Popsicle 200

Another month, another short term bicycling goal. This month the goal was to reach 200 miles ridden for the month. I was at 191 miles this morning and 200 miles seemed to be a nice round number to reach.

The hard part was getting to 200 miles. That is because the weather here has finally turned winter-like the past week with each day getting more and more winter-like. By winter-like I mean cold and windy.

The sun was shining in a clear sky and it looked to be much warmer than it actually was. After going on some errands in the morning I decided to go for a bicycle ride.

Man! The wind was brutal. It cut like a knife. I quickly regretted shaving my face this morning.

I thought the wind was from the NW but I found it was more from the west once I got out of town. Riding north the wind cut right across me. I would have been better off riding into the wind where I could have hunkered down.

My ride lasted all of 4 miles. 4 long cold miles. I was becoming a popsicle by the time I returned home.

After watching the movie, "Black Narcissus" (good movie about English attitudes in an Asian mountainous exotic locale, mixed with religion, faith, belief, tolerance, relationships, and repressed desire), I decide to try to ride the final five miles I needed to reach 200.

I dressed warmer this time, both because it was cold and also because the sun was closing in on sunset in the western sky which now had some high light clouds. This all resulted in the loss of what little heat the sun provided earlier. The air temperature of 1 F and the wind speed and subsequent wind chill of near 20 below F were the same as earlier.

To my riding attire I added long johns which kept my legs warm, an extra light glove inside my regular gloves, and a scarf to protect my neck from the wind. They all helped, so while I was cold when I returned, I wasn't a popsicle.

Helping my situation: I rode west into the wind at the start, and after a mile jog to the north, back east with the wind which allowed me to warm slightly, in addition to being a boost to my ego to ride at a very fast pace with the wind pushing me along.

So I made my goal for the month.

It doesn't look like I will be riding a bicycle for a week. The weather forecast is for near ground blizzard conditions tomorrow, then colder temperatures with highs this weekend to be in the double digits below zero F. Brrr!!!