28 Degree Ride? CRAZY

Frigid Tracking Route

Last night's low temperature was 15-ish and today has been fairly clear but FROSTY,  man.
Our outside sensor at the house claimed it was 30 degrees but the official reading was 28.
I had another couple of letters to mail - and today was MLK day with no mailman showing up.
So, I thought I'd stretch my bandy legs at least a little and ride around the corner and across the tracks to deposit them in the Post Office outgoing mail bin.  I did it by steps, first  by going out to the garage and pulling the Catrike out to erect the antennas/flagpoles.  Just doing that about froze me all over, so I parked it and went back inside the house to thaw out and work up the courage to actually saddle up and do the short ride.  About 15 minutes did the trick.  I pulled on a ski mask, 3 layers of jackets, and rode into the cold breeze.
I did NOT get overheated, to say the least.  Had I been able to ride longer I might have generated some body heat but not with this short trip, and it was so bitterly cold  I regretted what little I did ride.  My feet and fingers, especially, seemed near frostbite before I got home again.
I force myself to ride, even in difficult situations, because even if it's short and/or painful it stretches my tissues a bit and helps me feel not so crippled up with the throbbing feets.
I had to pass across several ice and snow patches along the way, thankfully without slipping too much, and took mostly side streets with less traffic to worry about.
Official readings were 28 degrees and 77% humidity.  Whoo-ee.   Locals here still walk around in shirtsleeves occasionally but not this former desert dweller.

Ride Started:  2:42 AM    Ride Ended:  3:15 PM

Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.1 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose:  160     Ending BG: 39
Lowest Temp  28 F     Highest Temp: 28 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  1.16
Distance Walked: .1 mile
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
2.2 MPH                                   5.7 MPH                    16.0 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
33 minutes                              32 minutes               1 minute

Deliverimg the Mail

Today's Track of the Locale

We're still acclimatizing to the damp air around here.  42 degrees here feels like 20 or less back in NM where the air is so dry.  The slightest breeze here provides a shocking chill factor for someone like me born and bred in the "Great Southwest".
Currently CA and AZ are being hammered with terrific wintry storms that are forecast to reach us sometime tonight or tomorrow, with temperatures dipping into the single digits.  This will be the coldest temps we've experienced since moving to this neck of the woods.  We'll be fine, so long as the electricity stays on, the furnace keeps working, and the sump pump in the basement keeps cycling the seepage out to the back yard.
As for today, the sun has not yet shown its face, but the temperature has been  hovering around the 40 degree mark, which enticed me to drag the Catrike out of the garage and take it for a short ride again.
Unpacking all our junk, we found a box full of letters from my Dad to his parents and family, as well as a packet of love letters between my Dad and Mom in the closing days of WW11 and mid-1945 during their lengthy courtship of 3 months.  I've been reading through them and contacting MY siblings and others related to some of the other letter - writers involved, to forward these writings to them for perusal.  I'd transcribe them to the internet links to such relatives but there are just too many of them to deal with.
The first few packets of letters are bundled up with postage, so I used them for an excuse to ride the quarter-mile or so to the Post Office.
There was a breeze blowing,  producing the aforementioned chill factor, so I dug out the insulated gloves and velcro ski mask.  I also wore an extra warm layer underneath my windbreaker jacket, which did NOT overheat me.
As usual, I got the gamut of strange looks as I pedaled toward my destination and beyond.  I even passed one of the rare things around here:  Another cyclist pulled over on the side of the road talking on his cell phone.  We both arrived at the Post Office within minutes of each other.
After dropping my packets in the slot, I decided to try, again, to get at least  a few miles under my belt since I was feeling so spry.
It didn't take long for my feet to start talking to me;  the main complaint being the cold.  I decided to cut the ride short and wuss out and return home earlier than desired.
The feets were tired and sore when I got back from this arduous 2-mile excursion but they seem to have calmed down quickly after coming inside out of the cold.
Maybe my legs and feet will heal up eventually after all.

