Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1860:
We wound up getting far less snow than the weathermen were predicting, with a bit less than 2" on the ground. Most of the moisture came in the form of rain. Once the snow stopped, the wind came up hard.
The wind howled all night. I listened to it as I tried to fall asleep, and dreaded what today's commute would be like because of it. Throughout the night I would awake and hear the wind. That's not a recipe for a restful night's sleep.
I debated on whether to ride the bike with studded tires, or the fat bike. I knew with the wind there would be drifting, and the fat bike would be better for those conditions. However, I also knew with the rain there would be a layer of rutted ice on a good chunk of the pavement, and hiding under the snow. I opted for the bike with studded tires. As it turned out, there wasn't a good/bad choice, as both bikes would have shown their strengths and weaknesses today.
When I left the house the air temperature was 23°F. Normally I don't add an additional sweatshirt and switch to goggles unless the temp is 20°F or lower, but hearing the wind outside just made me feel cold. I decided on a day like this I would rather be overdressed than underdressed, so I wore the sweatshirt and goggles. As it turned out, I should have also put on a layer of long underwear and worn my boots instead of just tennis shoes.
There is a rather large park where I have a choice to take the road on the north side of the park, or stay on the MUP along the river on the south side of the park. The two routes are roughly the same distance, so often I'll take one route on the way to work and the other on the way home just to mix it up. The road route is more in the open area, and I thought that might make fighting the wind more difficult, so I opted for the MUP route. That turned out to be a mistake. The rutted ice was bad on this section, but even worse was the severe drifting. I wound up walking a good portion of this section as the drifts were too deep to be ridable. About halfway through the park I decided that walking across a field wouldn't be any more difficult than fighting the drifts on the MUP, and that would get me to the road. Once I got to the road there was a lot less drifting and I was able to resume riding again.
The steady 25mph wind made the wind chill feel like 6°F, but it sure felt colder than that, especially when the gusts hit. My commute today took me to our company office 8 miles from home. The wind was mostly a crosswind, but there were times I had to ride straight into it. By the time I reached our office I was pretty frozen from the waist down. I probably should have just ridden directly to a client location that was closer. The temps and wind are supposed to stay pretty much the same all day, so I got a good taste of what the ride home will be like.
On a brighter note, I stepped on the scale this morning and was 12 pounds lighter than I was about a month ago. I've been really clamping down on my eating habits lately, and it looks like I'm starting to see the results.