There's frozen Goose poop everywhere!!!

At least on the Keystone trail between 25th St and Cornhusker, there is.

After reading this blog, I got a hankerin for a bike ride. I haven't really been on a true bike ride in about 3 weeks, maybe more. So after work, at 4:30pm, I figured I'd do my 1.5 hr loop down Bellevue blvd to Old Town Bellevue, then back up the trail. I'd have just enough time to pick up my woman from her work a little after 6pm. But wait Mike, wasn't it 23 degrees with a NE wind at 8-ish mph? Why would you head South at the beginning? And wasn't it foolish to try it on your heavy commuter without shoe covers???

Hey, I was jonesin for a ride so I threw caution to the wind (which really made me suffer going into that wind along the Keystone at the end of the ride) and went for it anyway. My core was fine and my feet were good....for the first half hour or so. Then the circulation somehow stopped flowing to the toes on my left foot. This always happens because I have bony feet and my left is my dominant mashing side. It was pretty outside with lots of frost and slow traffic, but man did the foot thing get to me eventually. I think even if I had had heavy shoe covers, they would have eventually froze.

After I got the the Keystone trail at 25th St, I realized the ride was taking longer than normal. I had to get off the bike and run for a while to thaw out my toes a little. After a 5 minute jog, they felt pretty good, aside from my 2nd toe on my left foot. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like I had a metal toe ring on that was making all the rest of my toes (especially the big toe next to it) get cold really fast. I hopped back on the bike and tried to focus on pulling up instead of mashing. This is very difficult to do when you're tired, hungry, going into a headwind, and worried about getting home as soon as possible. Then the Goose poop came into view. It was all over the trail and was more dangerous than the sheets of ice by the under-bridges passes. I'd try to dodge them, but hit a couple and almost got taken out. Them suckers are like little boulders. So if you plan on riding the Keystone between Cornhusker and 25th, beware. I was late picking up the woman because somehow, the ride took almost 2 hours. I guess the heavy bike and running to thaw the feet made a difference, but man that was a tough one. I think I'm going to stay away from night rides and just do runs during the week. For feets sake.



Here's a looksie at the condition of said feet right after the ride: (warning, gross foot content ahead)





Directly after taking this picture, I hopped into the shower since my core temp was dropping. This was a bad idea because blood rushed to the reddish parts of my left foot and swelled up bad. I was also really really cold. After my shower I got fully clothed and just dove under the covers of the bed hoping the warm comforter would help me out. It did, but only after about 10 minutes of shivering. So can anyone tell me why my left foot does this and how I can remedy the situation. In the summertime, I don't care that the circulation goes away because it's hot and that blood is needed elsewhere. But in the wintertime, frozen feet keep me from riding outside. I think I need to go see an athletic foot doctor who specializes in cycling. Right, like there's such a person out there....