Back In The Saddle Again

With a little more than a week past since the beginning of 2010, and the holiday season behind me, I've been very happy to settle back in the routine of every day life.  Of course, I got right back to work by traveling to Albuquerque, NM to meet with a client this past week.

If there's one thing Albuquerque has going for it, it's the weather.  There's some nice looking spots in town, but not much.  To be honest with you - the weather may be the only thing it has going for it.  It was close to 50F when I left on Wednesday around lunch - and it was 8F and puking snow in Denver when I got back to Colorado.  Yay.  Here's a shot of Interstate 70 near Eisenhower Tunnel, where I was stopped in traffic for 30 minutes or so:

Maybe I can move to Albuquerque for December and January.

Fortunately, last Sunday I was able to get the Jake out and head up Highway 6 to Wolcott and back, for a nice easy 90min spin.  Weather was decent - 30F and sunny - and very little wind to boot.  Roads were primarily dry, except for the couple of spots near Wolcott that never get any sun.  Those particular areas, about a quarter-mile in all, still had a large amount of icy snowpack along the shoulder of the road.  Glad I had the 'cross bike, as there is lots o' gravel along the shoulder of the road.  Other than that - it was a great solo ride on a gorgeous January afternoon.

It should be noted that the areas that CDOT has re-paved along this stretch of Highway 6 are awesome.  Lots of shoulder, with fresh new asphalt.  Makes for great road riding.

The skies were blue, the air was crisp, sun was gleaning off the snow-covered barn roofs...before I recite a poem, just take a look at the couple of pictures I snapped during my ride.  Red Canyon at its finest.

Other than that day, though, it's been frigid.  We were definitely not spared from the recent arctic blast, as temperatures this morning at 10:30am still had not climbed above ZERO in the valley.  When your boogers freeze just walking the 15 yards across a parking lot at the gym - it's cold.  And the indoor trainer gets a lot of use...