Cycling in Cold Weather: An Admission

Those who know me best are all too aware of how important cycling is to me. Living in a cold climate with dramatic shifts in weather presents me with quite the challenge. Over the course of the last two months, I have learned a few important things about myself that make the prospect of cycling in freezing weather very unlikely.

Example 1: Just over a month ago, I hit the big brick wall of my cold weather cycling tolerance. When I left my house, the temperature was 30 degrees fahrenheit (just a tad below freezing). I was wearing 3 layers on the top, long fingered gloves, a wool snow cap, and long cycling pants. My cycling route was short (just over 2 miles), but it was mostly uphill. Climbs and layers aside, I arrived at my destination with slight hypothermia. I couldn't feel my hands for a good 20 minutes after I was inside, and I spent the rest of the day feeling cold and intensely hungry. Unpleasant doesn't even begin to cover it.
Lesson 1: when riding in weather below 40 degrees, a wind vest is mandatory. It turns out that layers just won't cut it when you are moving faster than 10 miles per hour.

Example 2: Whenever I ride when the temperature is between 40 and 45 degrees, I feel warm enough with layers and long fingered gloves. The persistent headaches, however, are completely new. It turns out that the enamel on my teeth is not as strong as it used to be and cold air against them is causing headaches.
Lesson 2: Either my sinuses need to be clear enough to allow me to ride with my mouth closed or I need to invest in some sort of riding scarf.

::sigh:: None of these changes are fun to contemplate. There is hope, however. Just last week we had a day when the temperature was a 50 degrees. You better believe I rode for the 8 hours or so when we had sunlight.

Winter in São Paulo

I've done winter in Brazil two different times in the past. The first was in Salvador da Bahia. Winter there was tropical. It meant wearing shorts, a tank top and carrying an umbrella. I ruined a good pair of shoes in the rain there, but it was fine since sandals were much more appropriate. When rain combines with heat, it's easy, and you know it is going to end soon. The second time I did winter was in Rio. There, winter means wearing jeans and carrying a sweatshirt. It also means that electric showers are much less fun than using the awesomeness of an aquecedor, whose very potential means lovely hot showers. See, the blazing hot summers in Rio mean that hot showers make very little sense, but winters are a little too chilly to get by without them.

São Paulo is different. (São Paulo is different from the rest of Brazil in a number of ways, but that isn't what this post is about...) It's at a higher elevation than either Rio or Salvador and is thus cold here. Every night I sleep with three blankets on my bed and often layer when I go to sleep. It isn't that it's dropped below 9 degrees centigrade (which is normal for a city in the south like Porto Alegre), but that some of the apartment buildings in the city don't have anything resembling insulation, or even windows that close completely. Mine just happens to be one of those buildings. The first week I was here, the weather fooled me. It felt like LA in the spring with extremely short days. But now it's cooling down. I know I'm getting away with something by missing LA's heatwave right now, but seriously this weather is bumming me out. Maybe I wasn't meant to experience two winters a year...

Also, in unrelated news, I really miss my bike and the research is speeding by like a metro train. Go figure.