Need. More. Riding.

This week was snowy and I was very happy to see the snow.  Finally.  I didn't even mind the hour drive to work or the ice scraping when I got out.  There's something peaceful about the first few snows of the year.  Something festive.  It finally feels like Christmas might actually come this year.

But then again, it IS Colorado...

Today was 50 degrees and beautiful.  The only hint of this week's snow is the freshly packed, slightly wet gravel on the path.  The sun was shining brightly, the air smelled clean, and I could walk outside without putting on the down jacket.  After writing a long paper, and having a great lunch with my friends, I went for a little ride.  Finally.  It seems it has been too long.  

My legs felt pretty terrible.  Like they were filled with stones.  But the great thing about riding? As bad as it feels, if you just keep riding, it generally gets better.  My goal for the ride was merely to get out, ride, and find a good place to capture a picture of Longs Peak for Chris. I ended up riding for around an hour, pleased with the day but not so pleased with the massive headwind and low tire pressure.  Luckily the single speed turns an ordinarily easy hour ride into a decent workout.

While I was out enjoying the beautiful weather here, Chris was out hiking Longs Peak (hence the picture for him).  A big cloud seemed to be hovering around the Longs area, so I am curious to see how his weather was.  My guess was it was pretty windy.  I've watched his SPOT closely when I've been home, and unfortunately it was inconclusive as to whether or not they reached the summit.  It didn't refresh very often at that point, and so I'm not sure whether they got close and turned around, or tagged it quickly and made it back down a bit before the SPOT refreshed.  12 hours in, he appears to be nearly back to the car, so I look forward to him coming home and telling me all about the adventure.  I'm jealous that he has now possibly stood on the summit Longs without me, but at the same time I am incredibly proud of him for taking on the challenge and diving right in.  

As a nice little surprise for him when he gets back, I made him some cookies.  And promptly royally screwed them up.  I've made the cookies a million times, but still they don't taste so good.  Luckily he's sweet enough that he'll probably eat them without complaint.  What a nice boy.

Tomorrow I am going to sit down and make a riding plan for the week.  I am going to slowly get myself back into a routine and then start actual training again in January.  It is time to get back into riding.  Climbing, though, has been an unexpectedly amazing diversion.  

Meanwhile, I will be eating yucky cookies.  So sad.