Rippin' the Skinny Skis

With the 6"+ of fresh powder that accumulated on Sunday, I have said good-bye bike and hello skis. Sunday was some fun nordic through Proud Lake with high winds and large snow drifts. Today I opted for an adventure out at Kensington. When you ride through places, you notice trails and options that may make for some fun in the future. If you can believe it, I have actually never layed knobbies on the trails I skiied today, even though I ride past them all the time. 2hrs with the sun shining made a great way to start my break between semesters.

Duel purpose gloves

How often do we see our shadow in MI winter?

Snow covered pines line the trail

A part of the Huron River that was flowing at a good clip

Ride Temptations

Riding long hours in the blistering cold of winter here in MI, many things go through a cyclist head. It is a time of reflection and thoughts of a past season, work that needs to be done, or the future. Often, I find myself thinking about what I am going to stuff my face into once I open the door to replenish the 2000+ calories I burn on a daily basis. The craving is often filled by a large bowl of raisin bran, muffins, cheese, yogurt, nutella lathered on toast, and anything else that looks good.

Today, during my four hour ride in the 25F temps, I was thinking about how bad my legs hurt from a week of long rides and gym workouts. It was not how cold my toes are of how much longer I have to ride into the bone-chilling wind, but rather the amount of acid in my legs and messing with my head. Around three hours in, I was coming back from Whitmore Lake and heading into South Lyon. I see two ladies in the distance waving signs as my mind wonders why there is a car wash on a cold day. As I got closer, I was able to read the sign as one of the attendees waved at me. It read, "$10 massages. Free Hot Cocoa and food." Oh boy, how does stuff like this happen. I carry money this time of year in case of an emergency, and somehow it was exactly ten bucks. Hot chocolate would have been great along with food, you can never go wrong with free food. But, the most important was how great it would feel to get my acid burning legs massaged.

So as I rode on home, I did not think about food, but rather how great that would have been. Too bad I would have froze my ass off when I got back on my bike to finish the ride. Just the way things are connected somehow is amazing.

One more ride this week and then a nice day to freshen the legs. Ahh, how I love winter and our weekly 25F temps. Remember last year at this time we were riding in shorts and armwarmers! Maybe an early spring thaw this year, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!