Winter Riding Thread (December-February) Outside and Inside

OK, I am tired of posting in the November thread.
I had my office holiday party today, at lunch time. Since I don't work on Wednesday, I had planned to ride there, but it would have involved bringing my food contribution yesterday. So, I decided to go to spin, which is not far from my office.
I managed to get in the zone wile I was warming up, and ignored the others. The class was good, but when I decided to leave at 10:20 (10 minutes early), so I didn't have to rush getting cleaned up, the instructor said, "Make sure you tell me you are OK, if you leave early." I looked right at her and said, "I am going to work..." Not sure if she heard. This felt a bit demeaning, as I did not look like I was going to faint, in fact, I was wiping down my bike. I am mostly used to going to spin at 5:45 AM, where people come and go all the time. I may email her, as it irked me.
It ended up being a really nice day, about 46 out, but I am still glad I didn't take the 45 minutes to get ready for a 5 mile ride! After the party, I did a couple of errands and then came home and took a quick walk around the hill, just a mile, but it felt good.

I rode last Wednesday night after work. The weather was decent, high 40s. I tried out my new Gore Contessa jacket. It does a good job blocking the wind, but the sleeves were shorter than I'd like. Luckily my gloves come up far enough to cover my wrists. I also tried out chemical foot warmers for the first time. I followed Crankin's advice and wore thinner socks (DeFeet Wooleators rather than Woolie Boolies) and made sure the shoe straps were loose enough. I put the toe warmers under the front part of the foot -- my problem is that the metal cleat makes my feet cold -- and they did keep my feet warm, but it's not really comfortable to have the extra layer there. I think I rode about 17 miles in all. I've been very slow lately on these rides. I think I just am less motivated to push myself in the winter. I feel so constricted by the tights and the booties and the extra layers under my jacket.

Yesterday (Sunday) I led a 32 mile ride for the bike club. It was a nice winter day, lots of sunshine with temps in the mid-40s and hardly any wind. There were five people in the group and we all rode together most of the time. It was my 15th time leading a ride this year, the same number as last year despite all the sick time in the spring and summer. So that's a good thing. I used the toe warmers again; my feet stayed warm but I started to get that numbness in my toes that you get when your insole isn't supporting your foot right. It wasn't too bad though and was better than being cold. I know I could try putting the toe warmers on top of my feet, or even on top of the shoe between it and the booty, but I don't think that will solve the problem of the cold coming from the cleats.

I might have one more chance to ride this year -- I'll be busy with holiday/family stuff for the next week or so, but if the weather cooperates I will be able to ride on the 30th or 31st after work. I haven't uploaded anything to Garmin Connect in months. I suppose a good project for New Year's Day will be to plug my Garmin into my pc and hit the upload button -- and then go off and do something else, since it undoubtedly will take a while to transfer all my rides. But I am curious to see how many miles I rode this year.

Looking ahead, I usually take my bike to the LBS in January for an annual clean-and-tune. They offer deals and coupons in January because their business is always slow then. But I think this year I will wait and have it cleaned at the end of February or early March, when I hope we will no longer have to worry about snow and ice and salt on the roads.

Went for a short, slow holiday light viewing ride tonight. Full moon out and 70+ degree temperatures made for a nice, if unseasonable, ride. So nice to (mostly) have the roads all to myself.

Rode 21 miles yesterday, with roads damp, but pleasant 50 degrees, with wind.
Today, DH and I rode 11 miles, rather quickly, when I got home from work at 2:15. It was 70 degrees, but windy, and the roads were very wet. I was covered in mud splatter when I got home. But, I'll take it, since it's December. Tomorrow, we will do a longer ride, while the rest of the world is celebrating Christmas. It will still be warm, high of 60, so nice. But, we have a "wintry mix" forecasted for next Tuesday, so it's coming to an end.
I passed 2,800 miles for the year today.

