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	As awesome as yesterday was, today was almost exactly opposite. It was one of those days where plans have to change out of necessity. Today those plans were my riding plans. Initially the plan was to ride from Anniston, AL to Smyrna, GA on the Silver Comet Trail. The Silver Comet is a Rails to Trails paved bike path that totals over 100 miles from end to end. This ride would have put a remarkable dent in my quest to accomplish 500 km by this coming Thursday. But alas, the invigorating snow that fell yesterday led to frozen roads and an ice skating rink of a bike path. So in true spirit of the Festive 500; because I believe part of the challenge is to overcome adversity in weather, timing, etc. I changed my plans. My ride would be every mile I could squeak out before nightfall. This time it would be on bike number three of the event, my mountain bike. I chose the mountain bike because there were a few "trails" I could ride as well as be more stable incase a deadly patch of ice decided to spring out of no where. The weather was blustery. Temperatures below 30 degrees with winds gusting well over 25 mph. At one point I had a fellow cyclist who was driving his car stop just to commend me on being out on my bike. This made me proud but did not change the fact that it was brutally cold and my ride had turned into mindless laps around my neighborhood. After 9.8 miles I called it quits, I had had enough. The drive to tally up more miles was taken over by the need to get warm. After a few minutes inside and a glass of warm whiskey I was back to my old self. But only seconds later I could not help but find myself thinking about how many more miles I have left and how much making up I have to do in the coming days. See the route »