After waiting all last week for a chance to hit real road, Frank and I headed out Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. in the 40 degree rain with medium level wind gusts. I figured it would beat sitting on a spinner at the YMCA, and I had a serious need for speed.

We rode 30 miles from Sherwood, to King City, to Wilsonville, up Bell Rd to the top of Ladd Hill, and then bombed down Ladd Hill back into Sherwood.

By the time we started heading down Ladd Hill, I realized that I was in trouble because I was slurring my speech and my whole body was shaking.

The wind was moving us over about a foot with each blast, and so we took a back road that had a few more trees to break the wind. I focused hard on the road to avoid leaves, branches and pot holes, and we finally made it back home.

It took about 15 minutes in a hot shower with what felt like needles prickling my feet thawed out and blood started to circulate through my toes.

My main mistake was not wearing enough layers, and not having the right weather protection. Frank was fine – he had four layers on including a rain jacket and shoe covers. But I only had my bibs, a jersey, arm sleeves, and a light nylon long sleeve shell.

I had leg tights and double socks on the bottom half, but not shoe covers and it was only about 30 minutes into the ride when my toes started to go numb.

I’ll be making a trip to Performance Bike this week to gear up with shoe covers, a long sleeve jersey, and a rain jacket. After all, there won’t be any fair weather rides for the remainder of the winter season – at least not here in Oregon!