Winter arrives

Well, when the clock radio goes off and the first thing you hear is the weatherman talking about a freeze warning until 9 A.M. (and yes if anyone up north is reading this I know you are hearing violins and I too enjoy riding in snow but freezes are not common down here) you know the commute is going to be a bit colder than usual and it's time to batten down the hatches so to speak. Anyway, I couldn't find my winter gloves so my wife let me pull my Christmas present out a few days early, a pair of waterproof breathable jogging mittens (mittens as I am using bar end shifters and on the recumbent I don't really need gloves so I'll take warmth). I pulled on the shoe covers (which were a bit of a stretch over my new shoes with an MTB tread but I did it), and..... dang! wheres my balaclava? Dang those kids! Must have ran off with it while they were watching me clean the garage! Well, at least I can put on the strap to my headlight to keep the tops of my ears warmer. So, thus arrayed I thrust through the predawn darkness. I have to say the mittens rocked. I also missed the balaclava but other than that things worked out amazingly well. I did notice that in the cold it was very hard to get my heartrate up into zone 3 and it took forever for me to finally warm up. The legs just didn't want to churn the heart up into that zone until the sun had been up for awhile. Other than that it was a pretty typical commute. I was glad to be back on the bike after having to drive for a few days. I had forgotten that some drivers are such jerks! Nice to leave there world again and return to the world where most people wave at each other even if their bike doesn't look as nice as yours, heck even the joggers wave at me and they don't even have a bike! I think people moving a little slower but helping themselves at the same time perhaps, help out their mental outlook towards others as well. Anyway, enough philosophising! It was a good ride.