Manda's Century: Night Rides and Snow

I did pretty good this week - I was able to almost do two 10 mile rides for my short rides.

Night Ride
It is getting dark out earlier. Good thing I have lights! I realize I am not suppose to be out on public grounds after dark - what with the zombies, werewolves, teenagers and vampires - but I need to book my miles and rushing home from work to make it out on the road by 5:30pm can be a challenge.

I haven't resorted to seeing how many pieces of clothes I can take off in the car to prepare to get my winter gear on without looking suspicious.

Anyhow, this is my ride:

Glowin'

I think part of me would be sort of proud to be that weird biker-chick who gets pulled over by the police for being on public grounds after sunset. Until I see the fine.

Stealth mode activated!

I got it together and got myself out again for another 9 mile ride. I was ok with it. I thought I had gone farther. No matter, I will take a good 9 mile ride!

Zoom!

Snowy Weekend
Well, Saturday is my normal long-ride day. It snowed here. Not enough for me to feel a compulsion to buy French toast ingredients, but, it's strange to have any amount of snow here in October. A frost, sure, a snow? Not so much.

I'm not wrong, by the way, snowfall statistics in the record books show 3 dates with measurable snow in October:

• October 30, 1925 (2.1").
• October 19, 1940 (1.4"). 
• October 19, 1972 (1.2").

My car was stopped when I took this

Since it was a mix of snow, sleet and rain, I took this weekend off.

Toasted almond coffee and stove popped popcorn

Lessons Learned
First, I am horrible at judging my own size. Here is the extent of my stupid: I have been going into stores, pulling out stuff I like, estimating my size, buying it and trying it on at home. Why? Because I have issues spending money and unless it's free, I will talk myself out of buying anything - regardless of need.

Thanks, sickness, for teaching me financial super-anxiety. Since I had to pay for about 40% of my medical (maybe about $100,000) out of pocket, I made it a game with myself to see how little I could live on - $10 a day for food or $100 a year in clothes.

But, I digress.

I slipped int Dick's Sporting Goods and grabbed some winter gear figuring I'm a medium. Thanks, super-fit population, I am a large. Not like "Oh, I'll be modest and get a size up so the cloth won't touch me." I mean. . "Wow, did I grab an extra-small when I meant to grab a medium? I can actually see my rib bones and adorable fat rolls tearing holes in this fabric. . ."

Ok, I'm a large to extra large.

Another important lesson was that booking 15-20 miles total for my short rides does take a toll on me. I was much more tired and felt a little more run-down than normal. I stayed pretty good with my booster-meds (check out my Adrenal Fatigue page) but it's something that seems pretty consistent.

I am going to first see if I can work through this by trying to book 15-20 miles total for my short ride for a couple weeks in a row. If I keep slipping backwards, I will have to do something else. I already have some ideas:

• Interval training.
• More hills, less distance.
• More shorter rides - 4-5 times a week.

Manda's Century
You can follow my biking adventures by checking out my Mandas Century Ride page. It lists (in conveinent bullet form) the lessons I have learned and has links to each of my biking related posts.

Yes, I know this has nothing to do with dating. Shove it. I own this blog.

Credits

Stat for October snows from menafn.com.