Back in the saddle again.

Well I'm back in the saddle again. Actually I've been riding on and off since September but I've begun putting in some real miles in January (very odd). I got back on the bike in September so I could ride the Staten Island Bike Club's Pumpkin Patch Pedal. Since I injured my right thigh (a strain injury) pushing too big a gear I decided I'd get back to basics and spin. I completed the entire century in the small ring (39 tooth). I averaged 17.3 mph over the entire ride. For the next few months (October - December) I rode on and off, spinning of course, because of family, school, weather and the holidays. So far January has been very cold when it comes time to ride (twice in the low 20's). Oddly enough we've had a week (Monday - Friday) where it was in the 60's. I took advantage of that weather and rode at lunch time. This made up for the lack of ride time in the colder weather (I'm asthmatic, I'm not supposed to ride below 32F). Finally here we are at the end of January, where we'd normally have snow on the ground (usually a couple of feet). All we've had is rain and cold (any snow melted). Last weekend we rode down to the Griggstown canal and rode over black ice, two of my riders fell. One rider jammed his hand the other road rash on his chin, cheek, knee, elbow, and shoulder. In addition a broken carbon fork, Yikes! This past weekend I decided against riding where the natural springs might pop up (we get a lot of that here in Central New Jersey) and rode out to the farm lands (a short, flat, 40 mile ride). The rider with the worse injuries was back and riding again. It was a nice ride (though it only reach about 26F). I'll start putting up my ride cue sheets again and I'll hopefully have weather information for my rides too as I've just received a new weather station. All I can say is that it feels great to be back on the bike again putting on some miles.