Friday Follies ~~ The Overdressed Factor

Seasonal progressions.   Climate is what you expect.  Weather is what you get.  One of the more amazing things about our climate is that while its weather is difficult to predict, the seasons show up right on time.  We have warm years and cool ones, wet, and dry, but with all that, we have four distinct seasons, and you can almost set your watch by them.  They always occur right on schedule.

It’s not news that we had a wonderfully temperate Autumn, which has been followed by an extremely mild Winter.

Oddly, just how mild the Winter has been depends on individual reference frames.  (Remember?  Good old Einstein and friends.  What you see depends on where you are.)  For those of us who are habitually up and outside early in the day, it’s been a bit colder than our late rising brethren would have us believe.  Still my consumption of chemical hand and foot warmers has been way behind that of the last three Winters.

As late Autumn and Winter approach, our temps dip and rise.  It seems that each successive dip gets little bit colder, and each rise a little be less warm.  Then add to that the fact that I tend to lead a lot of night rides.  There’s an implication there.

Frankly, it’s easier to dress for cold weather riding when you know that the ambient temperature will be rising during the ride.  Advancing into dropping temperatures is harder.  If one over-dresses, there is the risk of over-warming at the beginning of the ride.  The rider can start to sweat.  Then, as temps drop, the sweat cools the rider too much.  Brr!

Each year, as the cold times come at us, I find I have the same problem.  I know how to dress, but there is a combination of cold acclimation, and changing conditions.  It’s this combination of variables that make Winter so challenging.

And yes, we have had a Winter.  The temperatures have gradually dropped to sustained low ranges.   Now in our typical roller-coaster fashion, we are climbing back up again.  Each year, this brings with it a different problem.  I find that have trouble with over-dressing.  I’ve been bit by the cold so many times, I just have trouble believing that it’s finally all that warm.  It’s a problem, but actually a rather nice one to have.