It was cold out this morning, ice crystals covered the windshields of cars left outside and the tops of mailboxes and in places where unnecessary sprinklers hit the pavement, the water had frozen. I don’t know what the temperature actually was, but I didn’t need a thermometer to know the onset of winter has begun.
I am still commuting to work on my beautiful Trek (I think I may be in love with my bike, well not just my road bike all my bikes, but that is another story all together). Today, as I prepared for my ride, I dressed “appropriately”, or so I thought. Wool base layer, jersey, Ibex softshell wool vest, arm warmers, knee warms, wool socks, shoe covers, and my Marmot softshell gloves…. Seems like a ton of clothes, but as soon as I closed the door and hopped on my saddle, I knew it wasn’t enough.
After I got “warmed up” I was fairly comfortable, with the exception of the gap between the top of my booties and the bottom of my leg warmers and my fingers…. My digits were freezing – I continuously shook out my hands as I rode along about 20+ mph; there wasn’t much wind, but the combination of my own speed and the air temperature created a unbelievably cold set of hands. I longed for the uphill stretch, loathed the downhills and suffered through the flats. When you are out there and cold, what can you do? Stop and try to warm up your hands, just prolonging the time until you are able to really get warm? No, just keep on going, push though, make some grunting noises and know that you will be there soon.
Yesterday I said I was going to get some new gloves – warm, cycling gloves that have been tested and proven to work, but I didn’t. After today, I don’t think I have a choice, I don’t think I can get back on the bike tomorrow morning knowing that my gloves are not up to the task…..frozen fingers are not fun!