We did a 33 mile ride, from home, using a well known route from one of the clubs we ride with. It's called the 7 bridges ride, because it crosses the Sudbury River 7 times. We left the route before the end, as obviously, we were riding home. We started the club route with a climb up Nashawtuc Hill, which is the other bigger hill in town, and then made our way into Sudbury, Wayland, and Lincoln. No roads I haven't been on, but a few that I don't ride that often. It was between 57 and 67 degrees on the ride, which I think, is close to a record for Xmas. I've had other warmish Xmas rides, but it was sunny, too, an added bonus. At one of the flatter parts on Goodman's Hill in Sudbury, I had to stop and eat and take my arm warmers off. Much better after that!
Lots and lots of riders out today, and as we neared the end, lots of families walking. There was even a traffic jam as people were entering/leaving Walden Pond State Park. Just like summer.

What a December. So warm and we broke a heat record yesterday. Thought I'd be able to ride outside but winds were pushing near 100km at peaks. So nope... no outdoor cycling.

Today I had a training session planned inside. Decided that although it is only 8c (yesterday we hit 19c) the winds were more decent. So we got the Crux out and did a 32km ride. Quite a few "hills" to climb and heart was pumping on the way but better on return as winds were sideways. We met a few cyclists and lots of pedestrians. Funny that cyclists met, none were younger ones. More like people over 50. hihi

It was so much fun. We stopped at McDonald to get a coffee and muffin. Our toes were frozen but the reste of body was great. We can't complain as normally the weather here is near -10c, if not colder. And we have a nice snowstorm hitting on Tuesday too. Probably a foot of snow, if not more. We "saved" at least 2 months of winter here. It was fun getting the Crux out in December.

Today we went on a 35 km. ride here in Vancouver. ABout 4 degrees C and very pleasant with less car traffic. This is the longest distance I've done since early November.

For me at least it was longer than yesterday which was only 10 km. and included drop by at a major hotel with gingerbread tableaux that were part of Christmas competition. Some wonderful creations by the schools and professional bakeries.

rode to compton in south central l a to do some photography today. reasonable temps in the high 60’s to low 70’s, little wind and with sunshine all day. I’ve found riding through an area on my bike allows me to see more images to capture, makes it easier to have conversations to learn more about the people living there, learn more personal views of the area’s history, to ask where certain subjects like street art, old industrial etc. are and just using a more friendly way of being in the area. I had a number of good conversations today. 74 miles total.

off in a while to one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate the new year with friends and the people who work there…..a new year full of positive moments for all here!!!!!

I've just been doing short rides in Vancouver...6-20 km. 3-5 degrees C with sun shining to melt some ice and frost. The local mountains are dusted with snow..enough for the skiers and snowboarders. Unfortunately we have our heavy winter clothing and boots in another province.(even if we could rent snowshoes). But hope to do some snowshoeing in the mountains in a few weeks.

We've had some cold days for Tucson with highs in the 40's but mostly just cold mornings. Yesterday we rode 50 miles, mostly in short sleeved jerseys, starting around noon - my son joined us for 44 miles - we added 6 miles riding to and from his house. We stayed on the bike path and saw a lot of folks doing the same. Today I'm finally heading out.... 3 pm!

So, I rode less than 1900 miles last year. I guess that's okay given the fact that I had three colds that kept me off the bike and were followed by relatively short rides as I tried to get back to a decent level of fitness. And then there were the two metrics that were rained out in September and October -- I would have managed 2000 miles if the weather had been dry on those days. Oh well, moving on.

I had thought I might get in one last post-work hill ride for 2015 after returning from my Christmas trip to NY, but that did not happen as the weather was not great and I was tired from driving back late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Then I considered doing a Jan 1 ride around the Mall in DC with friends, but decided I would be better off sleeping late and unpacking from my trip. So my first ride of the new year was yesterday, a 33-miler that I led for the bike club. I was worried that it would be cold, but we lucked out with lots of sunshine and not much wind. It even ended up a few degrees warmer than expected, in the high 40s. We rode through the area that John Wilkes Booth escaped to after shooting President Lincoln, then stopped at a church that was founded in 1641 for our break. The church is on a hill overlooking a river, very scenic. Usually we approach it by riding up the hill, which is steep. But we came from the other direction and went down the hill, which allowed us to get a good look at the view.

Genuine winter weather is finally on its way and will keep us cold this week, but as of now it looks like it will only last for a few days. So I'm planning to dust off the indoor trainer instead of doing the weekly hill ride in a few days. But I'm hoping I'll be able to ride outside again next weekend.

