Embrace the Suck: Riding in crazy January weather.

Monday was a pleasant surprise, the weather was improving from Sunday's ice storm. I was able to run 3.5 miles at lunch and ride home in shorts with the 40 degree weather. Tuesday was flat out amazing. The high was 60 degrees and since I drove (my kids schedule isn't always conducive to riding) I went for a 4 mile run at lunch. Down right amazing for the end of January. 

Then we got a dose of reality. Wednesday I woke up to an odd situation; rain in the morning turning to a major snowstorm and 37 mph winds by the end of the day. What was I to do? Drive or ride? That is an easy question.....I opted to ride.   Warm in the morning and freezing at night, two very different scenarios in one day.  The challenge was clothing.  

For the morning commute I decided some Pearl Izumi tights with a water proof front would be a great option.  They also have some insulation so it would be a little warm in the morning but just right for the ride home.  This turned out to be a failure of near epic proportion. It began to rain so hard that the water merely ran down the front waterproofing and filled my boots with water.  One great thing about the Mukluk is that with the fat tires I get a lot of stability on a variety of conditions, on the flip side, the Endomorph on the rear is similar to the stern-wheel boats that once travelled the Mississippi I ride along.  

Stern Wheel Tread Design

This meant that the non-water proof side of the tights worked like a Sham Wow and absorbed most of the water thrown by the tires.  There was a lot of water and since goretex does just as good of a job holding water in as keeping it out and by the time I got to work my feet were sloshing around in my boots.  I spent the day trying to dry them out for the ride home in the blizzard.

While sitting at major intersections, I got a lot of odd looks.  I am all right with that, even though I was somewhat miserable, thanks to the Army I have learned to embrace and enjoy the suck.  The hard part is getting wet, once the boots are full of water you have no choice but to enjoy life anyway.....or be miserable.  

I think there are a lot of miserable people in this world.  I am not one of them.  

Then came the snow....and the wind.  Ruthless wind.  

Fortunately for me all of my stuff was dry after spending hours in front of fans with constant rotations.  While the ambient air was not that cold, the wind and blowing snow was a challenge.  The remainder of the week was just flat out cold, lows in the single digit negatives with wind chills taking them further down.  Not to mention a miserable head wind.

 What happened to nice happy 60 degrees?  

Reality!