Ok winter, you can go away now!!!

I've been trying really hard to NOT complain about being cold/the snow this winter, but I think I've reached my limit. It's getting really old.

The problem with February is that we get teaser days. All week temps were warming up, the sun started making an appearance and I even saw a blade of grass poking through a snow drift. And by the weekend a lot of the snow had melted. I started exchanging high-fives with my friends and even started to talk about how long it would be before we could ride on trails again.

In other words, I totally jinxed us.

Sunday night we were slammed with another storm. Blech.

Oh well, the good news is that I totally took advantage of the sun this weekend while it was still around. On Saturday I woke up early so that I could ride over to the Jim Allan group ride that starts at 9 a.m. While checking the forecast I noticed that it was supposed to be 35 degrees and was worried about being overdressed. Yeah, not so much at 8 a.m. It was only 20 degrees when I left my house and I felt like I was being slapped in the face while riding down the first hill. By the time I reached the bottom I was WIDE AWAKE!!!

I had about 2.5 hours in by the time the group ride was over. Normally I don't like to stop, but once I saw coffee and warm muffins I was slamming on the brakes. YUM!!!

I ended up getting 5.5 hours of riding in and it was amazing. Although it was never warm, the sun was out and the roads were clear. And I felt good which was an added bonus. I'm really liking group rides because they force me out of my comfort zone. It's good practice for races!!!

The next day it was a little harder to get out of bed, but I knew that I would have to get out early if I wanted to beat the storm. My legs were definitely more tired, so I ended up riding the rail trail for 2.5 hours with Juli and her husband Chucky.

See the grass in the background? I still thought that it was almost Spring when this picture was taken....

We took a slight detour on the way home to stop at my favorite bakery....

All of my winter rides seem to end with cookies...but that's not a bad thing! Or maybe it is a bad thing...I guess I'll find out when I'm trying to climb during my first race of the season :-)

Juli fueling up with a chocolate chip cookie for the ride home....

It started to storm on our way home, and we got back just in time. A few hours later and all of the grass was replaced with about 8 inches of new snow and ice. Have I said "blech" yet??

I'm not sure what the rest of this week is going to look like. I think we might get more snow, which means I'll be spending some quality time on the trainer this week. I'm crossing my fingers that the roads will be more clear by next weekend but I'm going to keep my mouth shut. No need to jinx us again!!!