My last outdoor ride of the year was on Xmas. I ended up with 2,850 miles, which is Ok.
It hasn't been too freezing out (35-40), but there's been wind and I always look twice at how the snow is melting and refreezing on the sides of the road. I've seen some riders, out, but i am just scared enough of black ice, to not ride. If I had a mountain bike or fat bike, I'd feel safer.
I went to spin class this morning and it was a good work out. I've been going on and off since December. Felt a little bad, since the temperature was 38 on the way home, but there are really big gusts of wind. I did a trail run yesterday, just to get outside.
It is going to be frigid for the next 2 days, so it's a moot point.

Working this weekend so I took today off and rode home from working yesterday in Oxnard. Had a tail wind most of pacific coast highway which made up for it being in the high 50’s. Saw more cyclists than usual especially for a weekday. I was meeting someone for lunch in Malibu at my favorite Japanese restaurant so I also had a great lunch of tai sweet shiso with crispy shiitake and a warm bowl of miso and tofu while we sat on the restaurants balcony overlooking the ocean. I then met a woman I know and her friend who had just come down out of the sm mountains and we rode back to santa monica together. 58 good miles.



View while stopped on pch to drink some water and stretch
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1518/...c16b5400_c.jpg

Rebecca- what a lovely photo!

I did a bike-bus commute twice this week - once with my Straggler and once with my Brompton. Trying to work out getting comfortable in cold temperatures - particularly on the big downhill on my way home. My core gets too warm - but my feet and head (even with a skull cap) freeze. Hands freeze for half the ride and then overheat. Still trying out different combos. We have one morning this week that is supposed to be about 20.

I bought pogies!! And they are awesome. An hours commute at -10 C (14F) - toasty warm fingers. Same thing on the way home, in fact my hands were sweaty wearing just skinny little XC ski gloves. The best thing for winter biking since Lake shoes. And even sweaty hands weren't a problem because there's so much more warm/temperate air around them to gradually dry them off. Amazing.

Blueberry - at -14F I need both a windproof skull cap and a thin balaclava under my helmet, and I need to put tape over the big air ducts in front.

I was also going to suggest a balaclava, Blueberry. It's usually not cold enough for me to wear mine since I generally don't ride when it's much below 40F. But there have been a few times when I really wanted something covering my neck and chin. (I have a couple of friends who start wearing their balaclavas as soon as the temperature drops below 55.) For hands, I make sure my winter gloves have room for wool glove liners inside them. Sometimes my fingertips are painfully cold at first even with the liners, but once I get going and warm up it's nice to be able to take them off.

What are pogies?

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I set up the indoor trainer and rode for about 45 minutes last Thursday after work. I was watching my dvd of Coach Troy on the road in Baltimore County, which usually is enough to keep me from being bored but this time I had to really force myself to keep pedaling. I think the problem was that I'm just not in very good shape right now, so it was more of an effort.

On Saturday I led a 34-mile club ride. It was cloudy and very humid and it had rained earlier in the morning so the roads were wet. Only one person joined me. I knew she was going to be there because we had both agreed in advance that we were looking forward to the chance to pedal off some work-related stress. As luck would have it, the sun came out unexpectedly and dried the roads nicely. It was still humid (more rain was on the way overnight) and with temperatures in the 50s I was overdressed. I kept unzipping my Gore jacket on the uphills and zipping it back up on the downhills.

My legs were pretty tired by the end of the ride. I hope if I'm able to ride steadily over the next few weeks they will get stronger again. Someone please remind me of that when I'm struggling to overcome the laziness and get on the indoor trainer!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ny biker

I was also going to suggest a balaclava, Blueberry.

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I'm not sure it would help - it's localized to my forehead. There's a massive downhill on my ride where I'll hit about 35-40 MPH - that's where I'm having the issue. Otherwise, I'm fairly comfortable. Usually I don't do a face covering until the 20's (F). Maybe I need to get a windproof ski headband and put that under my skull cap.

