![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/brrrr.jpg\" "\\"brrrr\\"")
<\/a>\n52 degrees was stretching it. I think it was less than that! It was downright frigid. I wore my warm cycling clothes and set out. I could almost see my breath. For the first two miles I was freezing. The wind was cold. My toes were frozen. I was wearing my warm cycling gloves but still a bit cold. The wind was so cold that my eyes were watering and tears were streaming down my face. I was thinking, “Damn this is cold!”\u00a0 <\/em>and “I need Shelby <\/a>to draw me an awesome picture of how brutally cold this is!” <\/em><\/p>\n
Ride Stats:<\/strong> It felt so strange to get on my bike at the end of the day and bike home instead of hurrying to the pool. I miss swimming!!!<\/p>\n Even though I thought about swimming the entire bike ride home (how I wasn’t swimming, how I missed it, how I could find another pool, how I could change my whole schedule to fit the community center’s lap swimming schedule, UGH) I had a good bike ride home.<\/p>\n I was strong. I was confident. I didn’t feel fatigued physically or mentally. I didn’t have back pain like I often do on my bike ride home. I think the biggest factors of this were twofold: 1) Michael made adjustments on my bike seat and it’s now PERFECT and 2) I change to a different backpack that was smaller, lighter and felt a million times better on my back as I rode. The backpack even felt better having all my clothes in it (since it was Friday I couldn’t leave it all at work, I had to take it with me). I’m happy with these changes and felt like they made my bike commute much more enjoyable.<\/p>\n I got out of downtown, passed OMSI and passed Oaks Park and I stopped in the shade to drink some Gatorade mixed with water. If I don’t dilute it, it’s just too sweet.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n<\/em>After about five miles I stopped and took my warm gloves off and swapped them with my regular gloves. It was still cold but not uncomfortable anymore. I was warming up quite nicely.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI made up some time on the Springwater Trail. The wind was at my back for a change and I was able to speed along. I passed OMSI and was coming to a decision point. I was running late (I had left the house about 10 minutes later than I had planned) and had to decide if I take a shortcut across the Hawthorne Bridge, or do my normal route. I checked the time and I had enough time to do the full route.<\/p>\n<\/a>I biked across the Steel Bridge, passed all the homeless sleeping and waking-and-baking. Then I saw this:<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBLAST!!!!! I was trapped. The whole waterfront was locked in with the fence. I needed to cut over to the other road and I was blocked. I biked down the waterfront out of my way until I finally found an opening. I double-backed to get to the road I wanted and headed to work.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTime: 58 minutes<\/strong>
\nCalories Burned: 473<\/strong>
\nDistance: 11.8<\/strong> (the GPS was struggling to find a signal at the start, it’s probably really 12)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nIt felt VERY weird to bike to work on a Friday. Friday is my swim day. Always. It sucks that I don’t have the gym membership anymore, simply because of the pool. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\nAFTERNOON COMMUTE<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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\nThere was nothing annoying that happened on my bike ride. In fact there weren’t many people out, even though it was a Friday and about 80 degrees and gorgeous. My guess was that everyone had tried to leave town early for the long weekend! I was glad I missing the traffic jams and instead I was on my bike. The views were clear and beautiful during my ride.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI tackled the hills with ease on my ride. Nothing was stopping me! I recovered quickly and easily and all I could think about was, “I commuted twice this week!” I felt happy and satisfied with my attempt. I biked through Sellwood and downtown Milwaukie and when it came time to do the big hill (the one I skipped last time) I was feeling energized.<\/p>\n