Cold

We are used to wearing a warmer fur coat, boots, a hat with ear flaps and mittens made of sheep's wool. And running along the creaky snow - home. It's warm at home. They say You can warm up from the inside too ...
And here the cold is completely different. Of course, snow peaks glisten far away in the sun, but this is another world. And you are here on this top. Not so high for snow, no more than a half thousand meters. And the sun and the sea are down there. But this cold is the worst. Such that if they start torturing - I'll hand over everyone, I will not have time to figure out how. And while you came here from the coast - well, long pants, the non-blown jacket and the thermo underneath, well, gloves and socks are warmer, nothing else is invented, then You already feel hot.  All thermo - wet, and panties and even gloves with socks. And here is - the icy wind. It is not at all plus three, like by the sea (I am very pleased with Yandex, which writes: "zero in the morning, it feels like a minus ten" - and it's not lying!). And the descent from the mountain is so endless along the gorges. And the wind whistles. And you do not feel anything except this terrible, chilling, piercing you wet through the gorges through the ravines and howling wind. You try to solve only one issue - to release the brakes more, you will swing faster, immediately become colder, but this hell will end soon. Or still braking? You will stiff not so quickly, even tolerable. But You still need to endure thirty minutes. And if you let go the brakes, then twenty-seven ... well, there's no difference, because there's only one thought in my head-if right now, at this moment, I will not be put in a warm bath and poured hot chocolate, then what will be next with me - it is already beyond the boundaries "I can" and "can not" and in general beyond the boundaries of human life, which I can comprehend and accept. In general, for some reason and I continue to solve this question during the descent, changing decisions, easing the pressure on the brakes and increasing it. And just today I realized that all these winter cycling downhill - this alone is the continuous adoption of the same decision - how strongly I freeze - for 35 minutes - but the unbearable cold, or for 40 minutes - but the cold is just awful? At some point, the meaning of this decision is no longer valid, simply because of signals from the brain to the hands about - to slow down or not start to come with strong failures, apparently, freeze somewhere along the road. You can very clearly give a signal - brake, and find that the hands are not going to perform it yet. 
There are on the slopes still such a beautiful and also intrusive, year after year a recurring thought. The lifts were invented for those, who come to these mountains to ski. Why cyclists did not come up with "lift - on the contrary"? To the mountain - itself, but from the mountain, you would have been lowered? Actually, the body begins to live apart from my head in the cold. However, to say that one of them is more adequate - I can not. But the contacts are exactly lost, and there is a reaction to this and the other side only to super-irritants. So, the brain has a chance to transfer something to the body in exchange for promises or intimidations related to life and death. Not everything is so scary. The brain can simply promise that for today it is the last ascent and, accordingly, descent from the mountain (as a rule, it insolently lies). Or just swear that in the nearest store will be bought a roll with hot coffee. About the hot bath also works. The body in the form of supra-signals sends, as a rule, teeth banging or shaking, Which can not be healed by any brain teams that are knocked down and not ready to go anywhere and just get off the bicycle legs, do not bend fingers, or simply refuse to press brakes, even when the brain yells about some danger.
Well, I'm downstairs ... I do not remember how long I'm standing in this supermarket next to the pipe, from which blows the warm and I look at buns with raisins. I've got a bike helmet, bicycle shoes ... but, most importantly, - where are my glasses? On this issue, there are two thoughts in my mind, clearly from different sources. The first - "Well, that's excellent, without glasses there is a wonderful excuse to stop training and go home to get warm and eat buns!" The second - "These are the same glasses for the XXX Euro, which you bought at the expo! These are your starting glasses, by the way!!! As a punishment, You will go without glasses for three times more! Now go to the guard and explain to him in French that you do not understand well how You got here, but somewhere in this supermarket, on five hectares, there are your precious glasses lying! " I try to remember my way from the entrance to the supermarket to the buns with raisins. I understand that I do not remember how it turned out here at all. That last memory - hands which did not listen at the turn of a kilometer away. That's what does the cold make with me! The glasses are in the end in the mandarin area. I do not remember that I was here, but I logically understand that if I were in my mind, I would immediately go not to buns, but to fruits-vegetables. So the reflexes are still working!
So, one more ascent! And one more descent !!!
And then, at home, I'll stand under the hot shower for an hour and only after the fifth attempt I'll get myself out into the kitchen to drink hot tea with ginger. And then I lie on the bed for another hour, trying to turn on my brain and tell myself that it would be nice to repeat French verbs or English gerunds, or at least read a book. And only after two hours the brain and body will still agree. Although I suspect that it is not until the end, because I find myself again in a wonderful clothing store for skiers, where are big sales (there is no snow in the Alps this year!) and again the innumerable multicolored fleece blouses in my basket, three more sets of thermal underwear, precisely-not-blown windbreaker, two hats, a balaclava, warm socks (the fifth in my wardrobe) and unique thermoplastics on the legs and hands, which I put on myself with great curiosity as an experiment for tomorrow's training before sitting down to write this post.