Woke up this morning to discover it was -6°F with a 15 mph wind which made the windchill somewhere around -27°F. My wife was lobbying hard for me not to ride, but I somehow got her to concede on the condition that I text here as soon as I arrived at the office.
The ride itself was actually pretty easy, even with the head wind. I wasn't trying to set any speed records as the plows had finally cleared the roads after Monday's snow, but there was a good layer of rutted ice left on the pavement underneath. My winter bike really gets my heart pumping even at low speeds, so halfway to work I got too sweaty and had to pull the mask off of my face.
Did have one "uh oh" moment. About a mile from my house I came up on an intersection controlled by a stop sign. The cross street didn't have to stop, and it's an extremely busy artery with traffic moving up to 50 mph. My route has me turning right, so usually I only have to wait a few minutes for a suitable break in traffic. This morning, however, there was a car in front of me trying to turn left. Must not have been a usual route for the driver, as I (and everyone else in our neighborhood) know turning left at this spot during rush hour is an exercise in futility.
My worry was that I wasn't far enough from home for my body to have warmed up, and I was wearing my normal light layers (to keep the sweat at bay once I do warm up.) I didn't know how long the guy had been waiting already, and I was now standing motionless behind him. Because I was turning right and he was signalling left I thought about squeezing between him and the curb, but his car was actually angled to the right. I figured if I did try and pass him, it would just be my luck that he would give up on the left turn and suddenly pull out to the right and mow me down. So I held my ground and waited, hoping I wouldn't freeze to death in the meantime. At least (according to Jack London) freezing to death is a relatively painless way to go, more so I would speculate than being crushed by a vehicle.
Thankfully we only sat there for about three more minutes until he saw a small break in traffic and gunned through for the left turn. Then I only had to wait about 30 more seconds for another break to allow me to turn right. A mile further down the road and I had reached operating temperature.