I have been riding over 40 miles at least 4 days a week starting this week. Starting this Friday, I have been riding everyday and it has been insanely cold! I don't have any of the appropriate winter cycling gear because the money I saved up for it was taken by Austin's famous J&J towing (I am still very cynical towards them and will make sure they never have a positive image) in an unfortunate event when they screwed yet another person. Anyway, I have been sucking it up and biking in 30 degree weather. The first hour or so is pretty painful, but I become numb after that. I have a lot of respect for all the riders who really trained hard this weekend in the harsh conditions. Cycling is becoming more and more of an addiction. Post-college life is not as glorious as strutting around campus, but getting away from the stress and aggressiveness of the real world on the bike is very therapeutic.

We have our first 30 mile benchmark test this weekend coming up. The ride is out east of Austin and should be a great team-building event and give the rider's a sense of where they are at physically. My fitness committee and I will be doing a test run this week before the ride.

I hope it warms up soon in Austin. I have always been a fan of sweating rather than shaking, but I guess I better get use to it. The Rockies isn't going to be Venice Beach this summer.

Ride like you stole it,

John