Ground Down

Barren lands

Sometimes I feel that when we are getting close to the Winter Solstice, and the snow hasn't taken a hold of the land just yet, that color is drained from the world. To me, when it gets like this, it seems as though the world is best viewed from a black and white perspective. Maybe the angle of the Sun in relationship to the latitude I live at makes the contrasts between dark and shadow more interesting, and more descriptive of existence now, than times when there are bright, vibrant colors. It's not that I am depressed, per se, because I am not at the present time, but black and white "speaks" to me now more than at any other time of the year. So, you are seeing more black and white images here due to that reasoning of mine.

Well, at any rate, that all has nothing to do with the title of today's post. That all has to do with how I've been feeling on rides of late. I've been tired, lacking pep, maybe a bit "ground down" in terms of fitness. It just seems as though I am working twice as hard for less than I could manage when it was warmer out. Maybe the cold has nothing to do with this, but it could be that I have a mild cold! Seems I've been sneezing a lot of late and my head is draining stuff more than usual. Maybe it is my body's way of telling me to take a break. Anyway....

The temperatures have been rather on the mild side for early December and are forecast to only get a little bit better. We had a similar situation last year where I was out during the weeks running up to Christmas only to have Winter shut everything down and clamp an icy grip on us until later on in March. I'll take it again this year, and try to squeeze out whatever rides I can get in before the hammer falls down and Winter shows up for real.

It was a fenders kind of day out there.

I'm hearing that now this year is to close out on a warmer note and maybe that will extend on into January a bit. Hmm....... We will see about that! But if so, I am prepared with a couple of rigs sitting at the ready outfitted with fenders. Those came in rather handy yesterday since the roads were soft and wet in many places. The frost comes and goes everyday now, so it is like an early Spring situation out there on the gravel roads. The frost comes at night, then the warm air and Sun work to turn it into moisture that softens the roads and makes a fine, mud-paste that splatters all over, if you do not have fenders.

I'm riding these Clement 36mm tubeless tires, and to be honest, if it stays like this much longer I'll be wanting to start to ride my 29"ers or the Fat Fargo. Those "skinny" tires cut in and the rolling resistance gets crazy. That was a mild nuisance yesterday, but what was really getting to me was my low power versus the Northwest wind I was riding into.

It all conspired to grind me down even more. But hey! At least I got to ride my bicycle!