Thursday, October 20, 2011

It's Wednesday and Cold Weather is Coming Back

Typical 7.4-mile L-pattern breadcrumb trail
I'm not one to let cold weather slow me down:  For the last 2 winters I've missed only a couple of weeks total riding year round.  But I'm not CRAZY about cold weather.  For one thing, I have to wear heavy mittens instead of nice flex-finger bike gloves.  Which makes it nigh impossible to push any buttons on the ham radio on the handlebars, though I can still activate the transmit switch velcro'ed next to the right handlebar grip.  Nor can I access any GPS functions with the furry-fat fingers.
The other irritant is that no matter how cold, I always start out frosty and cold and somewhere within a mile or 2 of my destination, I get overheated and sweaty.... which of course makes me VERY uncomfortable because part of me (usually the upper arms and armpits) are overheated and sloshing in perspiration (Sweat to those of us West of the Mississippi) while other parts are getting nasty-cold because the moisture has soaked through the layers and is now drastically conducting heat AWAY from my core, thus making me too hot and too cold all at the same time.  If I was riding leisurely instead of always hustling along trying to get to work, I COULD stop and peel off layers BEFORE they get stinky-water-logged and maintain better temperature/comfort control.  But this is the REAL world.  That would require some thoughtful ANTICIPATION on my part, and I'm very much a last-minute Johnny.
Pre-Ride BG: 157            Post-Ride BG:  82
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.5       Ending Voltage: 12.5   (Clunker Heavy Gel Cell battery pack, fresh charge)
Beginning Temperature:  41 F        Ending Temperature:  55 F
Morning Stats from the GPS:        Total Miles:    7.34
Overall average speed         Moving Avg       Max Speed
09.8. Mph                          11.5 mph            20.1 mph
Total Trip time                 Moving Time          Stopped Time
44 mins 59 secs               38 mins 25 secs     6 mins 34 secs

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