Looking Forward to Riding More

I got an email this week from some PR lady up north suggesting I do a post on how to keep riding my bike through the winter. She had some groundbreaking ideas, such as: layer your clothes, keep your fingers and toes warm, and if there’s snow on the ground, skip the ride.

I was sorely tempted. But then I remembered — I live in Central Texas, where we get measurable snow maybe once every five years. So I really can’t relate to winter bike riding.

What I can relate to is putting on the miles during mild weather months — like December. Today, for instance, the temp when I drove in to work was about 54 degrees (12C), and it got up to 72 (22C) on my way home. Tomorrow being Friday, I’ll be getting home early, and I intend to hop on the bike and ride!

In fact, today was a big day on my personal calendar. It was the last day of classes for fall semester at the university. I’m still waiting for final projects to roll in, and I’ve given my class most of next week to do that. But my hours can be as flexible as I want them to be from here on out, and that means I’ll be able to fit in rides during the week — rides that I haven’t been able to do because of my work schedule.

I’m looking forward to it. After my October blahs, I rebounded a bit in November and put on more miles, but I’m still not where I think I should be. The next two weeks should take care of that. And then in January, I’ll have another two weeks off (I’ll be preparing classes for spring semester during that time, but once again, my time is flexible), so I can rack up some more time in the saddle. In fact, in January of this year, I had my fourth-highest mileage month of the year. If the weather holds, I can do that again.

I’m not going to ride for the sake of piling on the miles — I’ve already ridden farther this year than ever before — but I do want to work on endurance, which has suffered this year. I’m going to be riding long, I hope, but easy. I’ll wait until late February before I start thinking about whatever riding goals I might have in mind for 2013.

I lived my first 50 years in the north, and I can honestly say, I enjoyed those winters. But I’ve lived here for 12 years now, and I must also say, I don’t miss them. December — in my book, that’s bike riding time!

What’s Black and White and Blocks Wind All Over?

After that no-ride weekend, I was looking forward to getting back on the bike. But being an adopted Texan, I have also become a weather wuss. My friends in Minnesota would be mortified that we tend to avoid riding in what to them seem like mild temperatures. But so it goes.

However, driving home from work today, I resolved that I would get out on the bike regardless of the cold. The dashboard thermostat read 39 degrees (4C), and there was a brisk wind blowing from the northwest. But the sun shone brightly, and by almost any standard, it was a beautiful day.

When I told my wife I intended to ride, she said she’d been bent over her computer keyboard all day, and was up for a ride, too. We started getting into our selection of cold-weather riding gear.

I pulled on a short-sleeved base layer and my long-sleeved jersey with brushed insides. Over that, my windbreaker. This has worked in 40-degree weather in the past, but not in the kind of wind we had today. I decided to rely on a time-honored method bikers use to block the wind: the newspaper.

Fabian Cancellara stuffs a newspaper in his jersey just before starting a descent in this year's Tour de France.

I grabbed a thin section from the morning’s paper that was still lying on our kitchen table, folded it over once, and jammed it down the inside of my jersey. The tight-fitting fabric seemed like it would do a good job of keeping the paper in place over my upper torso.

Pat put on the long-sleeved jersey I got her last month for her birthday. It’s a warmer garment than mine, and the panels over the chest are made of a nylon wind-blocking material. Over that, she layered an old fleece pullover.

We fished out our wool socks, put the toe covers on our shoes, and dug the full-fingered gloves out of the bike stuff box.

“Whoa!” Pat yelled, as we pulled out of our driveway. “Have a little cold!”

At the first stoplight a mile into the ride, we caught up to another cyclist. Pat and he chatted a bit as we all climbed a long gentle hill, and then he passed me and took off.

“He wasn’t going to let an old woman on a hybrid stay even with him,” Pat laughed. “But he did say he thought this was the nicest biking weather of the year. He must be from the Midwest.”

On the way back, we were dead into the wind. Aside from making my eyes tear, which I hate when I’m building speed on downhills, it didn’t have any effect on what I was wearing. The layer of newspaper was doing its job.

While waiting at a red light, though, Pat complained that her tights weren’t thick enough to protect her thighs. They were cold, and that made the arthritis in her hip flare up. She soldiered through the discomfort and we got home before the sun set.

Inside, I dug the newspaper out from my jersey. It was a bit damp, but not wet. It had done its job of blocking the wind nicely, although by the time we finished the ride, it had slipped lower on my chest and shifted over to the side a bit. Still, a successful experiment.

Closed cell foam is often used by campers as sleeping pads.

Our club president has his own variation on the newspaper as wind blocker: bubble wrap. Well, that’s what he calls it, but it’s really a thin layer of closed-cell foam. He cuts generous squares off a roll and fits them over his torso under his jersey. He likes to tell the rest of us on our Sunday club rides how comfortable he is in cold and windy weather. I used to pooh-pooh his foam trick, but after my experience with the newspaper I think he might be on to something.

