That There Sun, Sho' is Deceiving

After I change the front brakepads on Melissa's 4runner at Grandpa's I get a quickie ride in up here where I live. The sun's kicking it and I'm thinking hmmmm, it's not so cold. The temps at my house read 37°F and that was enough for me to just wear a jacket, knee warmers, neoprene booties and gloves. I don't fire up the Tundra and I pretend I'm doing cyclocross as I ride out of our snow covered, dirt driveway. Reminds me of Koppenburg as the rear wheel gets loose and tracks independently of the front. As usual, the clothing's not enough and the downhills are chilly. C'mon, it's 8K in elevation, nearly February, and I should know better right? I need to climb soon, so I do the Pleasant Park, Oehlman Park, Hilldale Pine, City View back up to 285 loop.
The legs where heavy after yesterday's effort so I go chilly-chill with no out-of-the-saddle climbing on the steep stuff. I'm the only yahoo out there cycling even though it was a nice enough (but cold!) day. The climbs started off nice, nothing too steep, just annoyed by my lack of dressing myself.

Here's Pleasant Park...

Here's Oehlman Park/City View...

...The overpass that leads back to my house looking at Southbound 285...

The scary stuff was the sandy, slushy/wet, north facing parts of the route as evidenced by this...

Still real pretty out here this time of the year. Would've loved to go to Denver or Boulder but it's just too much time away from the family when I can get a quality ride nearby; plus, I be needs to go easy on gas expenditures. To spend two hours driving for a three hour ride might be justifiable but that takes too much time away from the family and doing familial chores to keep the household running. Hence my endurance issues in 80+ mile (128+ km) road races when the season begins; and when the season does begin, it's hard to justify driving two hours for a one hour timed crit (see the pattern?). Last year at this time I was getting crazy miles with Kenny in Boulder only to be negated by fierce March snowstorms.

I'll take what I can get but not at the expense of hanging family-side. I have no desire to cat up but I do have desires to continue to drink beer and eat crappy food (one of the main reasons I race). Balance Daniel-san...