I totally hear you on trainer time being miserable when you're out of shape. I haven't been in the shape I want to be for a long time, and it really does make exercise more of a chore. I'm trying to remind myself of that and get my butt on the bike so it will get better - that's easier said than done some days.

My skullcap (thermal and otherwise) and my balaclavas cover my forehead. I do have a little head, but I wonder if you experimented with different brands, you might find one that comes down lower.
I have the opposite problem. I have to fold up the edge, so it doesn't roll down over my eyes!

I've got quite a few Gore Windstopper garments and they do work. From some of the photos here, they seem to have beanies that could cover your forehead (though I guess as Crankin says, that might depend on individual head sizes). But they also have a windstopper headband.

http://www.goreapparel.com/gore-bike...omen/headwear/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ny biker

I was also going to suggest a balaclava, Blueberry. It's usually not cold enough for me to wear mine since I generally don't ride when it's much below 40F. But there have been a few times when I really wanted something covering my neck and chin. (I have a couple of friends who start wearing their balaclavas as soon as the temperature drops below 55.) For hands, I make sure my winter gloves have room for wool glove liners inside them. Sometimes my fingertips are painfully cold at first even with the liners, but once I get going and warm up it's nice to be able to take them off.

What are pogies?

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I'm glad you asked. Here, my bike, with pogies. They're like little insulated tents for your hands :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lph

I'm glad you asked. Here, my bike, with pogies. They're like little insulated tents for your hands :D

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Oops, can't get the pic to load. Will try later.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lph

I'm glad you asked. Here, my bike, with pogies. They're like little insulated tents for your hands :D

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Like Bar Mitts?

http://www.barmitts.com/

Come to think of it, I know several people who complain about cold hands during winter bike rides but have never seen anyone with bar mitts.

I'd like something like this for the steering wheel of my car -- driving in winter is when my hands are the coldest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ny biker

Like Bar Mitts?

http://www.barmitts.com/

Come to think of it, I know several people who complain about cold hands during winter bike rides but have never seen anyone with bar mitts.

I'd like something like this for the steering wheel of my car -- driving in winter is when my hands are the coldest.

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Yes, exactly! They're awesome.

Well, I rode for an hour on the indoor trainer the other night. Since my last indoor effort with one of Coach Troy's "on the road" dvds didn't really hold my attention, I tried something different. I watched a dvd episode of a show that I've been wanting to watch but haven't gotten around to, and just pedaled a medium gear. Every few minutes I shifted up or down a little, but never to anything really hard or really easy. So no difficult intervals, but 60 minutes of solid pedaling.

Tomorrow will be the better weekend day for outdoor cycling here. I will be doing something by myself. A friend posted a club ride but it's more miles than I want to do, too far to drive to get there and it starts at 10:30 which means I'd have to get up way too early for it. As a real night owl, I consider the best thing about winter cycling to be the chance to sleep late and still be able to ride during the most comfortable temperatures of the day, in the early afternoon. And I really feel a need to change up the routine a bit. So I'm planning to ride in a suburban residential area that's not particularly scenic but is not too far from home and does not have lots of car traffic. I used to ride there pretty often and I find it nice to go back from time to time for a contemplative solo ride. As a bonus it will start near a bunch of stores where I can get errands done after the ride. (I am a bit concerned that traffic has increased on part of the route due to some new houses being built. I hope not.)

The only riding I've done this week is a 5:45 AM spin class, which I convinced DH to come with me to attend on Tuesday.

Well I've moved on to plan B for today. The forecast last night said it would be windy today and I hate riding on windy days. So I decided to really shake up my routine by sleeping very late. I'll go for a walk later.

Yes I could still grab a quick ride now -- it's not as breezy out there as expected -- and yes I might regret this next week or next month. But I know from experience that I'll enjoy riding more in the spring if I take some lazy days now.

You sound just like me.
I did not do any other spin classes this week, as my knees are feeling it. I use harder gears than on the road. But, I did a hike yesterday, Power class Wednesday, circuit training class Thursday, and an intense Tabata class today. DH is leaving for his company's annual meeting in Boston tomorrow morning. He stays downtown until Thursday, so tomorrow I am going on a longer hike with friends. I also need the down time from riding, so I am ready in March, with a good attitude.

