Holy COLD batman!!

Last night a group of women in T3 decided to get together. Most that attended consider themselves the "turtles" of the group. I most definitely fit into that category. We may take our time, but we'll finish! Anyway, we met at this cool little wine bar downtown and introduced ourselves, told everyone what our goals were, what we needed as far as support and gave our average speeds in each discipline. I left feeling a lot more connected to the group. Nothing like a little vino to bring people together!

Well, there was a cold weather option ride for today since yesterday it was in the 20s in the am. You could either sit on a trainer for 2-3 hours or come out on Sunday to do a nice ride on Parmer, my favorite road. My love for the road comes from it being a mile from my house. I don't have to drive anywhere, I don't have to get up too much earlier...you see where I'm going. One of the girls that I met last night said that she was going to the ride and I said, "Cool! I'll see you at 9am!" I know that I live in Texas, and that it can get a little chilly...but when I woke this morning it was 29 degrees. At 8am I checked again and it was 30. I checked the T3 board to see if anyone was bailing (I was praying really really hard) and there was no such post.

SO...I sucked it up, got my weather gear together, pumped up the tires, filled up my water bottles and left the house at 8:50am, 31 degrees. HOLY EFFING COLD people, like seriously.

Here is what I was wearing:

Socks and cycling shoes with a cold weather toe cover

Tri-short and full length leggings, they meet at the short and tuck under (ultra flattering...not)

Base layer sleeveless dri-fit, short sleeved cycling jersey, sleeveless cycling vest

Full arm warmers (again, they tuck up under your sleeves)

Winter gloves

Beanie cap

Helmet

Orange lenses on my cycling sunglasses

Here is what I should have been wearing:

My pajamas, in bed, with my big dog Fido and husband.

I started out from my house and by the time I got to the meeting place my thighs were squeezing out between the leg warmers and my tri-shorts. Apparently I should have paid attention and worn the longer pair of shorts. (note to self) I yanked the warmers up as we were waiting to take off and yanked the shorts down as much as I could. We left the meeting place and on to Parmer we rode. I was going to do 30-35 miles. That morning I had decided on 20. Once I got going in the below freezing temps I decided on 15. Truth be told, I really wanted to turn around 3 miles in....but I sucked it up and rode longer.

I couldn't feel my fingers, oh they hurt so bad (and still do mind you!), so I had issues changing gears. Nothing could stop the wind from finding the finger tips and toes. My core was nice and snugly warm, the rest of me...well, I was numb. The freakiest part was that when I came to a stop light (as I hit every fricken light both ways!!) I was afraid of not being able to dismount, or afraid that I wouldn't be able to feel my legs and that I would just fall over! I did make it home, I did 15 miles. I was even a good teammate and rode with the girl who said she'd be there on the way out. She had more miles and I wanted to book home so we parted early.

When I got home I just wanted to crash into the yard and hope that Trainer would look out the window and rescue me. After realizing how insane and silly that idea was I made it to the door, pieces of my thigh hanging out for the world to see, struggled to get my key out of my jersey pocket and stumbled through the door. My hands hurt so bad, especially once the blood started to return. Ouch, ouch, ouch...I kept repeating that over and over. Trainer had to help me get my gloves off. The pups were looking at me to figure out what was wrong. Finally I stripped down of my gear, my entire body (sans my core) was bright red. I took a hot bath, but nothing is warming me up today.

Lesson for the day: I will NOT go on any rides under 45 degrees unless I'm training for an Ironman...which is not in the cards, like ever. I can't decide if I kick ass...or if I'm just a dumbass today. :)