Cold (and Windy) Bike Rides

We've had some cold days recently. On a day that was 13 degrees and had 17 mph winds (that got stronger the later the day went on), I biked some errands for almost 15 miles. The first 5+ miles that were more into the wind were brutal: it was -3 with windchill, but being I was biking 11 mph mainly INTO the wind, it really felt like -7 to me. And truly, it's the cutting wind that sucks - it can be colder but not feel to bad until it blows through your soul.

After lifting weights at the gym, I biked home, but I was plenty warm being I was going more WITH the wind, so I did some extra:

Notice the long detour to the south (and then back north)
before heading home. It was chillier heading north!!

Garmin shows the wind coming straight from the west, but it really felt more like out of the NW as it was nasty for the last 3 miles home.

Freshly snow-packed (and kind of icy) trails along River Road.

I ran on those paths about 30 hours earlier, and it was mostly clear with just some packed snow here-and-there. But a little coating of freezing snow had made things slick for this ride. But always happy to get out!

This ended up being a day of good workouts: an early 2 hour trainer workout, biking to the gym, a good upper body workout, and then biking home. All-in-all, I had 472 "intensity minutes" that day! Normally, 300 is a good day, and 400 is a BIG day!