solar squirrel

Yesterday I biked to work for the first time this year. I planned to ride in with Joe, so that meant getting up SUPER early (middle of the night compared to my usual waking time!) since he likes to get to work by 7 a.m. I talked him into meeting at S. Chagrin Res. at 6:30 and then the plan was to bike the rest of the way in together. I planned to leave the apartment at 6:00 because I didn’t know how long it would take me to get to our meeting spot. Of course I was running late so I didn’t leave the apartment till about 6:15. Since I figured it would be a bit chilly I wore tights and bike shorts, smart wool socks, and on top a long-sleeved technical top, my bike arms (I don’t know what they’re called - arm-warmers?? - I call them ‘arms’.) and a sleeveless bike jersey. I didn’t even think to put on normal gloves and I just wore my normal fingerless bike gloves. As soon as I got on my bike I was like - WHOA - IT IS COLD. I’m talking painful cold. The good news was that there was very little traffic on Solon Rd. and Joe was early so he ended up meeting up with me before we even got to Cannon rd.

By the time I met up with Joe (about 4 miles in) my fingers were starting to lose feeling and I had a bit of frost on my eyelashes (I am not joking). I brought a sandwich and had it in my pocket and I was planning on eating it as my breakfast since you know I didn’t make time to eat before I left - but at this point my fingers could barely shift, let alone open up a ziplock baggie!! We both felt like we could go faster, but the faster we went the colder it was, so we were riding pretty relaxed. We passed about 6 wild turkeys and then 2 geese. The momma goose had her wing out and I saw a little yellow fuzzy baby head poking out from under it! It was so cute and it made me happy that I decided to ride in even though I didn’t have feeling in my toes or fingers.

We made it in 1:15 (that’s from my starting point). Not too bad considering the stopping and the fact that we were going slow because we were so cold. The ride home was the perfect temperature, which definitely made up for the morning. I think I’m going to try to ride at least once per week - it will have to be Tue or Thur though, because I will have class on Mon and Wed nights starting in June.

Here is a link to our route. (Note that I don’t have the marker starting at my exact apartment location just in case someone tries to stalk me…)