When the weather doesn't co-operate

I'll admit it, I've become a bit of a pansy in the aging process. I used to ride my motorcycle all winter, somehow that got old rather quickly, and the same tends to start to happen with the bicycle as winter approaches. This year here in the northeast we've been lucky to have one of the mildest Octobers in history, as a matter of fact I think we are on track to shatter the previous record by about 4 or 5 degrees, so there is no excuse to not be riding all this month. For the most part, I have ridden all month, with a few days off due to some knee pain that just comes with the territory. Today they were calling for rain, and usually I wimp out when it's raining, but this winter I've decided to try to go the distance and bike every day I can, so I got out the mountain bike and headed out.

What a refreshing change. I love my roadie, don't get me wrong, but the feel of that Iron Horse Warrior is just something so different, so solid, compared to the road bike, it's truly a totally different feel. Well, on the way in I also realized I hadn't replaced my Garmin edge mount on the mountain bike, so I had to plop the gps in the trunk bag, and off I went. I thought my speed was ok, but I figured I'd be pretty slow since it was the first trip out on the mountain bike for the daily commute in months. I was surprised to arrive at work within minuets of my normal time, and more surprised that I held 14.4 mph (i'm no speedster on the mountain bike, so this is a nice clip for me) and I wasn't exactly working for it, so that's a good thing too.

I'm sure it's going to rain on my way home (calling for 70% chance) but on the way in, the first raindrop I got was on my walk from the bike rack at work to the door, the ambient temp outside was a balmy 69 degrees, and I was never happier to have made the decision to pedal to work in spite of what the weatherman said. I hope to keep doing it all winter, and I while I don't expect the weather to co-operate in such a pleasant manor all year, I do look forward to the time on the mountain bike and the welcome change of pace and feel it brings.

Happy pedaling everyone!