Pushing Through the Cold Weather

The weather this time of year makes it harder to enjoy a bike ride. I use to be mostly a fair weather rider and not bother going out if the temperature was below 50 degrees. Last year was a warm winter and I ended up riding most of the winter. This involved riding in colder weather than I usually ride it. It was not always fun and some times I'm not sure I really enjoyed it but I learned how to ride in the cold with out getting too cold. I still won't ride when the weather gets below 35 especially if it is windy but I am hoping for enough warm days to get a few rides a month during this winter.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend. I ended up riding on Friday which was in the low 40s. I put together an adhoc ride with Herb, Bruce, and Mary. We made did a Mendokas run which ended up being around 45 miles. At Mendokas I got something I hadn't seen before called ButterCrunch which was a crumb cake wrapped in a danish baked in deliciousness. It was the best thing I ever had there.

It was a little cold at the start of the ride but it warmed up towards the end. The worst part was heading back into Cranbury where we hit a nasty head wind. It was a tough 5 miles but after that the it wasn't too bad. I plan to continue to push my limits as the weather gets cooler. For those interested in riding with me just keep watching the blog and I will try to post the time and place where the ride will start. We usually start somewhere around East Windsor or Cranbury. During the winter we usually start around 11 am and do between 30 and 40 miles. It's usually not as fun as the summer rides but its a lot better than not riding.

Sourland Scenic Ramble

This past weekend I actually had a couple of good rides. I was off on Friday so I ended up on Dennis's ride out of Etra park. Even though the roads where wet he had a good crowd, 9 people. It was relatively warm but the roads were very wet and it misted a little while riding so it was a little messy. It was fun riding with Dennis, George, and a few of the others I haven't seen in a while. I felt a little younger on this ride since the average age was probably in the mid 60s. Even though these guys are a little past their prime they can still move along at a good pace.

We ended up going to Freehold and back. Herb and I split off from the group at the rest stop to put in a few more miles. We ended up going through Turkey Swamp and by the time we got home we had almost 55 miles in. It was a good ride but the wet roads really made a messy of the bike so I ended up spending a good 2o mins cleaning it up after I got home.


Saturday's rain made it too messy to do my Sourlands ride so I ended up doing it on Sunday 11/9. I ended up doing the ride with just Herb and Mike M. It was a little cold with a stiff west wind but it was sunny so riding was pretty comfortable. We headed over the Sourlands the easy way up Hollow Rd then down Lindberg. From there I zig zaged around some of the farms and rivers in the area. Although the we are past the peak foliage there were still some nice colors to see.

We eventually made it to Stanton and enjoyed a chocolate cheese cake muffin. From there we headed back around the top of the Sourlands so there was no real climbing involved. We also had a tail wind some of the time which made the ride back a little easier then the ride out. It was a good ride I just wish a few more people had shown up. I probably won't be doing rides out this way until the spring since I usually tend to say closer to home during the winter months. I did not put any rides in the book for December but instead will use email and the blog to organize rides when the weather is warm enough.