What To Wear

It’s 18° F outside with a NW wind blowing 6 mph, which puts the windchill at 10° F.

Time for a lunchtime road ride.

What to wear?

• 1 pair rag wool socks
• 1 pair of thermal knee warmers – spandex with a thin layer of fleece against your skin. The knee warmers cover from just below the knees to the tops of the thighs.
• 1 pair of thermal tights – spandex with a thin layer of fleece against your skin. Normally I wouldn’t wear these, but I forgot my shorts, so I needed some padding and an extra layer on my butt.
• 1 pair of thermal wind tights – spandex with a thin layer of fleece against your skin and a thin layer of neoprene on the front on the outside to block the wind.
• 1 long sleeve Thinsulate long sleeve top
• 1 short sleeve jersey
• 1 long sleeve jersey
• 1 impossibly thin nylon jacket
• 1 windstopper neck gaiter. For me this is the most important piece of clothing. You can pull it up over your face and it’s like turning on the heat.
• 1 ear band
• helmet
• 1 pair of windstopper Toko lobster gloves
• 1 pair of Lake winter bike boots

The top layers (above my waist) seem pretty thin, but that’s where I sweat the most and sweat I did.

I rode for an hour. It wasn’t too bad. Only problem was drinking more coffee than water this morning and suffering some minor leg cramping.

Probably could have ridden for a short while longer, but not much. The nylon jacket doesn’t breath, thus keeping me wet and clammy, which isn’t good in those kinds of temps. I have better jackets, but it’s not really worth it for a short hour long ride.

Hopefully my fitness and cold weather conditioning is improving.

I’ve got only 2 weeks before the ADK trip.

Gonna be a doozy this year.

– b