Blueberry, I have a fleece headband that covers my forehead and is very warm -- Pearl Izumi brand, I believe, but I am sure there are others. Perhaps that would help?

I had a great ride yesterday! We are back from Mexico, bought a motorhome, and are in a campground in Winter Garden, Florida. There is a lovely paved bike path here that connects to another in the next county west, Lake County, and yesterday after getting the Bike Fridays set back up after our travel back from Mexico, we rode over to the trail (about 2 miles from the campground) and rode it west, for a total of around 23 miles round-trip. It's dead flat here, but the farther north and west you go, the hillier it gets. I never knew Florida had hills! But it's true. The subdivisions we could see from the trail there had names like "Bla Bla Hills" and "XYZ Ridge". Very cool. It was a wonderfully warm day with a high of 79.

A cold front came through last night so it may be awhile until our next ride, since all our cool-weather cycling gear is up in NC. But the next warm day, we'll be out there again. Just lovely! It's gonna take me awhile to build up my strength on the hills again, since I've been riding the flats since the end of July and since 2015 was a very low-mileage year for me. Hoping for much more cycling in the new year!

A couple photos from the trail:

Attachment 17927 Attachment 17928 Attachment 17929

Congrats on the purchase. Guess you will be wandering now!
There are hills in northern Florida, for sure. I don't know much about the area you are in, though. But, any ride is a good ride.

Welcome back!

Thanks Crankin and NY! Playa just got to be way too noisy for us. Way too much of a concrete jungle. We're in a campground now, and our site is right by a pond with wonderful bird life, gorgeous trees dripping with Spanish moss, and plenty of peace and quiet. And much, much better cycling. Life is good again! :)

I've always said that lifestyle is one of the most important things when determining where you will live; anytime, not just in retirement. Happy riding!

sigh, I haven't cycled since Jan.4 in Vancouver. Since back where I live there has been snow off and on. Some clear days..

These are 3 local women who cycled in packed snow for 25 km. to scout out opportunities to improve bike commuting routes in our city.
What I liked were 3 women that made effort to grind their through the snow: http://bikecalgary.org/winter-bike-c...r-commute-ride

I believe at least 1 of them, has studded bike tires.

Well I thought I'd be off the bike this coming weekend because I had plans to meet up with relatives who were traveling to this area for an annual weekend getaway, but now that's been canceled due to the oncoming snow. So I will be off the bike this weekend because of snow. (No studded tires here, and no fat bike either.) I guess I will get my exercise with a snow shovel.

(My warmest boots are all suede, so I don't wear them to tramp around in piles of snow. But for the life of me I can't remember which boots I do usually wear when I'm out shoveling. I recently bought "snow sneakers" from LL Bean, which are insulated and supposedly waterproof, but they're not high enough for the accumulation we might be getting.)

Absolutely lovely ride on the West Orange Trail (Fla.) yesterday. This time we pedaled from Winter Garden east and north towards Apopka, where we turned around at the station there. The trail continues 3 miles farther north, and once I have built up to it, we'll go to the end. This ride to and from the campground ended up at 31 miles, the longest I've done in a long time. Flat to gently rolling, my quads were burning by the end as there was a headwind on the way back. The trail was almost empty mid-day on a weekday...perfect! Temp was in the upper 60s with mostly overcast skies. The warmest day in awhile.

A few photos:
Attachment 17941 Attachment 17942

Attachment 17943 Attachment 17940

That looks nice!

Finally got in some indoor trainer time late this afternoon. I had planned to do it on Wednesday after work but ended up not getting home until 10 pm due to VDOT's failure to pre-treat the roads prior to the snow that hit during rush hour. Thursday I went to the gym (for weight training) because it was my last chance to get outside until after Snowzilla leaves. Would have done some indoor spinning last night but I accepted an unexpected invitation to a friend's house (a short walk from mine) for dinner. So, today's riding was my first in about a week.

