It was a balmy 10F when I left at 6:45 am this morning and it wasn't even pitch dark. It would have been colder but clouds rolled in over night. I'm glad! We had a house guest who got up early so he snapped this photo of me ready to go on my ride. This is pretty much my full cold-weather gear. I have lots of layers underneath my new $36 down jacket (not vegan, oops), and snow pants over my stretch pants, and warm boots and giant warm mittens, and face mask and goggles:
Okay, as I said before, I can't post every day anymore, but just thought I'd update about the exciting signs of spring. I heard cardinal songs yesterday, and chickadee and nuthatches this morning. These are their spring mating songs. That's gotta be the first sign of spring. Yea!
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Do you tend to get too warm with that much clothing, or do you just not ride all that fast? I've been wearing just a long-sleeve synthetic base layer, thin wool crew and a wind vest on my torso with arm warmers. I regularly soak through those on my 8-mile commute, even in single-digit weather...
ReplyDeleteI ride slowly and I'm a total wimp in the cold. So yeah, I wear way more layers than most people. But I'm proof that anyone can bike in winter, even slow-poke cold people. :)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say riding slowly in the winter is any wimpier than it is wise. If it allows you to ride in the winter, then it must be the right strategy.
ReplyDeleteAnd not that I'm breaking the sound barrier—"fast" winter riding seems to be somewhere around an average of 8 miles per hour for me. It's just more effort to push through the snow.
oh, thanks! that makes me feel better. It was 7.8 mph the first time I measured it, though on pretty clean pavement I think. But after the snow storm a few days ago it was only about 5.5 mph--that was into the wind and with the studded tires and all. And I also just like mosey-ing along and checking out the birds and things. I mean, if I went faster, I would just get to work faster---why would I want to do that?
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