Went for an early afternoon ride today. I botched the timer, I started it about 5 mins into the ride. Today was cold, but there was very little wind coming from the north. Enough to where 3 layers, arms, legs, head, face. Didin't wear full-fingered gloves, but should have. Probably should have brought my short finger gloves for the ascent. Something to think about on the next ride. So, the main point of this ride was to test out the new Fizik saddle. My first impressions are encouraging. I feel like it has more coverage on the sit bones. Pretty much no soreness the whole ride. The better test will be the SS ride, since it takes close to 2 hours in the saddle. So, I felt pretty good today. I was able to keep good tempo on the way back with few ailments. I had some back soreness and a hint of calve muscle soreness, but that went away in a minute or so. My concentration was good, only a bit of drifting. My balance was good. I need to continue my strength training, both for good balance and back support. I'm up to about 142 lbs, so I want to loose a few pounds to get locked into 140 lbs. So, this just means, I need to do more strength training, so that I don't loose muscle mass. And encourage the loss of fat. My gear worked flawless. Nothing bad to report on that respect. The only slight thing is that the shifting could be a tad better on the down-shift. I might check it out tonight, or wait till the next ride and see if it's tolerable.