Cold fingers

Last night I charged up the lights and got all my gear together in the basement. I figured this would make it harder to bail on riding this morning. When I opened my eyes at 4:50am I wavered for a moment before nutting up & crawling out of bed. Quietly.

I grabbed my contact lenses and headed to the basement to suit up. I couldn't find my heavy duty mittens so I wore my normal winter riding gloves. No big deal I told myself. Ha!

As I rolled down the street to the trailhead I got worried. It was colder than the proverbial witch's titty on a January night in Lapland. The benefit of the cold was that the trails were frozen solid and offering super-hero traction. The downside was that my fingers started to freeze 5 minutes into the ride.

The last 15 minutes of my hour ride were miserable. I couldn't feel my fingers and I was dreading the thawing out process. I've been there before and it sucks. Despite the issue of the cold, I was still out on my mountain bike on a weekday in January. I ignored the misery and enjoyed the ride.

Back at the house I had trouble getting the key to unlock the door. Gee. Zero feeling in the digits means very little coordination. Once inside my fingers eventually thawed out in a sink of warm water. I moaned a bit, but didn't shed any tears. 8-) No fun. It's after 9am now and my fingertips are still sore. Mittens next time! And perhaps a flask of hot espresso or brown liquor!


bloomberg.com - Michael Lewis on Davos.

npr.org - Juan Williams interviews our fearless leader. wtf. Is it 2008 yet? Snippet - “I’m not that good at pronouncing words.”

cyclocrossworld.com - Chris Milliman talks to the keeper of the Dugast flame.

fatmarc - Still on hiatus. Temporary I hope.

Jonathan Page - He's earned his spot on the top tier. Time for a new website. And perhaps a big RV.

cyclo-cross.info - My Flemish is rusty, but it sounds like Vervecken says...Of his 3 world titles he had to work hardest for this one (nice compliment to J. Page). When Erwin crashed and took Nys down the crowd was booing him, but the same fans booing were the ones cheering him along in the last lap. Wacky (drunk) Belgies. Wellens is done for the season. boo hoo.

www.wcsn.com - update: They have the Sporza feed from 'Cross Worlds and the picture quality is very good. It seems they have their own commentators from the U.S. and A. There are two links for the World Championships on the site. One of them is the Women's race. It's an on-demand streaming feed. I'm almost half-way through the Women's race and the quality is excellent! What a race! Katie is on the front of a big group pulling back Hanka. Check it out.