How cold?

The ride in today was tough. It snowed most of the night, and the wind picked up from the North. So not only was I riding into the wind, but I was ploughing through drifts that were a foot or more deep. The 32 c tires cut through these quite well, but not without effort. It was one of those rides that begins with tough-slugging just to get off of the driveway, and then it's the same on the road through the village, because it's sheltered and also accumulates a thick layer. I have to tell myself that after the first mile there'll be less snow - that is, that I won't be steadily ploughing. (Is my bike ploughing?) But once I clear the village the wind takes over. Now I'm struggling with that resistance, which finds any openings and makes me cold, as well as the continuing barriers of snow drifts. This morning the wind found the weakness of the fabric at my crotch. Yikes!

When it's colder than -24'C, and the wind is around 30 ks, the cold reaches another level. This is the point at which you wear just about everything you've got in the closet. I'd neglected to wear my full windpants this morning. I didn't pay in any lasting way, but I suffered for it. The ride home was colder, but the wind was more favourable, as it was at my back.

I had wondered whether this winter we might avoid that classic stretch of stupid cold (-30s as lows, and winds to spice it up), but it looks like we're in for a bit of a stretch of it now. Truly, after the second mile of the ride, I know I'll make it. By that time my core is heating up and mentally I'm in the space of beating it the obstacles. I'm always in a full sweat by the time I get to work, though my toes and a few fingers are a bit stiff (and this morning one other member took a bit of a ... numbing). As daunting as it seems in the morning, by the time I finish the 8 k ride, I'm more ready for the day than without it.

If I don't do it, the day is not as good as it could be. What's my limit? Well, some combination of temperature below -30'c and wind above 30 ks. It's a kind of a 60+ rule. If the numbers of temperature and wind-speed added (as positives) rise toward 70, then it's going to give me pause.

Ride report

in: -22'C wind 30 ks N

out: -24'C wind 25 ks NW