Yesterday I mentioned seeing some guys playing bicycle polo in Cleveland Park.  A friend of mine passed along a URL to more information about some matches being organized in the park.  I guess it is something that might be growing here… along with kick ball!

Check out the information at the Upstate SORBA site.

It was pretty cool yesterday as well to find that one of my blog posts was linked from the Quarq Web site.  Quarq is the company that makes the CinQo, my new power meter.  They are linking to my first review of the device.

Last night Bob and I loaded up our bikes and headed out to Paris Mountain State Park with the intention of riding the trails there.  I took along my helmet cam so I could attempt to get some shots of night riding.  On that front, I did get some frames, but they certainly don’t give the full impression of what the ride is like.  I may put some of it up if I can find enough footage to use.

The ride turned out to be very short.  We were absolutely freezing out there!  The temperature was supposed to be 34 degrees or so, but with the wind the “feels like” temperature was in the mid-twenties.

I was dressed pretty warmly.  Most of my body felt fine because I had on enough layers.  However, even with two sets of gloves — one pair being rated for freezing temperatures — my fingers were nearly numb by the time we reached the archery range. Bob had to be worse off because he wasn’t dressed nearly as warmly.

We decided to turn around at that point and head out.  Funny, but by the time we arrived back at the cars, my fingers were feeling fine.  It was my toes that were numb at that point!

You don’t realize how important your fingers are to bike control until you can’t feel them.  I had hardly any feeling for what the bike was doing.  There were times I wasn’t sure I had my fingers on the brakes.  It was disconcerting and I was all over the place with the bike.

It was an experience, but I can’t say it was much fun.  Between the cold and the leaves it was pretty hairy.  A couple of times when riding horizontally across an incline, my bike just slipped right out from beneath me because I hit a patch of leaves on top of a sandy path.  There was no warning.  You just went down.

Still, it will give us something to talk about.  Ride on!