Baby, It's Cold Outside

The forecast for yesterday's Peach Peloton included temperatures in the 30s throughout the ride with rain the first few hours.  We started on the east side of Macon, a slightly farther drive for a lot of our Peach Peloton regulars.  Given these two disincentives, we expected a smaller group than usual.  Robert asked me what the over-under would be.  I said 6; he guessed 8.  It was 6.

The weather was exactly as predicted.  I was dressed as well as I could be, but my fingers and toes still had bouts of numbness during the ride.  I've ridden in some pretty bad conditions, but yesterday was among the toughest.  We all suffered.  I had forgotten how much difficult weather will take out you.  The body uses a lot of energy to maintain its temperature when it's cold and wet.  On the bright side, the guys were only interested in completing the ride - no rotations or attack zones yesterday.  Woo hoo.

A few random notes from the day:

• When I eat a Cool Mint Clif Bar, I get the sensation of...riding on a rural road in Wilkinson County in December in the rain.  Hmm...not quite the same as a York Peppermint Pattie.
• The guys were laughing at me because they couldn't understand what I was saying during the ride.  My jaw was half frozen, and I couldn't help slobbering.  I felt like the Tasmanian Devil.
  

• I try to avoid bib shorts when I ride with the Macon guys because it takes me longer at nature breaks as I have to remove outer layers to get the bib straps down.  Yesterday, I didn't care.  I wore my warmest insulated tights, which are bib-style.  The guys had to wait an extra minute for me during our nature break.  They were very nice about it, though.  Incidentally, Chad M., our ride leader, opted not to have a store stop even though the route was 70 miles.  He reasoned that that was preferable to getting even colder following a store stop.  To my surprise, I decided that was a good call.
• After the ride, Robert and I stopped to get some sandwiches.  Even after that, both of us were still pretty chilled, and so we also went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee for him and hot chocolate for me.  As he drove us home, I started feeling pretty cozy from the seat heat and the warmth of the cup on my hands.  It was definitely nap time.  When I woke up at home, it was an hour and a half after the ride.  I got out of the car and started walking inside.  I felt something biting the bottom of my foot at the heel.  Immediately, I took off my shoe and sock, but there was no insect.  I took a few more steps, and the sensation started again.  Weird!  I had never had such a reaction, but I'm sure it had to do with the cold.  Fortunately, it went away quickly.  I mentioned it to Robert, and he said he had had a similar experience!  Even stranger, when went to a Christmas party later that evening, I found out that Chad M. and Van had the same reaction.

I did question my sanity for riding in such conditions when I'm not even training for anything specific.  I guess I did it to make sure I still could.  I'm afraid that if I avoid weather extremes, I'll get to the point where I can't handle them.  Besides, it's like making a deposit in the ol' mental toughness bank.  In the future, if I'm in a difficult spot - in a cycling event or in life in general - I can remember that I made it through yesterday's Peach Peloton.