I asked Kevin before starting out this morning, is it two months out of the year, or three, where we get to ride without leg warmers and base layers? Some days I’m prone to thinking, y’know, about the time we get back from this ride, would be a good time to start. Quite a bit warmer! Of course that’s relative; it was 36F on the way out, about 40F on the return.

Beginning to see a few others out there again, as people get bored of Zwift and will brake wet roads when it’s not actually raining. About those wet roads. Just one hour of rain last night, around midnight, but because there was no wind, the roads were a mess. And I caused it. How? I cleaned my bike the night before. Sigh.

Kevin was feeling ok, I was not. Big surprise. I got myself to the top of the hill on one of those days were you’re actively thinking about the various places you might turn around. But you don’t, because you can’t, because you know you will feel better, later in the ride. A virtual guarantee. You don’t feel like that’s possible, climbing Kings, but eventually you find yourself capable of something more than the measly 210 watts showing on the computer.

It will get warmer. I will get faster.

It’s difficult to understand why this is something we’d look forward to doing. After all, 38F and rain is about as bad as it gets; the coldness finds a way in when it’s wet. Rain above 45 is no big deal, but at 38, you’ve got to take special precautions because our rides involve not just climbing but also descending, and there are times, and today was one of them, where the bottom of the hill just can’t come soon enough.

As was the case last week, we had to drastically shorten the ride, just climbing to the top of Kings and back, no run along Skyline, because we didn’t feel comfortable descending in questionable weather with a lot of cars on 84. Never an issue on Kings at that hour.

Nobody else out there. That’s unusual; even on the worst days we’ll occasionally see someone commuting on Canada.

While it’s kind of fun getting out there just because nobody else is, I’m definitely looking forward to Thursday’s forecast of no rain.