It's a rather chilly finish to April here in Maine. A couple days this previous week we had downpours of rain followed by freezing cold days with blustery wind gusts that just take your breath away. I did two training rides today in this cold windy weather. I live in an area that is a few miles away from the breezy ocean so it wasn't too terribly bad, although we crested a hill that overlooked many surrounding hills and I had a hard time breathing through all of it. All I can say is, layer up!! You end up taking them off, putting them back on. Some areas are warmer than others. And some areas were so windy it made it a huge challenge for me to haul my heavy mountain bike up and down hills. I hate it, but know that it's only going to make me stronger, so therefore I love it. This type of weather is certainly not for everybody, but honestly, you burn more calories in the cold than in the warm. I am a lucky person that I have experienced enough cold from cross country skiing in the winter and biking as early as February that I can handle it! So our first training ride was about 17 miles and I got to ride some unfamiliar roads that my friend knew. I was feeling pretty good by the end of it, but had also made plans to go ride with another Trek Across Maine teammate too. We ended up doing almost 11 miles in a big loop through town. My endurance is definitely getting better, but I really need to work on going up steep inclines, that is my weakness especially with the heavy mountain bike with a saddle rack that holds all my tools just in case something happens. I have suffered with enough flat tires on the road that rather than being stuck stranded in the middle of nowhere I can just fix it myself! We might go out again tomorrow, but maybe not, it's supposed to be cool and windy as hell just like today was! All in all I am closer to my goals of where I want to be when we actually do the Trek, already I am twice more prepared than I was last year!
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