Allright, it's been so freakin cold and I was sick for most of January so I haven't been putting in many base miles. Wanted to commute yesterday, -8F, 20 mph winds ... screw that. Last night I announce I'm commuting no matter what. Well, ... -4F, 5-10 mph and still 9" of new snow on the ground (heavily drifted).
Change my helmet light to my ski helmet, polypropylene underwear, long underwear, ..., ..., lower Nokians to 40 psi and finally I'm ready to roll.
The streets are reasonably plowed so I don't have much trouble even on the glare ice (love Nokian studs). But, then I hit the unplowed MUP. At first, there is only about 4-5" of windblown and I get through this pretty easily. Then I get to the forested area. Ughh, over a foot of snow! I was in the freakin granny gear weazing like a horse and still had a rough time keeping going. Finally hit some burried ruts and stopped.
I couldn't start again!
I couldn't push myself through the snow and by the time I started to pedal, the rear wheel being unweighted just spins. So you go nowhere. Ughhhh! So now I'm pushing my bike through the snow like a freakin snowplow.
I cover a mile or so of this and get to a narrow shoulder with curb (difficult bail out) very busy 4 lane divided highway ... in rush hour. Or ... I can trudge another 3 miles through the MUP. ... ... OK, let's risk the damn highway.
Obviously I made it as I'm writing this but I wasn't real happy about it. I watched my mirror a lot. I finally get to my side streets and everything is fine again to finish my ride.
One damn tough commute! I could handle the cold but adding the snow damn near killed me. I'm doing 155 bpm pushing my freakin bike thorugh the snow! Jesus!
I will be exercising inside till the snow melts a little.
Signed,
One depressed, cold commuter.