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!