The Friday Fix: Post Mortem

Is it still winter?  When I got up Friday morning the upstairs thermometer read 24 degrees and the downstairs thermometer is always 3 or 4 degrees less than that, so I was probably riding in temperatures initially around 20 or 21 degrees.  Since the ride tights were dirty from mountain biking earlier this week I went to my old Army Physical Fitness Uniform pants which are great for riding because they consist of a gortex like outer shell and mesh layer that comes in contact with the skin.  My legs never get cold.

I couldn't find my over booties.  The only thing I could figure out is that I left them at the office.  So, looking for something I went with my new Serfas wind covers and they were absolutely no help.  My feet froze on the way in to work on Friday.  I really think it's time to get a pair of Lake MX300s because in the 20 to 30 temperature range my feet freeze and I think my Shimano winter riding boots have just about had it.

It might be freaking cold
but riding makes me happy!

Now these are booties!  I wore them on the ride home because it was still kind of cold out Friday afternoon.  In fact, the high for Friday was 40 and when I check the local weather before leaving the office it said it was 38 degrees.

On the ride home, I wore my cold weather riding gloves, which I think have had it, too.  They have to be at least 4 or 5 years old.  I bought them at Hickory and Tweed when I still worked in Armonk.  Yikes.  They lasted a pretty long time.  Seems a lot of my kit is nearing end of life.  My tights are getting worn out, the elastic on two pairs of riding shorts are shot and the chamois is nearly falling out of one, too.

Holy Cow!  Riding with the new gearing, 44:15 or 79.2 gear inches was brutal on every climb to work Friday morning and back home.  I knew I was biting off more than I could chew with that gearing, especially after discovering that I was originally riding 38:15 or 68.4 gear inches.  While climbing sucked, hammering the flats was awesome and on my descents, the bigger ring was much easier to keep control of.  I am going to go to 44:17, or 69.9 gear inches and see what a difference that makes.  The closest I can get to 42:15, or 75.6 gear inches, is 44:16, or 74.3 gear inches.

Concluding my 5th commute, I am now 1/10th of the way towards my goal of 1000 commuting miles!  Of course once the kids are out of school, however who knows when that will be since they got so many snow days this year, I plan on increasing the frequency to 3x a week which could get me to my goal much sooner.