Thread: Darkest week of the year
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Old 12-17-19, 04:19 PM
  #19  
Jim from Boston
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Darkest week of the year.
Originally Posted by blackieoneshot
Commuting on a bike gives me a primal connection to the changing of the seasons. It's an unexpected, but treasured, benefit of traveling by bicycle.
Originally Posted by mcours2006
Well, now that things are looking up with the daylight situation, we just need to brace ourselves for the winter to come.
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
"It must be winter again"

… As a year-round urban/suburban commuter, I must say that the neighborhood Christmas lights make the commute so much more delightful, than the dreary months of January through March to follow.
I have previously posted about partitioning the Winter to endure:
Originally Posted by tjspiel
Winter is long enough here [in Minneapolis] that I mentally break it into segments.

1. Late November through December

2. January

3. February to Mid March

4. Mid March ->

January gets it's own segment because it can be so brutally cold and I mostly ride in the dark. By February I'm starting to get some daylight on both ends of the commute and though we can get really cold weather in February too, the temps tend to moderate and the side roads start to thaw.
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
... It seems that sometime in early February though, I start to notice some welcome radiant heat from the sun.
Usually by Mid March (or not long after) we've had at least one extended thaw where a lot of the snow melts. We may get major snow storms and cold weather after that but those come in between warmer stretches.

April is often a mixed bag. 70 or 80 one week, then snow the next but it's possible it won't snow at all..
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
The above is a pretty good description of the winter progression here in Boston, though the temperatures and snowfall are less brutal than in Minneapolis.

I would add that the Christmas lights of late November through December along with the slightly higher temperatures, and some residual training effect from summer and fall make that segment enjoyable. The quick disappearance of Holiday lights in January further exacerbates the gloom.

Visits to Virginia and South Carolina in March and April have convinced me that Spring in Boston is about one month behind the South, particularly for an early morning commuter.
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
I dont’t think of a cycling season, but rather a cycling year with a cycle of seasons.…Not to sound religious, but I like to think of Ash Wednesday as my “New Cycling Year’s Day.”

It occurs usually still well into the Winter and I use that forty-day period of Lent as a marker to define a tolerable length of time to go into a rigorous dietary and training mode to shake off the winter blahs, even though I ride during the Winter anyways.

By Easter, Spring is making itself known and I’m particularly ready for it.
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