Some tests are pass/fail.

Today\’s ride was a test, all right; and a tough one, too. It was 39 degrees, which feels very cold to me; and the wind was 25-26 mph. I\’m glad I had the headwind on the way out!

Again, I saw bizarre heart-rate readings; I know very well I wasn\’t in Zone 6! It took a while for more reasonable readings to show up. I\’ve gotta change that battery.

With wind like that, it\’s a lot harder to control the bike one-handed, especially when I\’m trying to handle a bidon that\’s stowed in a bottle cage on the down tube. Getting a bite to eat from the top-tube pouch  is often harder, too. The wind today kept blowing the net covering back across the top of the pouch while I was trying to get my \”bites\” out of it. The fact that I was wearing heavy gloves didn\’t help.

Even with double socks, my feet were cold by the time I had ridden about three miles. I was wearing a total of five layers above the waist, and slacks over my leg warmers; but my feet seem to be more sensitive. I don\’t think my shoes were too tight, because I could wiggle my toes. I could have used a heavier skull cap, too.

Pass/fail: OK, did I pass the test?

That depends on how you look at it. In the sense that I rode at all in such conditions, it\’s a \”pass\”. So is the fact that I rode farther than I did last Sunday.

Considering that I didn\’t ride as far as originally planned, I flunked. I was tired of spinning in my bicycle\’s lowest gear; tired of fighting the wind. It seems that I\’m still a sissy.