17 days - COLD with Cedar Park Fever

This past weekend was the "Cedar Park Fever" ride, and some of the worst weather I have yet tried to ride in. While it wasn't raining, the Cedar Park Fever ride was dominated by cold and wind with temperatures in the 40's and wind gusts 25 to 30MPH. One guy had his equipment just freeze up - he couldn't even shift gears!

Somewhere along the line I got the feeling that the map of the route I was looking at looked eerily familiar. After a while, I realized that parts of this map were the "Leanderthal" done backwards. Well, imagine the feeling in my gut when I ALSO realized we had to cross the San Gabriel river - through knee deep water - with our shoes and socks off - and it's that cold - holding your bike over your head. PLUS, coming out of the river valley is a very, very steep and long hill. Ice cold muscles + steep hills = cramps. I could see the pain coming...

For each ride there is a "starter". This person gives out the maps, gets the sign up sheet done AND warns everyone about any hazards. This starter either had never done this route, or hadn't done her homework, as I had to tell her to tell everyone about the water crossings (there were two). She was less than clued in, which hurt us all later, as you will see.

The first water crossing was only up to mid calf, shoes off. And man it was cold!!! Worse, I never even made it to the second river crossing. You see, the day before, it had rained really hard, and when I saw the group of riders ahead of me heading the wrong direction (back towards me!) I knew the river was uncrossably high. So that was that. So if the ride starter had done her homework, she would have driven the route and found out ahead of time the river was not passable. So we all ended up going that way for naught. A shame it was all a waste of time.

Well things got sillier. Somehow, on the way back, I got all turned around and got lost. That seemed par for the course, the way the day was going. So I did several extra miles, which actually led to the only really funny moment of the day.

When I got lost, I took my map out in the middle of nowhere farm country. Well, with the wind up the way it was, together with my confusion, I somehow lost my grip on the map and it whipped out of my hands and into - you guessed it - the cow pastures. Or should I say the "poop pastures". Imagine the scene of me in full bicycle gear wildly chasing down my map in 25MPH winds while trying to avoid the cow poop. Ha!

So the rest of the week has been recovery rides in the neighborhood. Nice and easy. One night I did spinning in the garage on the bike stand listening to 70's disco. Now I can't get Gloria Gaynor singing "I Will Survive" out of my head - aargh!

Getting really close to the big weekend for the MS 150. Trying to find a cot to sleep on at the campgrounds.

Cheers boys! Miss you.