Five Below Zero
That was the temperature, when I left for work on the bike, this morning (20 below, for you Celcius-heads...). I wore my thick Alpaca sweater, rather than my usual thin wool sweater. Plus, I had my snowboard gloves, with liners, inside my bar mitts, and ski socks over my bike socks. Otherwise, I just wore my usual gear, and I was quite comfy. My feet were just beginning to get cold as I arrived at work (38 minutes).
The top layer snow on the roads is too cold to pack down, and it's a lot like riding through sand to push through it, though the snow from the previous two storms is packed pretty nicely underneath. We have had three Arctic cold fronts move through Denver in the past week, it has snowed on 4 or 5 occasions (depending on what part of town you live in), and our temperature has not gotten over the freezing mark since last Wednesday.
Tomorrow, we are supposed to hit 40F, here in town. I hope I don't have a heat stroke on the way home.
I have to admit that I am glad we've had all of the snow. It gives me an excuse to ride the bike, and no excuse to not ride the bike. And, I need to ride . While I don't want to go back to the "bike every day, no matter what" mode, I miss the fitness benefits. So, this week has been good, if somewhat tiring, so far.
One thing I don't miss about the every day bike ride, though, is having to go to bed early in order to not be dragging my butt in the morning. That is one of the big benefits of riding the motorcycle to work: I can watch Letterman, if I want to.
But, the big downfall of tht is that I had to let my belt out a notch, after Thanksgiving, and I haven't gotten it back to the original notch yet. Hopefully, this week's activity will help with that!
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posted by Jon @ 6:35 PM
5 Comments:
that is cold! good on ya for riding in it:)
That kind of cold is really difficult to dress for. Is that a normal low for your region or is that colder than usual?
Haven't back read through enough of your posts to know, but I am curious; you were an everyday cycling commuter and now you're not? Why the change?
Wilson: We have below zero temps a few times per winter, but it's rare enough to be remarkable. A period of below zero weather, last winter prompted the purchase of the bar mitts ($15.00 off of Amazon: they are sold as 4-wheeler equipment).
I stopped my daily commuting after 838 days due to Achilles tendinitis (brought on by overuse, most likely). That was last June. Even now, I have pain in the tendon after riding. But, I would rather hobble around a bit than not ride at all!
BTW: That's 838 work days in a row, not 838 days straight through...
I flew into town on Monday night and noticed that even the locals were running for warmth in the 6 degree cold of night. Haven't found the motivation to commute on the Dahon in a few weeks. Other than laziness, I'm not thrilled about the small wheels and unbalanced messenger bag when the roads are slippery.
Your metabolism speeds up when it's very cold, so if you only bike commute some of the time, you might as well pick the coldest days and get extra weight loss potential!
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