Today's commute would have made Jack London proud.

-5°F with 20+ mph north winds making for windchills well south of -30°F. We got about 1" of new powdery snow yesterday afternoon which was blowing and drifting with the strong winds.

Today the client office I normally would have ridden to (4 miles from home) was closed for Martin Luther King day. So the only option I had was to ride to our company office which was 8 miles from home. The wind was mostly crosswinds but there were a few stretches where I had to ride straight into it.

The roads were in pretty decent shape overall. 1" of powdery snow slows me down a little, but not bad. Once I hit the MUP I was riding on virgin snow. The wind had pushed some areas completely clear so I could ride on dry pavement. In other spots, though, the wind had created drifts more than a foot high. There was one 1/2 mile stretch where I think I walked more than I rode because the drifting was so bad. I'll probably take a different route on the way home to avoid that area.

Around the 4 mile mark I was getting noticeably cold in the hands, feet and (oddly enough) kidney area on my back. My goggles were starting to ice over. The wind was just whipping right through all of my layers. I pressed onward until about the 6 mile mark where I came off the MUP. At that spot there were some apartment buildings so I pulled in and warmed up in an entryway for a few minutes. In 9 seasons of winter commuting that was the first time where I had to stop to take a break from the elements.

Back on the bike for the final 2 miles was challenging. This portion of the commute is through an open area with hardly any trees and sparse buildings, so even on calm days any little breeze is very noticeable. Today it was downright brutal. I put my triple in the lowest sprocket and tried to spin the best I could.

I finally arrived at work an hour and ten minutes after I left the house. I know my warming stop didn't take more than 10 minutes, so that tells me I averaged 8 mph. Felt like I'd just run a marathon, though. When I removed my layers I found there was ice and frost on the insides of all of them where the wind had come through and frozen my sweat. It sure didn't feel like I was sweating, but apparently I was. The warm shower sure felt good.

Today was an example of when developing a long consecutive bicycle commuting streak motivates you to keep it going through those difficult days. Had I not had an established streak, I would have definitely driven a car today. Instead I can increase the counter to 442.