Motivational Day...

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Yesterday I needed to get in a decent training ride and I knew it was going to be cold out so I prepared for it and headed out at 7:30am. I think it was about 10 degrees and with the wind chill - MUCH colder. EWith 3 layers on the bottom and 4 up top I was either prepared or over prepared. I had a couple of workouts prescribed so that kept my mind at ease for the first hour or so. I headed from Parsippany up into West Milford as I needed some hills for my workouts. It was good until at the 1:30 mark my toes were numb and frozen. That's usually not too bad so I kept pressing on. At 1:45 the sides of my feet were numb and progressively getting worse. I kept doing 1 leggers and shaking out the other leg to get blood flowing. This would work for a little while but it wasn't a real solution. At 2 hours my heels were then frozen. I've never felt this before and I was starting to get a little worried.

I did have a plan though. My folks live up in West Milford and I knew they'd be having a fire. So I then booked straight to their house and proceeded to strip and warm up. After 2:30 of riding I was so grateful to be in a warm spot to chill and get some feeling back. When I got there I took off my shell jacket and on the arms of my fleece there was snow. Lol...i just started cracking up after seeing all that sweat from before turn into snow flakes. Kind of amusing... After 45 minutes of stealing food, drying my clothes, and thawing my feet I did head back out. I knew it would be over an hour and a half to get home so I tried to keep the blood flowing and take my time and keep myself warm. The problem was that my jacket was still wet and proceeded to saturate me and start chilling my core. So now my feet were good but the rest of me was just uncomfortable.

The ride home was uneventful but just cold and especially blustery. Those winds kicked up and reminded me more that even as it was warming up a little it was still going to be ballz cold. So I arrived home after being out for 5:15 with 4:33 riding time, 63 miiles, and over 4000' of elevation it was nice to be in my warm apartment. As miserable as it was at times I just kept thinking to myself, when I really get bummed this summer(which will happen at some point) I'll be able to look back on this and have some motivation to say well at least it wasn't as miserable as "this" day. If only I had some foot warmers it would have been a much more enjoyable ride. Everything was toasty except my feet. The moral of the story - buy foot warmers and ride happy :)
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Well, there go all my excuses for not riding today.
(sarcastic)Thanks A LOT, Ryan!:rolleyes:
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Sheesh...lol. Just trying to pass on my experiences to help others;) Didn't realize I was blowin up your excuse. After all is said and done I was really glad to get out, even though it wasn't the most enjoyable ride.
 

RNG1

Well-Known Member
Sheesh...lol. Just trying to pass on my experiences to help others;) Didn't realize I was blowin up your excuse. After all is said and done I was really glad to get out, even though it wasn't the most enjoyable ride.

Great job on getting out, I punked out and did a 5 mile run figuring I would get the workout done faster then spun inside.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
The moral of the story - buy foot warmers and ride happy :)

That's been my motto for years... "If my feet are warm, I'm warm... If my feet are cold, I'm miserable..." I remember how happy I was on the first ride with my brand new Sidi Winter Storm II's... :p

Great story. You're more hardcore than me... When temps drop below freezing, I pretty much stick to the woods.
 

Mare

Well-Known Member
Where else can you post something like this and have people look up to you instead of thinking you are crazy?? Way to go!! :)
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
That's been my motto for years... "If my feet are warm, I'm warm... If my feet are cold, I'm miserable..." I remember how happy I was on the first ride with my brand new Sidi Winter Storm II's... :p

Great story. You're more hardcore than me... When temps drop below freezing, I pretty much stick to the woods.

I would have loved to get in the woods but I know I can't control my heart rate like I can on the road. That was the main goal. I'll be able to turn it loose soon...just not yet.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Yea it's looking ok at this point but still WAYYYY early. Sunday will be my big day. Saturday I'll be out but only for about an hour or so.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I did have a plan though. My folks live up in West Milford and I knew they'd be having a fire. -)

If I stopped at my folks house on that kinda ride I'd spend 1/2 hour getting warm and 2days getting bitched at for riding in "that kind of weather":rolleyes:
Good dedication on training, keep us posted:D
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
If I stopped at my folks house on that kinda ride I'd spend 1/2 hour getting warm and 2days getting bitched at for riding in "that kind of weather":rolleyes:
Good dedication on training, keep us posted:D

Yea I got that a little. My dad was saying before I got there I don't know how many idiots will be out in this kind of weather. Then I pulled up. He then says, "I knew you were never that sharp...". To which I responded I love you too.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Sheesh...lol. Just trying to pass on my experiences to help others;) Didn't realize I was blowin up your excuse. After all is said and done I was really glad to get out, even though it wasn't the most enjoyable ride.

Mission accomplished. Your experience got me out there and I needed it bad. One more day of rest and I might have migrated from the computer to the couch and turned on the TV... God only knows what would have happened then.

Yep, it's cold and nasty and it hurts out there, but it hurts so good. Makes you know you're alive.

Really Ryan, thanks for the motivation.
 

graveyardman67

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Good for you Ryan. Next time when you go thru Boonton pick me up. I'm now using buying a new house as an excuse not to ride; the previous two weeks I worked a minumum of 75 hours as an excuse. I'll soon be out of excuses, hopefully it'll be warmer:)
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Mission accomplished. Your experience got me out there and I needed it bad. One more day of rest and I might have migrated from the computer to the couch and turned on the TV... God only knows what would have happened then.

Yep, it's cold and nasty and it hurts out there, but it hurts so good. Makes you know you're alive.

Really Ryan, thanks for the motivation.

Sweet glad I could lend a hand!!!
 

liong71er

Well-Known Member
that's an truly awesome training motivation rides,good job ryan!!

and as for the cold/numb toes,try this........dismount and walk for about 5-10 min or until you feel back to normal blood flow and that's what i'll allways do.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Good for you Ryan. Next time when you go thru Boonton pick me up. I'm now using buying a new house as an excuse not to ride; the previous two weeks I worked a minumum of 75 hours as an excuse. I'll soon be out of excuses, hopefully it'll be warmer:)

I go through boonton all the time. Next time I go I'll have to drag you out ;)
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
that's an truly awesome training motivation rides,good job ryan!!

and as for the cold/numb toes,try this........dismount and walk for about 5-10 min or until you feel back to normal blood flow and that's what i'll allways do.

Walking? There's no walking in cycling! Yea I was thinking about doing just that but I was too stubborn to stop the mileage piling up.
 
Top Bottom