I did the same as my last indoor workout, watched an episode of Sonic Highways on DVD while shifting up and down. I rode a harder gear for 5 minutes, then an easy gear for a couple, shifted up one or two for a couple more, than 5 more at a harder gear, etc. So never super hard but my "average speed" according to the Garmin was 14 mph which is a decent effort overall. I rode for 1 hour 4 minutes, the entire episode with some rewinding here and there. (Thanks to Dave and the boys for making something that holds my attention so well! It was the last episode, filmed in NYC, and I'm sorry there aren't any more. At least there's a boatload of extra footage that I can still watch.)

I expect it will be a while before I ride outside again. The long-range forecast shows temps in the high 40s next weekend but even if that holds, we'll still be digging out from this storm. Oh well, we'll just have to take it one day at a time.

What a horrible, horrible ride/day we had on Saturday! We'd both signed up to do the Stinky Spoke rotten weather mtb ride, but I decided just to bring my recumbent and get in a long flat trail ride since I've lost so much ground, cycling wise, and I felt like I should get SOME kind of riding in. I set out in steady rain with hopes that it would ease up at some point. Dh set out on the event course on his shiny new Cannondale cyclocross bike. The rain never did ease up, and I arrived back at the van after a 26 mile ride and found that my phone had gotten wet and was dead. I was frozen and soaked and fired up the van to warm up while I waited for Dh to finish. I was surprised that he hadn't already finished, actually. I put the phone over the defrost vents, hoping it would dry out enough and dreamed of the bratwurst and beer that I would be having shortly after he arrived. I was starving! The phone did eventually come to life and a call from DH immediately came in. He had been trying to call me for a good half hour and was frantic. He'd clipped a tree in a sharp turn, snapping his collar bone and was pushing his bike somewhere along the course. He managed to tell me that he was at the watershed park at Novelty hill road before the phone went dead again. I had no idea how to get there, so I went back to the event start point, trying to find someone to give me directions (or perhaps dispatch a support vehicle?). Everybody was pretty blase about it, and most of the people I talked to mentioned that they too had broken a collar bone at some point. Finally, a guy drew me a map on a scrap of cardboard with a sharpie before pulling down the neck of his shirt to show me a neckline distorted by multiple breaks of the bone. Got to the park 20-30 minutes later, and there wasn't a soul in sight. Phone was still dead, and panic was truly setting in. How in the heck did we manage to do these things before everyone started carrying cell phones! I got out of the car and followed the signs out to the stinky spoke course on the off chance that he was trying to walk the 6 miles or so to the finish. I have never felt so helpless and lost in my life! Eventually, I encountered the event sweeps, who hadn't seen him, and a flurry of fruitless phone calling ensued. Brian wasn't answering his phone, and the list of numbers for the event director weren't getting anywhere. The sweeps decided they would just continue on and look for him on the way, and that I should go back to the start and wait for them. If they had to, they would call 911. Finally! Progress!
Long story short: Strangers had seen Brian pushing his bike down insanely busy Novelty Hill road and had taken him to the hospital. After an another hour of running around like a chicken with her head cut off, I was able to find this unfamiliar hospital and take him home. He was still wearing his muddy cycling clothes and had left a large halo of mud around his body on the bed. The nurses were fussing over him and petting him and marveling that his self diagnosis had been correct. I was wet, matted, stinky and starved and I burst into tears from frustration and relief. What a horrible day.

That does sound horrible and poor planning by the event organizers. My DH broke his collar bone in 2014. It was a bad break, he had surgery, did PT, and is perfect now. He has a lot of hardware inside.
He was back to easy riding after 5 weeks, although the doctor said 12...

Damn, Laura, that is terrible! I can only imagine your panic. Was your DH not able to call you from the hospital? He may have been in shock, especially with that terrible weather, in which case, he may not have been thinking too clearly.

My DH broke his collarbone on a solo ride many years ago when he hit a bad spot of pavement, and I remember the panic of racing to pick him up and taking him to the ER. It was a bit of a fiasco as I had been working late in the lab and didn't have my cell phone with me, so he'd been leaving messages for quite awhile before I even found out what had happened, and of course he had to wait, in pain, on the road until I finally got the message and drove over to pick him up. I felt so bad!

I am so sorry you had to go through this and hope he will heal up quickly. I learned how to mow grass for the first time in my life as my DH healed from his, since it happened in the summer. :rolleyes: