October 18, 2009

Baby It's Cold Outside

I love fall and in particular, I love October. That is until this October. We went from picture-perfect crisp fall days to 30s, rainy and miserable seemingly overnight. This shift in weather directly coincided with one of the most brutal weeks I've had schedule-wise in quite some time. All of it left me feeling pretty drained by the end of the week. I've been loading up on the sleep - 10 hours Thursday night, 9 hours Friday night and 8 hours last night. I almost feel human again, but I'm still bundled up, looking out the window at the freezing rain and wondering if I'll ever get to enjoy being outside again.

The frigid weather pushed me to start loading up on my winter cycling gear. I'm attempting to create a no excuses situation where I'll be forced to ride outside unless it's (A) Snowing; (B) Icy; (C) Pouring rain; or (D) Below 25 (ok, maybe 30) degrees. With the right gear, one should be able to enjoy our fair sport nearly year-round, right? Given I've never attempted to ride in less than 45 degrees, it remains to be seen but I'm up for the challenge. Yesterday, I invested in:

Gloves

Tights

Balaclava


The last item makes me look like I'm headed to a Monty Python themed costume party, but it will allegedly help me stay warm on chilly days. The thing on my must-have list is a good pair of neoprene booties to keep my feet from turning into blocks of ice in my breezy tri shoes. I'm planning to invest in either road shoes or winter cycling shoes eventually, but for now will rely on wool socks and booties for survival.

I ended up just taking it easy yesterday, and clearly doing some shopping, and in the end was glad I did. I was still feeling the effects of the week so any effort would have been forced and minimal. I got back into the pool today and also did my first strength training in months. Since I can't do much else I decided to make that a priority for the next few months. Hopefully I won't wake up tomorrow and feel like a bus hit me.

9 comments:

  1. You're gonna be nice and toasty on a cold ride with those clothes! I'm trying to go as trainer free as I can on long rides this winter.

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  2. Nice winter gear there! I once tried riding in negative 10 degree temps.. only once..dear god.. so cold.

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  3. I really don't mind cold weather running, but I had the dark and the cold rain that winter brings :(

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  4. I have a lot of that gear - but frozen hands and feet are the worst.

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  5. It dropped to 37* last night. I got up and ran anyway, loving every minute of it. Now riding in that, wow a different story! Kudos for you for making it a goal and getting all the warm gear, I hope I can follow your example!

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  6. Come on! You grew up in Michigan! Stay warm. Still have your tank helmet liner you wore at State. Want me to send it to you?

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  7. Ah, the cold weather athletic season. We went for a run yesterday when the temperature felt like 37 degrees and I loved every minute of it!! Although, I seem to think that riding a bike in the cold might be a bit different! Dad's got a good sense of humor ;)

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  8. Pearl Izumi stuff rocks - you're goona be totally fine out there. Well, about as fine as you can be riding a bike in the dead of winter. Ha!

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  9. I actually prefer riding the trainer in winter. I find it makes me a fitter cyclist for the new season because there are no stoplights or coasting involved.

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