Forcing through frost

For this morning's ride, I went back to my road bike.  And that felt like a good decision for a while, despite the temperature being in the teens (it was supposed to be 3-4 degrees warmer).  And then I got past the Metro at East Falls Church, and saw a bit of ice.  The first bit wasn't bad, and I went another half mile or so until I saw a second.

And that one wasn't good, but at least it was short.  Then there was a longer stretch, but the ice was mostly covered in snow (never would have guessed that I would preferentially choose snow for riding, but it was worlds better than the bits of exposed ice).  Then there was more.  By the time I got to the third street after Rt 29, I gave up and went to a nearly parallel road.  I went on the road for several blocks, then looked at taking the bridge across Rt 7.

The path to the bridge was clear, but the bridge was completely covered in snow (and maybe ice under that), so I turned around, and went back to the road.  Then down Rt 7 to Idylwood, where I turned right (my original path would have taken the bike trail to Virginia Ave, then a block on a road whose name I forget, and then turning right onto Idylwood.  Essentially, I cut out a couple of miles by turning there.

And that was probably a good decision, even if my snow/ice concerns were unfounded (which would surprise me), because going down Idylwood was when the cold started bothering me.  And man, did it ever.

I was balling my hands up, and still feeling it.  In fact, my face was even feeling cold, and I think that's the first time that was bothering me (I've only occasionally covered as much as my chin; usually, I have nothing covered there.  The one time I covered more than that, at the end of a ride, the minute or two that I did it was enough to convince me that doing so is a terrible idea).

But I soldiered on, and made it home.  I do think that the mittens I was extolling so much yesterday (forgot to mention: Burton AK 3L Hover Mitts) are just better for the hybrid (because of the flat bar and shifter mechanism).  I have to hold my hands a little differently, which exposes them (especially the thumbs) slightly more (or a lot more, depending on my grip).  Also, while I can do all my shifting that way, going down the cassette or down the chainring is tough.

Plus, I just got the bike back from the shop, where the brifter got replaced.  The brifter itself is fine, but I also asked them to look at the front derailleur, because I was having occasional problems with that.  Well, I'm still having the same problems.  Maybe it worked a little better the first time or two, but then it was right back where it'd been a week ago.  Not sure what to do about that.

Regardless, another recovery tomorrow, then riding hard on Saturday.