It's cold up at 7,581 feet (2311 m for my metric friends)!

I've been lulled into thinking the larger foothills hills are going to be warm when I look at my local forecast. 36°F (2°C) is not warm; in fact it's kind of awful to be riding a bike but they did say it was going to be in the fifties (much, much later in the day). I was prepared clothing-wise though. Brought my handy-dandy jacket but was ready to take it off if it ever hit 40°F once I got to the parking area. No luck, still cold as hell in Morrison. Right when I arrived a huuuuge cloud obscured the sun and it was like that until I arrived back to my truck (go figure).

Did a quickie ride up to Lookout Mountain (in Golden home of Coors Banquet Beer), elevation 7581' (2311 m). Started at Morrison (home of the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Bandimere Speedway), elevation 5762' (1757 m). My legs were still humming from yesterday's effort so my plan was to sit the entire way up the climb. Going up paradise there are real short 10% pitches, just enough to make my quads burn extra hot and to stress out my patellar tendon. It was freeeezing at the top. Okay so I kind of lied about the clothing gear. I wore my knee warmers thinking 50°F (10°C) was around the corner. Never showed up. Was hoping too that the north facing switchbacks were dry. It is after all January in Colorado. The top two switchbacks were wet. Took it real slow after that I opened it up but the self-induced wind chill felt as if tiny little ice picks were penetrating all my exposed skin. My shins from the knee warmers were hurting! My fingers were numb and this was the first time in a long time that my Willy was feeling the cold as well. I shivered the entire descent. Felt as if my bike was shimmying due to an alignment issue but it was my body regressing to reptilian responses genetically hardwired in our bodies to induce warmth-shivering and the chicken skin. It sucked. I just wanted to lay over in the shoulder and wrap a blanky around me until Mr. Sunshine showed up (the bastard never did!).

I'm thinking I got more miles last year at this time. Oh well, we'll see once the season's campaigns start up. My weight's down at least. The next three days we're going to be gripped in some freezing (below 0°, -7°F (-21°C),for a high on Tuesday) weather. Gotta get the miles in when I can get 'em however infrequent while not shirking the Dad stuff too often. Balance is about a beeyatch. Did I mention Mike Carter road with us yesterday?