Frozen Chamois

That was cold. I headed out for a 3.5 hour ride about 11:30 this morning. It was hovering around 20F with a 7w/c factor. Not bad, I just dressed for the weather with my normal of tights and booties down low and an underarmor, l/s jeresy and wind jacket up top. My ride was on paved roads which all turned out to be really wet or slushy. The cold melted snow/ice immediately sprayed off the tires and coated me. My ass was very wet, cold, and in the freezing process. I would stand up and pedal to try and keep blood flow going. After a while it seemed to get better as I got on more highly traveled roads. I cut the ride short to just over 2 hours as my entire lower body was soaked. My booties were covered with a salty water mixture that went down to my shoes. Even my toe warmers were wet! My tights were soaked, but the knee warmers underneath kept the water from reaching my skin.

As I came in the house, I pulled my jacket off as globs of ice fell out. I guess I was working hard and sweating, which correlated to water sitting on the jacket and freezing. I took everything off and threw it in the washer right away. My tights and bike shorts were drenched up high. I have only seen my chamois wetter than that twice. That would be riding in heavy downpoors this summer. Even after the 90F temps at Lumberjack or 12H of Boyne didn't get it nearly as wet. When I would stand up and then sit back on my seat, it felt like a layer of ice had formed over the leather. Brrr.

So, the lessons learned...do one of two things

1. Use fenders on the front and rear to keep the road spray to a minimal since it was also all over my face and glasses

or

2. Wear waterproof pants to keep the water from soaking the base layer, but that keeps the sweat in and will make me colder if I happen to sweat a lot or stop.

Tommorrow I will try the waterproof pant thing since I have a pair and do not own fenders. Or if the roads dry up, I will not need either. I need to be on the roads tommorrow for my ride, but I am thinking next week will be good for the back roads, especially if there is more snow. Off to ride the trainer for another 2hrs.