The Goldilocks Ride

I didn't ride Saturday due to the cold and wind. Though I wanted to ride, I'm having a rough time motivating myself to actually go out now that it's cold. Marc said he heard it was supposed to be better Sunday and no wind. So I said ok.
I slept in a little too much and missed leaving with Marc. So he took my bike over for me and I went over later. I wasn't going to ride with his group anyway. So no big deal. And I still can't haul my bike around as I haven't put the rack back on my car since the garage incident.
Anyway, I get up, grab as many warm clothes as I can find and head out. When it's cold as a general rule I do not like to turn the heat on in the car so my body can get acclimated to the cold and not be all warm and toasty and go into shock. But I found I was loosing more heat that I felt I'd need later, so I had to turn it on a little. Then I checked the temperature. 24 degrees! That's just crazy.
I arrive at the park and put the rest of my clothes on as quickly as possible. It's so cold, but it will be better soon as I get moving. That's what I keep telling myself anyway. As I'm hauling my bike out of Marc's car I see James, he's out riding too. We say hi, he says he headed over to Middlerun and asks if I'd like to tag on, I decline, I'd rather stay close to the car because I wasn't so sure how long I could talk myself into staying out in the cold. He takes off.
I get on my bike and unfortunately the beginning is a fast open field downhill. AHHHHH! The wind is so cold, my face is burning, my eyes water up so bad I can barely see. Oh it's just torture. I'm bargaining with myself, if the next hill doesn't warm me up I'm heading straight back to the car and calling it a day. Just as I reach the top of the climb I run into a huge group with Fitzie at the lead. He stops and asks where I'm headed. I say I've just started, as I really had. So he says goodbye to his group and heads off with me. Now that he just left his group I can't hardly call it a day so we keep going. We talk as we go and I do warm up some. It was really nice to ride with someone and it helped to keep the cold off my mind. After a while of riding he tells me it's the Goldilocks ride. Of course I have to ask what he means by this. He says, he started out with Marc, Buddy and Todd's group, but they were too fast. Then he pulled off and went with another group, but they were too slow. Now it's just the two of us and it's just right. I laughed. Good analogy.
We ended up riding the entire park. Actually he rode some of the trails 2 and 3 times due to the group switching. But I didn't freeze, I was really really cold, but I didn't freeze. It was a good time. Thanks Fitz!