Riding Big Red...

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I drove to the park on my way home hoping the deer culling had ended.  It hadn’t, so I hurried home thinking I might work up the courage to do a ride outside.  My bike was still at the shop, but I had a backup plan.  Big Red was hanging in the garage and although I’d given it to Jack for Christmas, I knew he wasn’t going to be riding it anytime soon so I went to ask him if he’d mind.

“That’s just not going to work.  You need to come up with a better plan…like maybe go next door and ask Chloe if you can borrow hers,” he said.

Chloe is 5 and I’m pretty sure she still has training wheels on her bike.  He’s a funny boy, so I countered.  “Maybe I’ll just take it and we’ll call it even for your swiping my chapstick out of the car yesterday morning and leaving me with cracked and sore lips all day.”

He looked at me and thought before saying, “deal.”

I pumped the tires and donned my cold weather gear; it was about 35 degrees.  The roads were almost completely dry since it was still too cold for the snow to melt.  I felt good over the first 30 minutes of the course and decided to go out about 45-50 minutes and then turn around.  When I reached the halfway point at the top of Hobart Road near Chapin Forest, my feet were cold and I knew it would be a painful ride home.  I was not disappointed.

I reached home after an hour and forty minutes of riding barely able to stand on frozen feet.  The good news was that I’d gotten in another winter ride outside AND it was light enough to ride until around 6 p.m.  I love the lengthening days.

The forecast says that by Sunday it should be sunny and in the forties.  I’ll need to put some pressure on the bike store to have my bike ready to go though, because I don’t know if Jack will let me out on Big Red too many times.

Bike duration:  One hour and 40 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  1400.