How Was Your Commute Today?

[Melalvai]

Wonder how folks in extreme cold do it without risking frostbite initially.

Good question. I know that my face is "hardened" now, but I don't think my fingers are. Fifteen years ago when I was in college, only a couple hundred miles south of here and during years when winters were milder, I biked 5 minutes each way to campus with inadequate gloves all winter and got a touch of frostbite. For years afterwards, my hands would swell up if the water in the bathroom sink was cold! I'm very paranoid now about my hands getting cold.

[shootingstar]

but I don't think my fingers are.

I can appreciate your panic about easily frozen fingers.

I have Reynauld's Sydrome where my fingers get numb at zero degrees/right at freezing temperatures.

So when I lock up my bike in today's quite cold winter temp., I try to be fast...and park near a building, making sure I have my gloves nearby. I have lobster claw winter cycling gloves, so I have to take them off to deal with a lock.

[redrhodie]

Great commute for me yesterday. Parked my car at work and rode to radiation, which is only 5 miles, but at least it's all uphill coming back. I'm really glad I rode. It's a lot of effort to bring my bike and clothes for just 10 miles, but it's so worth it for the way I feel after.

I'm not sure riding has helped much with fatigue, as I've been sleeping a lot, but I'm convinced it's helped me stay otherwise healthy. I haven't caught any of the viruses my coworkers have had this year. I'm the only one who hasn't been out sick.

[rubysoho]

Good question. I know that my face is "hardened" now, but I don't think my fingers are. Fifteen years ago when I was in college, only a couple hundred miles south of here and during years when winters were milder, I biked 5 minutes each way to campus with inadequate gloves all winter and got a touch of frostbite. For years afterwards, my hands would swell up if the water in the bathroom sink was cold! I'm very paranoid now about my hands getting cold.

This is all very interesting. Growing up I was the kid that wore shorts year-round (in NC so winters are relatively mild with some snow). I then went to college in the mountains and some of my favorite memories are when friends and I would go out snowboard in blizzards. We spent a lot of time outside in really really cold weather. Once or twice so cold that water would freeze before it hit the ground. Then I moved to Northern VA and spent a little over a year as a working student for a horse trainer. I was outside from 6:30am to sometimes 8 or 9 at night, 6 days a week. The girl I worked with and I shared a house on the property but we made so little money that we kept most of the house at 40-50 degrees so the pipes wouldn't burst and our individual rooms at around 60 degrees. In the winter I was sleeping in a sleeping bag with my normal bed covers and in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Ever since that year I've been super sensitive to cold weather. It has been nearly 4 years now and I am finally not shivering when it is lower than 70 degrees! It has been very strange and I am always dressed in more layers than anyone around me including gloves in my work office with the thermostat set at 70 degrees. I've decided I'm just weird. (But my tolerance for cold seems to be returning slowly.)

[shootingstar]

In the winter I was sleeping in a sleeping bag with my normal bed covers and in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Ever since that year I've been super sensitive to cold weather. It has been nearly 4 years now and I am finally not shivering when it is lower than 70 degrees! It has been very strange and I am always dressed in more layers than anyone around me including gloves in my work office with the thermostat set at 70 degrees. I've decided I'm just weird. (But my tolerance for cold seems to be returning slowly.)

Maybe that's just it and better: your tolerance to cold is slowly returning. (You were tough!)

We have to give ourselves time to acclimatize ...while we're still young and healthy.

But I don't think I will solve my Reynauld's syndrome --I've gone to 2 doctors about this. I just have to be careful.

[rubysoho]

I was either tough or stupid. Probably a mixture of both.

I found a great pair of gortex gloves that keep my hands wonderfully warm. My hands and feet are always cold and it gets hard to move my pinky and ring finger. These gortex gloves have made it a non-issue when I ride. Would something like that help?

[7rider]

Someone got dumped last night on Valentine's Day.

Saw a bouquet of flowers dumped on the side of the road this morning on my ride in. Bummer.

[redrhodie]

Or, they could have been left on the roof of the car when he was loading in the giant heart shaped box of chocolates.

Either way, it's sad.

[Melalvai]

I love that we've already made up 2 stories to explain the flowers on the road. That's one of the things I love about biking, even more so with walking, is making up stories to explain things.

Here's a silly one I made up about a couple kids' bikes that had been left out in the yard.