The Buff, Tea with Honey, and the WSJ

12/07/2013 210# 30m 28F

I paid attention to the forecast instead of actual conditions yesterday and ended up not riding, in better conditions than today offered. BUT today is likely to be nicer than the next four days, so I carpe-diemed and layered up and got out there.

This suggests the WC-L-G-CI, a new metric I have not completely figured out how to articulate: the Wind Chill - Layers - Gears Composite Index. 19 windchill, 5 layers, 27 gears; it's got to come together somehow. I'm thinking that any day your WindChill plus Layers is Less than the Number of Gears on your bike, you qualify for Rule Nine BadAss Status. (I believe that BadAss is an inclusive pronoun.)

It had snowed at least an inch or two last night so trail riding was out but major roads were good (no shoulders, though) and it was colder than I usually ask people to join me, so I went out for a solo ride.

Rode from the Rez out to Moon and over to Sewickley for the Starbucks (Sewickley is, after all, the Beaver of Allegheny County). Had a hot tea with honey and read the Wall Street Journal, since they were out of the NY Times.

Today I experimented with a wearing a wool buff around my neck. (Darn- research shows they make a high-viz, reflective model.)

On the outbound leg I just let this wool sleeve sit and it did a nice job of sealing the top of my windbreaker. On the return leg, when I was riding in shadows along Route 51, I had pulled it up over my mouth and nose and after a while I was much too warm; I pulled over and took it off. Nice problem to have on a cold day.

The hand- and foot-warmers did a good job making it a comfortable ride, and I got off the roads before sundown. A nice 30 miles which took me over 5200 miles for the year, so I've got 100 miles/ week.