Ride Started:  11:55 AM    Ride Ended:  12:30 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  183     Ending BG: 103
Lowest Temp  42 F     Highest Temp: 46 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  2.88
Distance Walked: .25 mile
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.8 MPH                                   5.6 MPH                    17.65 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
35 minutes                              30 minutes               5 minutes

Tingling Toes, Then Tracking Trouble

Ridiculously Weak Tracking

My hair was getting long and shaggy - almost touching my ears - so today I determined to ride the trike the tremendous distance (almost 1/4 MILE!)  to the barber emporium to get trimmed.
The outdoors were sunny but COLD.  Instead of my open-finger-tipped cycling gloves, I wore full finger gloves, and wished I'd put on the muk-luk mittens instead.  Supposedly it was close to a whopping 40 degrees but to my not-yet-used-to-humidity hide it was pretty frigid.
When I arrived at the barber's I of course got a good ribbing about my transportation, but then settled down to a good cut.  Upon my departure, in spite of the toe-numbing temperatures, I chose to take another round-town trip to extend my exercise routine.
Something has gone wrong with my Igate station, as only a few positions got logged to the internet through it, from very close quarters.  I rode a bit over 3 miles but only several hundred yards seem to appear on the map.  BAH.  My antenna or connection has doubtless gone bonkers.   Hopefully it's not the fairly expensive radio (Kenwood TM-D700) feeding audio to the system.
My feet pain has not really abated much at all, and since the side effects are something no one wants to read about, I have stopped taking the pills.  Hopefully slowly increasing the  miles on the trike will help instead.

Ride Started:  2:39 PM    Ride Ended:  3:44 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  138     Ending BG: 108
Lowest Temp  38F     Highest Temp: 42 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.38
Distance Walked: .2 mile
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
7.2 MPH                                   7.7 MPH                    22.7 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 5 mins                              29 minutes              45 minutes

New Tire & Test Ride

Mountain Grove GPS Tracking

I dragged the Catrike out of the garage today to saddle up and go for a ride.  I again noticed the bald spots on my right front tire and decided, rather than ride it until it blew out and stranded me somewhere, I'd just as well change it out now instead of later.
I had a new tire still in the plastic bag from Amazon so it was not that big of a deal to unpack it and replace the baldie with it.
I noticed when I removed the not-yet-leaky tube it was kinked and pinched in at least two areas.  This size of 20" tire often leads to mistaken orders when buying tubes since there is a difference between the American version of 20" and the Metric version of 35-406 mm.  Thankfully I also had a spare tube with the proper Metric dimensions.  Since it was a front tire I didn't even have to remove the wheel;  I just jacked it up with one of my old 1980's Honda scissors-jacks and changed everything still on the trike.
I don't yet have my garage wired for 220 to light up my big Craftsman compressor, so with a bit of huffing and puffing with the old hand-powered tire pump, everything was copacetic again.
I hitched up the B.O.B. trailer with the intention of taking Tink and Lilly for a doggie-ride but Jacque arrived home from her YMCA gym-session and I decided to leave them home.  Jacque suggested taking a heavy box of surplus stuff to the local thrift store on my way, and since I already had the dog-BOB-trailer attached, I hauled it with that.  Since the thrift store is right across the tracks and around the corner, it was a short haul for the heavy box, and I hardly noticed the weight anyway using the trailer.
My trip was intended to locate a podiatrist's office that I'd found on Google.  I found the office, all right, but no longer occupied by my desired podiatrist or any other.  It was now a laser treatment facility.  So I returned home without an appointment.  Looks like I'll have to drive to another town to find such a physician.
Which, by the time I got home, was someone I sure wish I had found.  My feet were killing me, as usual.  The railroad crossing on Highway 95 was blocked by a passing train, and  I had to wait to cross.  Thankfully I had located some "Sports Rub" with lots of menthol that I used to reduce the pain in the feets fairly rapidly.
The weather today was clear blue skies and relatively balmy temperatures, and no rain for once.

Ride Started:  2:29 PM    Ride Ended:  3:06 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  174     Ending BG: 73  
Lowest Temp  64F      Highest Temp: 67 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.11
Distance Walked: .2 mile
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
5.1 MPH                                   6.5 MPH                    26.6 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
37 minutes                              29 minutes                  8 minutes