Staying warm

Toasty Warm

Back to cold-weather riding.  Didn't we just do this?  Anyway, I'm pretty stoked about my new thermal bib-tights.   Of course it hasn't been cold enough (yet) to really test them but I've used them twice on early morning rides and they were significantly warmer than leg warmers or regular tights.  Seriously, they may change my winter-riding life.  How have I gone this long without having a rock-star set of winter training bibs? 

So the next task - and I am open to suggestion - is to insulate my hands.  Lets face it, winter rides often end with frozen fingers and sometimes end BECAUSE of frozen fingers.  Unless you've got the uber expensive (and gucci) electronic shifting option, throwing your chain to the big ring when you lack control over your hands can be a daunting task.  I know I've been to the point of not being able to pull the brakes hard enough - that's a fun problem to discover. 

I realize that my winter apparel is pretty old and well-used so I know I need new insulated gloves and liners.  In addition to those, I've used those stick-on charcoal hand warmers but they just don't do the job if it's really cold (as an aside, they're bad for kitties to eat).  They stick on the tops of your hands ostensibly to warm the blood going to your fingers.  They're better than nothing but you still wind up with frozen digits.  Battery-warmed gloves seem like a good idea but they're pretty pricy for a "lets see if these work" exercise. 

You may say - wait a second, you have - and highly recommend - your emotion rollers.  Why do you even have to go outside if it's THAT cold?  This is true.  But I live in a 1br apt now, with a boy who also has a set of emo's.  Do you have any idea the logistics of setting up two sets of rollers in two different rooms, distributing fans and keeping carpet from getting soaked with sweat, etc?  It's hard enough to take shifts during the week - I'll take the out-of-doors if at all humanly possible. 

Anyhoo.  Frozen fingers.  Frozen toes.  It's December already - it's only getting colder for the next couple of months.  Sigh.  Remind me why I didn't move further south?

 Here's a link to one of the first "best of (insert year here)" lists I've seen ... some are really moving.  Thanks to the boy for sharing.

...And Just Like That

- I'm an Arlington resident.  It's almost like the stress of moving, changing jobs, packing up my house, getting a storage unit, bargaining for a budget-truck and negotiating rent for my house never happened.  It's really funny how our minds work - we often forget the pain and hassle almost immediately after the job is done.  It's pretty close to that feeling we get after a super-hard race or training ride. About mid-way through we're thinking - really? I can't feel my legs and this saddle is impaling me.  I do this on purpose?  Wasn't this supposed to be fun?  Immediately afterward, though, we're chatting with friends and teammates, telling war stories and audibly looking forward to the next race. 

My life in boxes

More boxes

All packed up

Ready to go

Luckily I had a hired hand to drive.  Ok, so he wasn't hired but he did drive.

 
That said, I am NOT looking forward to another move.  Most of my stuff is in storage at the moment so the move would be much less painful, but still.  Moving sucks.

My poor cat has no idea what's going on - he just left a multi-level, multi-bedroom house with access to the out-of-doors for a 2nd floor 1br apartment.  I think he's too confused to be angry right now.  He and the boy are currently having a standoff.  Cassius will hiss, run and hide whenever the boy enters the same room.  BUT, when the boy has food for him, he's all sweet and meow-y.  This is my life.

Week 1 of this new chapter went fairly well.  I started a new job in Tyson's - great position with a cool company but the commute just might take years off my life.  66 is a disaster, almost no matter what time I hit it.  I THOUGHT I'd be going against traffic - everyone heads into the city as I'm heading out to McLean.  Doesn't matter.  Between construction, lanes that drop off just as the on-ramp comes on and - lets face it - absolutely retarded drivers, I've run out of four-letter expletives.  I've moved on to stringing together multiple expletives.  You can get real creative-like if you want to that way!

Aside from the commute, though, it's been awesome. We're working on a routine and so far I think it's going well - the boy can comment if he thinks otherwise!  I get home by about 5 so I have plenty of time to go ride my bike (with my aforementioned MagicShine) and I'm learning ways to get to HP, where the various paths lead etc.  To top it off, I can walk to wholefoods, starbucks and any variety of shops or restaurants.  In Baltimore I could walk to the park -which was a nice park but there's no starbucks there.

All in all, I'm a happy kid.  No more Friday and Sunday night trips between Baltimore and Arlington.  A new job that I'm pretty excited about.  Lots of riding opportunities.  Civilization.  Despite the pain of packing and leaving my home of 9years and a fantastic group of people I worked with for 6years, I'm very happy to finally be here.

Game Changer

game-changer (noun)

(North American English)

a person, an idea or an event that completely changes the way a situation develops

Wow.  I'm not a religious person but the phrase that kept going through my mind last week as I traversed the patapsco trail at 515am was "let there be light".  My magicshine was amazing - I made it through the park a full 2 mins faster without even trying, mostly because I didn't have to keep slowing down and speeding up to see the road.  It was a beautiful experience.

I can't believe I'm so excited about a bike light to ride in the dark. 

While the magicshine is a game-changer for night/early morning riding, I have even bigger news to top that ... drumroll, please ... watch out DC/NoVa, 'cause here I come!!! Yep, after many hours spent driving back and forth to visit friends, attend events and post up for rides/races, I'm FINALLY moving! 

My last day at work in Baltimore is this Friday and the new gig in Tyson's starts the 24th.  Between now and then I'm packing up my house and readying it for my new renters, finding temporary storage while the boy and I figure out where we want to wind up while preparing myself for temporary apartment living after 9 years of having a 3br townhome all to myself.  Sheesh.  Do you have any idea how much ... stuff ... you aquire in nine years?  I'm finding stuff that I had no idea I owned! 

Oh, and then there's the new job to ready for - new commute, new systems, new culture.  For someone like me who likes my routine, this is enough to make my head spin.  BUT, I am completely stoked about the new gig - lots of opportunity and so much to learn, I'm super-excited to be able to partake in the local ride scene and, above all, I am thrilled to know that I will not have to continue taking years off my life in travel time. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of starting off with the newly-revived Sunday 10am ride.  Complete with a shot of hot coffee to start. Note: taking a shot of HOT coffee is not all it's cracked up to be.  While I'm not on form by any stretch of the imagination, I did manage to hang in for about an hour before watching the group ride away from me.  Frustrating, but I know I haven't been riding that much and packing/moving boxes every night after work takes a toll.  (excuses, excuses). 

After I got over my frustration with myself (with much patience from the boy) we proceeded to enjoy another hour or so in the warm sunshine, hooking up with another ride when we saw Jose in the group and taking that ride back into the city.  A quick shower and a death march to a little hole-in-the-wall pizza/sub shop (death march as in I wasn't sure I was going to make it!) and we were happy campers.  It was a gorgeous day as we sat on a park bench enjoying some caffiene doing nothing in particular.

The whole time I thought about how great it's going to be when I don't have to worry about fighting sunday traffic with idiots on 295.  Now THAT is a game changer!