Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wet cold monkey.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I really haven't commuting to work via bicycle like "normal" for a while. I've been tied up with after work climbing, running, late work, or being hurt from running. I also mentioned that my coworkers had been razzing me for riding through the butt of last winter and then taken off a good deal of the nicer part of the year from commuting. So I decided today's forecast in STP was fitting to return to it. It was 38 degrees, windy, and the ride home included a steady soaking rainfall. And it was dark, cuz it's MN in November. Why not right? It's actually quite comfortable in the right clothing, as I've always said. People are just to close minded to try it. I rode in a lightweight longsleeve wool shirt over another lightweight shortsleeve wool shirt, with a Marmot Precip jacket over it all. Not much, but when you're riding you actually get pretty warm. And since nothing (yes nothing) on the market is truly waterproof and breathable, you get condensation inside. So thus the wool that insulates when wet. It didn't get very wet, just a few drops here and there...very comfortable. More people should ride when it sucks out. They think they would be worse off but I think they would be happier for it if they could just shake their preconceived ideas.

Arriving home.....























Dry enough, and plenty warm the whole trip home. I definitely advocate biking in garbage-y weather.
























On another note...running has slowed down for the last week. I didn't follow the advice I blogged last entry, and I went to far to soon with the barefoot style running and ended up with a very sore right achilles tendon that got all swollen. It's starting to feel better again, but I'm going to wait a bit longer before easing back into it. I'd rather miss a few days than get hurt. Listen to the barefoot gurus, they advocate starting very very slowly. Guess I better take the hint.

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