Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Southern Cal is under the icy grip of an early winter storm. I am sitting at 2000' elevation and it looks like it may snow any minute now. The area I rode this last weekend sits about 2000' feet higher than this and the weather report from there says 27 degrees and -7 degrees factoring in the wind chill. I think I will pass on riding there.

Last night I snuck out before the rain started and rode the SS into the clouds up an eight mile paved climb out of town. I thought about bringing the camera, but the light level was pretty low, etc, so I did not.

Dang! As soon as I topped out I caught the last few minutes of pinkish light coming across the backcountry mountain range (the -7* area), covered in snow with a cloud layer obscuring the top most section. With the brown hills below the snow layer and the clouds on top, it looked like a great big dessert of some kind, albeit a cold one. Wish I had the camera cuz it was an awesome sight. Sorry.

The coast back down was a descent into ice cube-ness. First the feet, then the toes, core pretty good, but I was juuust beginning to shiver when I hit town. My right knee was really unhappy for awhile. No pics of that either. Sorry again.

The hot shower brought me back to life. Definitely no pics of that. Not sorry at all.
It was also the last venture on the Fast Traks as I will be going back to the Mtn Kings to deal with the sloppy trail conditions. I will say that they totally rocked on the paved climb. It really points out how well they do roll. I still could not run the skinny dudes all the time, but I have come to respect them for what they are.

I have come to respect the cold too. I was talking to Guitar Ted and he said it was -3 with a wind chill of -30 or something like that. Good lord! +30 is cold to me. Since I have more of a commitment to training this year, I have been getting out more despite the weather and it points out that I need better shoes and gloves. Thicker tights would be OK too. Still, the fingers and toes are the challenge since it is very hard to layer them. Too many levels of protection and you cannot feel the controls or pedal. Well, I will figure something out.

Meanwhile, the rain has turned to sleet.