Have you ever resorted to newspapers or foam or something else to keep you comfortable on a ride?

Adjusting to Cool Weather Riding

As I write this, the wind is whipping around my home office window. I left work this evening with 74 degrees showing on my car thermometer. When I got home, it had fallen to 63. I just got back from walking the dog, and it’s now 53. We’ll be in the 40s overnight, and it looks like the weekend will be a cool one.

Riders elsewhere in the country and other parts of the globe are probably snickering. They’ve already gone through bigger temperature drops than this — and are already feeling the onset of winter temperatures.

But what happens to your bike riding when the weather changes like that?

My natural reaction is to throw on a sweater and cozy up to the TV — or maybe snuggle up with a book. I should be figuring out how I’m going to adapt my bike riding to colder conditions.

The answer is simple: Keep riding.

Some riders handle cool temps better than others. The guy left front has a windbreaker vest over a long-sleeved jersey, the woman has a cool weather jacket. The guy in black is wearing warmer winter gear, but the guy in center background still thinks it’s summer.

The daily temperature drop isn’t that drastic, to begin with. So if you ride one day in summer kit, maybe all you have to do when the weather turns chilly is put on a long-sleeved jersey and a base layer. That’s not a big change.

“If you keep on riding each day as the temperatures slowly decrease, you’ll be more acclimated to the weather each day,” says Emilia Crotty, the Education Manager of Bike New York. She says you kind of trick yourself into believing that there’s not that much difference from day to day.

“Personally,” she adds, “when I’m feeling lazy or am in the middle of a good book, getting back on my bike on a cold winter morning is difficult!  The more frequently I ride in the colder months, though, the less dramatic the temperatures feel.”

There’s an added benefit to continued riding. “The more frequently I ride in the fall and winter,” says Crotty, “the better I am at gauging how many layers I’ll need, what type of gloves will do the trick, if I need a balaclava, etc. each morning (when I check the morning temperature and wind chill, that is).”

So resist the urge to roll over and pull up the covers when the fall mornings are cool. Get out there and ride. You know it’s good for you on several levels — but you’ll also build up your tolerance for cold weather.

 

Autumn doldrums

Yeah, I know, the doldrums are associated with hot weather, and it’s actually starting to get a bit cool around here now. But given the way my biking has been going over the last few weeks, I think I qualify for being in at least the biking doldrums.

I’ll blame it on my century ride. Leading up to that ride, I worked hard to put in the mileage that would allow me to finish it without struggling. I got stronger on hills, my endurance improved, my weight dropped (a little bit). It was fun to see how many miles I rode in a given month. I was in the mid-300s in July and August.

After the century, I no longer felt the urgency to get out and ride. I still tried to ride often, but found it easy to make excuses: Since the crash in October, I haven’t been motivated to go out on the Sunday morning rides with the club, Daylight Saving Time is ending, it’s getting chillier during the times I prefer to ride, I’m just not up for it today, etc. That’s really had an impact on my riding in November. My weight, too. I’m up about seven pounds.

After a 12-mile ride today, I made my usual visit to Bike Journal, where I entered my mileage figures. No 300 miles this month. My whopping total for November is 132. (At least I got out today. On Thanksgiving, we went to the fitness club where Mrs. Noob belongs, and I “rode” a stationary bike. Whoopee.)

Hey, I’m not Mr. Hardcore. I’ll get out there as the spirit moves me. I bundled up today to deal with a stiff wind. But I think I’m in the maintenance mode for awhile. Around February, I expect to step it up as I start getting ready for the MS 150 in April.  On the plus side, Austin’s winters are mild enough that we can get out on the bike all year around.

I hate standard time

With all the discussion about cool weather clothing in the last couple of days, there’s another aspect of our changing seasons that passed by almost unnoticed. That’s the switch from Daylight Savings Time back to Standard Time. I’ve decided I don’t like it.

Now, I’m a grown adult. In fact, I’m probably older than most of the readers of this blog. I’ve dealt with the switch back to Standard Time for years and years, and it’s never affected me negatively before. Until now.

Tuesdays have been the midweek day when I’ve been able to squeeze in a ride after work. My schedule allows me to bug out at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, and I can get home, get changed, and be on the bike by 5 most of the time.

Even though I knew it would get dark an hour earlier, today I still thought I could rush home and get an abbreviated ride in — maybe do 12 miles instead of 19 or 20. That would still be nice.

But after a quick stop at the store to get some essentials, and a detour to our community mailbox (it’s located a couple of blocks from the house), I got home at 5:20. Sunset today was at 5:41. No time for a ride. Bummer. It looks like my riding will be confined to Friday afternoons and Sunday mornings for the rest of winter. My mileage will drop precipitously.

I hate Standard Time.