November 19th (Evening)

Another good, cold ride! I think I can make these rides work! Tonight was -7°, with a wind chill again but for me I was riding with the wind behind me so this wasn’t as much of a factor as it was in the morning. Corrie picked me up for lunch today, so we went by Wholesale Sports and I picked up a balaclava called a NINJACLAVA by Outdoor Research. It is on the lighter side, but it has a light, fleece lining inside. I still pulled my skull cap on over top of this, which helped give my ears 2x the warmth! Then, when I got a bit too warm, I was able to just pull up the skull cap a bit and it helped cool me down. When that got chilly again, I just pulled the cap back down!

I wore the track pants again over my tight stretchy sport pants. Going home, this was perfect. A bit on the warm side, but with the amount of downhill going this direction, it was good. I decided to just wear the fleece jacket without the sport jacket as a wind shell. It was pretty good, and even that was a bit on the warmer side. I would think that I might try wearing my short sleeve biking shirts with a lighter fleece and that might be perfect for the current temperatures.

My toes and fingers were still the worse off. Walking a couple of the hills helped for sure. I think I will be putting on my old pedals with clips so I can wear running shoes next week. This will allow me to wear two pairs of socks (or even wool socks maybe?), as well as give me better grip and traction on the frozen trails.

I have new resolve to keep pushing! I have one more week of riding before I go to Las Vegas for a work convention (Autodesk University) for the final week of November. When I get back, it will be interesting to see how cold it is and if I can continue into December or not. Last year, December was cold (-15° to -20°), but then January was quiet mild. Maybe we will be so lucky again?

Oh, and I just wanted to say that the new chain lube I’m using (Finish Line WET Lube, see October 29 (Morning) post) is pretty amazing. With the amount of wet, rain and snow this week, it took ‘till today to finally get a bit squeaky. The wax I used to use wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in the conditions I hit this week! So, even though it means more work each weekend cleaning the chain, it’s worth not having to worry about it all week long.