Not too much time to ride this morning; last Sunday prior to Christmas so the Redwood City store is open, limiting me to something short. And, of course, cold!

I thought I might miss the worst of it by waiting until the last minute (8:30am) before heading out the door, but if I did, wow, it must have been totally north pole-like earlier! I was seeing 29 degrees heading into and through Woodside, a nice warm-up to 33 heading up Old LaHonda, and between 32 & 30 degrees on Skyline from Old LaHonda all the way past Kings.

I did stop where the tree had crashed across the road near me on Thursday’s ride. Lots of evidence of flares and chainsaws, plus, oddly enough, the water bottle seen in the picture.

Cold but surprisingly comfortable. Heavy winter gloves sure (although 5-finger, not the “Lobster” style usually associated with extreme weather), winter tights, shoe covers, base layer and a Bontrager softshell jacket/jersey that really does a remarkable job keeping you warm without sweating much.

It was my first post-Peru ride where I felt almost normal. Still getting over a cold, but being off the Prednisone for a few days is a big help. Power output not quite back to normal, showing just over 200 watts weighted average, but that’s better than the 190 I struggled to accomplish on recent rides.