).

oh yeah. off-season, winter riding in colorado. don't think it'll be a long ride.

but what's bad is that i got up early this morning--0630--to think about it (after 10hours of sleep!). what that does is that it plants seeds of doubt of suiting up in my kit including all the winter gear that i own. we're talking about a guy-me!-who can be completely dressed to go ride then, at the last minute, concoct some mental obstacle (be it real or perceived) and get undressed, back in boxers with remote control firmly ensconced in dominant hand, riding the couch instead.

some people call it laziness, i call it a gift.

depending on the following text you will either see (read about) a road weary boy on the road to racing this season; or, a road weary boy on the road to entering his first sumo wrestling event (i mean really, how cool would it be to run around town in man-diapers throwing rice over your shoulder every now and again?). currently, i'm dancing with my son in the living room--me dressed in my beater leather jacket and boxers, and he in his lightning mcqueen fleece jammy-jams because it's 55° f inside, time to start a fire y'all--because he's an early riser like me. we're dancing hand-in-hand to ryan adam's cd demolition. a fine cd it is...

ite den. so these were the conditions i was dealing with per noaa's forecast:
This Afternoon: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 22 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.

the ride was fine because i knew i only had to tolerate an hour and change of this foolishness (as well as the north facing sides of the roadway-yikes!). i make it back in time before the temps dip and i feel good. the last two miles back to my truck the temperature probably dropped a good 10°. i feel good enough to change the oil in my truck right now because i can see the clouds rolling over the mountains next to us. wore four layers up top. a short-sleeve base, a heavy-weight jersey, a summer-weight jersey to fly my sponsor's colors, and a wind vest. no helmet but a windproof beanie and my widest sunglasses (to even make bono proud!). the windchill on the descent was not nice; but here's the crazy part, there were others out too. colorado man.

remember my boy and teammate chris? well he finally graduated with his masters in mechanical engineering and we're (as well as a whole boat load of people he e-vited) celebrating his monumental achievement this evening (including my friend kenny and his wife tracey). i'm sparing no expense for his gift which is an ultra-lightweight, 700c, presta valve inner-tube. didn't say i was going to get it today neither. yup. what're friends for y'all.

here's a non sequitur for y'all to enjoy (regardless of gender): the wunder boner