Thursday, January 7, 2010

Preparing for the Deep Freeze..

Whoo hooo...high of 31 degrees/low of 16 degrees for Dahlonega, GA on Saturday. Tell me again WHY I sign up for races in January?? Isn't there some saying..."Fool me once, shame on you....fool me twice, shame on me"?

By the time the race starts it should be up to about 19 degrees at the low elevations and probably single digits up on the ridge. To make matters worse, the only sag is up at Winding Stair Gap, where it will be wretchedly cold, windy and anything left there in liquid form that isn't hard liquor is gonna be solid as a brick. Perhaps I shall test out my new thermos and leave some hot chocolate..not that I will want to stop to drink it.

I have my clothing choice dialed in, as I've done enough cold Adventure Races to know what works best, including a shower cap over my helmet. Not stylish, but keeps the wind off the head on the descents and being windproof is going to be essential.

The following weekend is NGAR, where we will all undoubtedly freeze. Buy up some stock in whatever company makes those chemical handwarmers, as I foresee a whole bunch of racers flocking to REI in the next week to buy boxes of them.

In other exciting news, Jayden is now tall enough to fit in the jogger/bike tow-behind. Lucky for her, her chariot is completely enclosed, waterproof and windproof, so she can stay toasty warm while mom and dad turn into icicles. We put her in it the other day and her eyes got all big and she looked a little worried...but that may have been because daddy was running it around the house doing wheelies with her in it. I'm hoping to get her out for a short run on Sunday if I still have feeling in my toes after Saturday's ride.

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