The past few days has seen nice weather for this time of year, and I've sort of been lamenting the fact that I haven't been able to go for a bike ride. Actually, not that I haven't been able to - but after my last bike ride in early October, I sort of mentally checked out for bike riding for the rest of the year - so it's not until it's mid-way through a nice day that I think 'damn, it'd be a nice day for a ride'.
So after doing that (again) yesterday, I checked the weather for today and saw it was going to be decent weather again - in the 50's. So instead of going to the pool, I decided to take advantage of the decent weather and do my Wachusett Reservoir loop. The last time I had done this loop, I vaguelly recalled having done it in around 2:45 or so - and today I was somewhat curious how the leg workouts I've been doing may affect cycling performance.
It didn't take too awful long after starting out to determine that today might not be the best day for high hopes in that regard, because my legs weren't feeling incredibly strong. As the ride progressed, my mental state went through the phases of 'Hey, it's nice to be on the bike again - I'm glad I got the opportunity to go for another ride before it gets too cold' to 'Oh man, I'm not even halfway through yet and I'm kinda tired of doing this' to 'This is starting to get annoying' to 'Wow I really wish I was done, but I'm only 2/3 of the way through' to 'Should I give a call home for a pickup - because it is starting to get cold and I'm just really not enjoying this much'.
It was around the halfway point that I decided I should just admit it - I'm a fair weather cyclist. Cycling is enjoyable enough in the right circumstances, but there are aspects of it that aren't so fun no matter what the conditions - so when you start tossing in cooler weather, for me it just tips the scales enough that I'd rather not bother. Yes, there is cold weather gear, and I had (barely) adequate layers on - but even still, the cold affected other things - like it seemed like the bike frame was stiffer, making bumps more annoying. Also, my rear derailleur needs a tune-up, because it spontaneously shifts back and forth when I'm in a couple of particular gears. It occured to me that with the lower temperature and resultant contraction of the metal cable, that maybe thats why it was a lot more on the fritz today as opposed to earlier in the year.
So, all things considered - I'm glad I did it because this way if we get weather in the 50's again, I can now say 'no thanks, still too chilly for a bike ride for me', and I don't have to feel bad about missing an opportunity.
By the time I got home, I was just glad to be off the thing. When I checked my time, I was about 2 mph slower than my last time around that loop (sometime in September). So that kinda sucked as well. I'm going to blame the temperature for it all, though. It's not that I was really that cold (core temp was fine - just the extremities were a bit chilly when I got home), but I was wearing cycling shorts, so I just think that overall temperature was too low for optimal energy output in the human body. Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.
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