Aaron and I have what most people would consider a bizarre idea of a romance vacation. Our version consists of eating, drinking, biking for hours outside in the f’ing cold, and watching lots of movies. Aaron took the week off to use up some vacation time, so I took a 3 day weekend and we stayed in our lovely apartment in Norwood. I’ll just say again that the thermometer was below what most people see as welcoming to leave the realm of a heated enviroment…and below what would least be considered romantic!!
Aaron eating our ginormous Sushi Boat
Thursday night we decided to splurge on sushi. We drove into Canton, bottle of wine in hand, and downed a ‘Sushi Boat B’ in 15 minutes. It was sooo good and the specials on the board above my head still looked inviting, so after our boat, we ordered the ‘Seven Sisters’ and suddenly my appetite emerged once more! We went home, watched movies and the next day were charged up for our 3 hour ride. We had no idea that it was going to be so frigid cold. It had started snowingthe night before, but we figured it’d dry up and we’d be fine. Nothing beats training during a Wyoming winter…so we can handle anything.
Weather.com read ’14 degrees F, high of 16′. Damn. It’s going to be so cold. “We can do it Aaron!” I spent the next 20 minutes applying my 10 layers, embrication to the feet (my secret for keeping my toes warm) and soon we were out on our blustery ride. 30 mile and hour winds….god did it feel so much like Wyoming! I stayed on Aaron’s wheel and we had to avoid ice patches here and there. (I might note that we’re on road bikes.) Because the windchill was horrific, we made a 10 mile loop out past Sharon lake, and did our tempo workout; hidden from the wind and safe from the ice. The two hour mark was brutal. My body was thrashed from pushinghard through the cold, dense air, but I knew I could make 3 hours. “One more lap Aaron” My body was dehydrated from only ½ a bottle of water (the rest froze) and a Snickers. We made it home and spent the rest of the day lounging, eating, watching movies and drinking wine.
Again on Saturday, the air had a strong bite!! It was in the single digits but the wind wasn’t blowing as hard. ”We can do it!” I was supposed to do 4 hours, but we decided 3 was a good goal, considering the conditions. It was soo cold, but I added knee warmers under my tights, still embrication on the toes and a scarf. I was set! Aaron motored all the way to Taunton and I hung on his wheel. The air was fine, but then the overcast sky dropped the temperature, and soon we started feeling chills, half way into the ride. Our friend Rob called us, “Hey Rob!” Aaron said, “You out riding?! Me too! You’re one of 3 people!” We started headingback. I had drank as much of my water as possible the first hour so I was more hydrated and sane the second half of the ride. Aaron was tiring out so he rode my wheel the way back.
Sunday was better as the temperature rose to 22 degrees and it was sunshine all day. Aaron took me on some new, scenic roads so it felt more like a ‘Sunday-stroll’.
So there you are…the perfect recipe for a romantic stacation.