On the way into work last Friday, I had finally had enough. I did not complete my ride; instead, I rode over to the subway and got on.

After seven winters of near-daily bike riding, I think that I might have almost run out of tolerance for the cold. The freezing riding is starting to get to me; so perhaps I won't ride so much this month. As a result, this year I probably won't hit ten thousand kilometres or six thousand miles; but, having achieved that distinction three times, maybe I have earned the right to ease up a bit.

When I started riding every day in 2011, I was determined not to skip days just on account of the cold. I'd skip days for rain, snow, or ice, but not for cold alone. So I rode consistently on 20-degree days; I rode in temperatures as low as 9 degrees.

To say that this was against my nature is an understatement. Not only had I not ridden in the cold before, I had in fact never before even been outside in the cold so much! Even when I was a kid, I never wanted to play in the snow or to go outside in the cold. My mother would bundle me up, and I'd go out, only to come back in ten minutes later.

But I put up with riding in the winter for seven years. I am proud of that; but my will to deal with it is, as we say in Esperanto, elĉerpita.

So I am taking it easy this February. I will miss the daily riding. But I will not miss the constant extra wind of 10 to 20 miles per hour that riding generates, a wind that makes every cold day that much more miserable. Nor will I miss the elaborate dressing ritual that is meant to protect me from the cold, but in the end can do nothing about my hands and my face.

If we get mild days of 40 degrees, then I will probably ride on those days. But, other than that, I will resume full-time in March, when we can expect better weather.