3.61 miles of ice cold hands

I went for a 23 minute bike ride today. It's all the time I had after my {painful} visit to the Witch Dr, and I thought, you know, that isn't enough time to do much of anything... I should try to do something. So, I threw 2 layers over what I was wearing, jogged down the stairs, and when I walked outside my chest/lung function immediately put me on notice. Never mind that though - I popped the kid seat off the back of my bright pink bike, jumped on, and shot off the end of my driveway like a rocket. A really slow careful not to catch an edge on the curb rocket.

It's frigid today. Really REALLY. I was wearing 2 pairs of socks, a pair of tights, my cheetah skirt (because I knew it wouldn't fall off me if I was riding, and I was riding alone, so the "ode de cheetah" smell wouldn't bother anyone), 2 tops, a jacket, ear warmers, a bike helmet, gloves and sunglasses.

About 8 seconds into my ride, my fingers were little ice blocks. Still, I thought I would warm up, the way I warm up on a run. About. That. When I got home I discovered they were actually blue at the tips. Next time I guess I need to wear 2 pairs of gloves.

This was the first time I've ever ridden my bike with the effort toward fitness. All my other bike rides have been with kids, at the speed of a 7 year old, on neighborhood roads & short rides only.

Today I boldly ventured out onto real roads.

And 5 minutes into my ride, quaking from cold and fear, I ascended the N. Gayton Rd Hill gasping for breath with stars obscuring my vision. (for those who don't live here, rest assured, it is steep enough that I was standing on my pedals while barely moving) I felt like a poser. I swear. I felt like everyone who drove past, looked at me, and thought, "Dang, that girl can't even ride that bike".

The wind was blasting me from the front, and my neck was sadly under dressed so it started to complain to my cold fingers. Certainly I was wearing more clothing than if I was going for a run, why in the heck was I so darned cold? OH yea g, when you run, you don't go this fast, the wind doesn't rush past you with such force that it whistles in your ears. From N. Gayton I turned into FoxHall.

It's where I do my "hilly runs", and I thought, it seemed like a good idea to ride my bike on that route today. What was I thinking? Because if you're tired and running, you can run slower and still be running. When you're tired and riding, you can't ride slower and still balance! But WHEW, after each summit, I plummeted down the back side of those hills at gut wrenching speeds.

And as fast as I was going, I was distressed that I only traveled 3.61 miles in the time allowed. I surely thought 4 miles was doable since I was only going out for a short "ride". Don't ask, I have no idea how to pace myself on a bike any more than I knew how to pace myself on my feet when I started running almost 2 years ago.

I have no milage goals for 2010, but so far I have logged >1 running mile and 3.61 bike miles. I guess that will do, it is ONLY the 5th of January.