What to do about Winter?

Let’s review the bidding.  December is an Autumn month.  Winter does not start until 21 December.  So what’s with all this extremely cold stuff we’ve been experiencing?  The bad news is, it’s here to stay for a while.  The good news is that it won’t last.  For those of us who would much much rather ride outside, it’s going to be difficult for a while.

Cold Injuries:  Exposure to severe cold can result in several serious injuries, among these, Frostbite, chilblains, and trenchfoot.  Cold injuries are curious in that they tend to make the affected individual more susceptible to cold injuries in the future.  Think about this for a moment.  If one breaks a bone, the break site heals and is stronger.  Blisters, once healed begin a process of callus development.  The skin is tougher.  Over-exerted muscle tissue, once recovered, becomes stronger.  Not so with cold or heat injuries.

Cold injuries tend to be most prevalent in the extremities.  Hands and feet are especially susceptible.  In serious cold, the extremities require more protection and care.  Basically, if you have ever had a cold injury of the hands or feet, protect them, and keep them warm.

If you have the luxury of selecting the times you can ride, the next few weeks won’t be too terrible bad.  Simply wait until around noon, and get it done by three.  The mid-day temps are likely to be bearable, and it will be sunny more than not.

If you are an early morning rider, the next few weeks are gonna be tough.  My personal lower limit is 20 degrees.  I say that, but must add, that it’s difficult to operate in those temps.  We are going to be seeing early morning lows around 20, and even lower.  Ouch.

Riding in the late afternoon, and early evening will be challenging.  Temps start to drop between 2:00 and 3:00 P.M.  Worse, the seem to take a fairly sharp drop at sunset.  Dress warmly, and bring more clothing than you need at the start of the ride.  Expect to stop and pull more stuff on.  (See below for an important note on that.)  Folks intending to do either of the upcoming Christmas Lights Rides should pay attention to this.  It will be getting colder as we advance into the night hours.

Trainers, Rollers, and Spin Class were invented for just this kind of thing.  (Personally, I was hoping to give mine more of a break.  Last year was enough of a test, thank you very much!)

Above all be Patient folks.  As we look ahead, past Christmas, it appears that there is a good chance of a warming trend.  This current situation just may be the coldest temps we will experience this Winter.

Cold weather riding techniques:  Keep a good steady amount of effort going.  The activity will warm you.  Hills should be climbed with a steady effort.  Do not attack hills, as the extra output is likely to cause you to sweat, and then force a much less active recovery interval.  That’s a recipe for getting very cold.

Descending:  This is one of those counter-intuitive items.  We know that descending cools us off.  We are also aware that descending at a faster rate will cool us more.  Both true.  But as a result, the tendency is to brake and slow on the descents.  This is actually the wrong technique.  The problem is that braking, or slowing a descent increases the time.  The rider spends more time at rest, while coolig is increased due to increased air flow.  The best technique is to tuck down, into a tight aerodnamic position, and go as fast as possible.  This does two things.  It presests less body area to the wind, thus invoking less cooling.  Second, a rapid descent decreases the time of exposure, and that limits the total cooling effect.  So get it over with!

NOTES on advancing into cooling conditions:  The key is to plan for it.  Look at the temps at ride time.  Dress for them, and plan to ride easily at first.  If you are too warm, and go too hard, you will sweat, and then the chill really hits.  The idea is, warm up as the temps drop.  Have those extra layers already prepared, and carry them with you.  Organize them so that you can access them in the order that you will need them.  Make supplemental clothing stops brief!  Stopping is the enemy.  When you are stopped you tend to cool quickly.  So stop, pull out the gear you will need, and get it on fast.  Then get moving again.  Christmas Lights Riders take note, we will be watching the weather closely.  If it looks like a rapidly cooling night, we will plan to make a group stop for clothing adjustment.  Likely this stop will be about an hour into the ride.