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01-27-06, 09:20 AM
I road my first commute to work today in the cold (15F) with a total distance of 20miles on my cyclocross bike, it took 1hr30min, during the summer on my road bike it normally takes about 1hr so it wasn't too bad. Anyways, with the exception of a mechanical (forgot to tighten my chainring bolts after cleaning my bike) half way through the ride things were pretty good. I had 2 layers of tights on, one regular pair and one pair of amfib bibs. I had three layers on top on, a thick underarmor, a long sleeve jersey, and a wintex thermal jacket. On my hands I wore a pair of Giordana spider gloves and a pair of Giordana Wintex gloves. On my head I wore a Peal Izumi Microsensor baclava, a Giordana Windtex skullcap, and a neck gaitor. For my feet I had a pair of Northwave Celsius GTX mtb shoes on and wool socks. I also had a pair of Wiley X goggles for my eyes. I was completely warm the entire ride with the exception that my feet got a little cold towards the end and my legs were a little chilly at the beginning of the ride.
Anyways, I did however have one issue that I'm trying to figure out, I'm riding to work to get my base miles in but for some reason I couldn't keep my HR in the Zone 2. It was always in either Z3 or sometimes Z4 which is way too high. It didn't seem like I was doing that much work, I don't know if it's just because I'm not used to riding in these kind of temperatures with this much gear on or because I was breathing through the neck gaitor the entire time. It helped a little when I took the neck gaitor off but then my face starts freezing up again.
Anyone have any suggestions on this?
Anyways, I did however have one issue that I'm trying to figure out, I'm riding to work to get my base miles in but for some reason I couldn't keep my HR in the Zone 2. It was always in either Z3 or sometimes Z4 which is way too high. It didn't seem like I was doing that much work, I don't know if it's just because I'm not used to riding in these kind of temperatures with this much gear on or because I was breathing through the neck gaitor the entire time. It helped a little when I took the neck gaitor off but then my face starts freezing up again.
Anyone have any suggestions on this?