This is....November?

This is...November?

Yep, this is one of those "I hate you!" posts for anyone watching it snow outside while they grind away on a trainer in their basement, even if they have the newest-latest training gizmos advertised pretty much everywhere these days.

Back when Zio Lorenzo would be forced to do this the question always was "Which is worse? Going outside and freezing/crashing on ice or being bored to death for an hour inside?"

Being a wimp from California too often it was inside, watching an old cycling video while sweating like a pig. Perhaps these new online schemes make it less boring, but they will never equal riding a bicycle outside, where you not only pedal, but brake and turn as well as see the sights, smell the smells and all the rest.

Riding inside will never be FUN, I don't care how much you spend on video screens, training plans and online exercise schemes.

Today's ride was from Ortigia to Sortino, basically from sea level to around 1500 feet (438 meters) but with lots of ups and downs along the way.

Once on the other side of Solarino the road is almost "yours" unless you mind sharing it with a sleeping dog who was laying in the center of the road, only lifting its head up as it heard me coming before going back to sleep or a herd of sheep being moved by their tender.

35 kilometers out and pretty much the same back, again with plenty of ups and downs along the way. This road up to Sortino is relatively new, I was tempted to take the old way up, but wasn't so sure about enjoying the full length of this ride to start with, so chickened out on the really steep stuff. The new road is the only way to go down as far as I'm concerned.

They run an automotive hillclimb event on this road every year. One time we went up on a Sunday (via a different route) and found the road closed, but this time there was just a few skid marks and one or two cars along with a couple of trucks over 30+ kilometers.

For Zio Lorenzo the going back down is the fun part! Good pavement, not-too-steep grades and some interesting curves make a good "pay back" for the effort to get up there.

These days Zio's pretty slow on anything but a descent, so 70+ kms took 3 hours with a brief stop to fill bottles in Sortino, but it's not how fast you go - it's HOW MUCH FUN YOU HAVE!

Today was lots of fun.