[easygoingfemme]

Yesterdays exercise was crazy. Our weather was predicted t be at about 55 degrees which is a huge treat at this time of year. My riding partner and I decided on a morning ride. At home we both decided a T-shirt and long pants was enough but... pack a windbreaker just in case. By the time I got to her house to meet up to hit the road the temps had dropped 10 degrees. When we got to our starting destination it had dropped another 10 degrees and the wind was whipping. We had to shout at each other to be heard over it while we were getting ready and the wind knocked my partner's bike over twice which is not cool at all. Once we got out we saw that the trail we hoped was clear had a lot of strips of ice and black ice so we were doing a lot of ride/walk/ride/walk including crossing bridges that were almost solid ice. My cycling shoes are slick and hard with just the clips that lock into my pedals so...no traction. It was not glamorous. After a few miles we decided to head out on the main road that ran parallel to the trail because it would be less icy. But holy cow the wind--- I almost got blown over sideways about 10 times. Like just had to ride with my shoes not clipped in so I could stop fast as possible and get my feet on the ground to not get blown over. My partner carries more weight and wasn't blown around quite as badly but still was powering through headwinds that were almost pushing us to a dead stop. We did not hit the mileage we had hoped for, to say the least.