Coming back

What I'm getting to is that I finally got back on the bike and the first few days where just easy on the rollers to readjust my legs. Then I headed back south to school and to visit Asheville. I've been in Asheville and loading on the riding hours. However, the weather has been so nice it doesn't even feel like work, or training in the sense that is is something that must be done. It has been tons of fun and really like a vacation, which it pretty much is without school. I'm just realizing that I did have one cold rainy day last week but I went Mountain Biking and because that is a little out of my element it doesn't seem to count.

Today I started to feel like I was coming back! Coming back to the life I love, of riding my bike no matter what. The forecast was cloudy sky's and PM showers. I left the house mid day to meet with some folks I had meet on the sunny ride yesterday. We road some beautiful roads and had a great time. As we were coming into town we could see the dark clouds moving in. I had offered to buy cookies and muffins at a bakery if they wanted to stop as a sort of thanks. Who would turn that down? So we decided to duck inside real quick, get something, and hit the road. As we came out the bakery door it began, rain. The temperatures were probably in the high 40's to low 50's, so not too cold, but with rain it can get a bit chilly. It didn't come down too hard and things were going well. My new friends broke off to head home and offered a ride but I declined and said I didn't have much farther to go I would just continue on. So as my 3.5hr ride comes to an end I'm alone, the sky is darkening, the streets are wet, it rains harder. I descend and the drops cut into the skin on my face and pierce my lips. The drops soak my leggings so the wind is able to chill the surface, but not the core, not where the muscles are still working to get me home(in the sense of my temporary stay). I look down the road as droplets of water swing back and forth across the brim of my cycling cap and one by one fall off in their own direction. I feel the chill in my feet, yes they are very cold. I think they were cold before but the wet is amplifying the chill. The grips on my gloves feel slimy against my bar tape when they are wet, but they still wipe my glasses clean pretty well. I'm taking it all in, all my surrounding's, all the feelings! It is great to be back. Only a very strange person likes the feeling of being chilled to the bone, and it is not often that I enjoy it but now it just feels good. I laugh to myself as I take my shoes off because all I can think of is palatapus feet or duck feet I suppose. My little feet are so cold I don't feel where I have put them until the heal directs the rest of the object. I feel as if I have no toes but rather just a slab of frozen meet attached to my ankle, it is a strange feeling really, I guess you have to experience it to understand. I've had i happen before of course but never really analyzed it in such a way I suppose.

That warm shower felt awfully good!