The Cold Week That Was

Maybe you saw my post on Wednesday. If not, it was cold. The official low in Denver was -17 F. I acknowledge that this may not seem too cold for many people in the northern regions of the country, but it's really cold to be doing any type of outdoor activity, including cycling. According to the National Weather Service wind chill table, at -15, 10 and 15 mph winds produce windchills of -35F and -39F, respectively. I suppose that wind chill doesn't really matter much if you have all skin covered. Uncovered skin while riding in these temps won't last long.

I did grab some good pictures from Wednesday morning before the camera shut off.

Cold enough to get the river steaming

Proof that others are indeed outdoors in -15F temps



Looking back towards home as the sun begins to cast shadows in the tracks - I love when it does that


It was a good week despite the tough conditions. I was hanging around the 15 hour training mark, with some added yoga and strength training. All 15 hours on the bike this week have been on my "steel is real" Gary Fisher Ferrous... I'm certain that pushing around the 30+ pounds through the cold and snow is adding some good leg strength.

I sandwiched work in between 4 hours and 15 minutes of riding today (45 minutes to and 3:30+ home). The loop back home tonight was pretty interesting.... about 3-4 inches of slow sticky snow started to fall before I headed out and continued for the first half of the ride. By the time I was a few miles from home in Chatfield State Park, there was a full four inches on top of a couple inches of compacted snow from a couple days ago. Cruising along at about 6 miles an hour was all I could muster. I arrived home wet, snowy, but to the wonderful smell of lasagna that my wonderful wife cooked up. She's awesome and I will never take that for granted.

Nothing all that exciting, but I'm sure it'll all get interesting soon enough.
The weather this week doesn't look like ideal training weather, but I'll make do...
Keep on keepin on..... I can't wait for lasagna leftovers after tomorrow's ride.

Snow Biking

about to head out for an hour trek to work....