Sunday, 8 December
Cold, cold cold: by Northern California standards, anyway. Right about 40 degrees with sunshine and a very cold but fitful breeze. This is at 1pm, the warmest part of the day.
I begged and pleaded and nidged and possibly whined (who, me?!) to get Red Leader to come out with me for a bike ride.
We came, We saw, We ran away.
We went 4 miles, and I decided that we should turn around. Red Leader is a gentleman and did not chide ME for bailing when I was the one who 'made' him come with me.
We both wore our shoe covers (by Aerotech Designs and bought at the end of last winter) for the first time. His are sedate black and mine are blinding yellow.
Red Leader wore an UnderArmour Cold Gear jersey I made for him (ColdGear and HeatGear fabrics are available from Rockywoods online). And his bulky fleece jacket and his rain jacket. And Supplex tights and leg warmers (both from Aerotech). And his usual socks and the aforementioned shoe covers. And a synthetic Buff that did not keep his forehead warm enough. He needs a proper balaclava. He reports that only his face was really cold. And the bottoms of his feet eventually got cold (air leaks via cleats?)
The UnderArmour material did its duty as a baselayer and wicked all his sweat into his very absorbent (and not wicking) fleece jacket.
I'll be making him a Windstopper fleece real soon now.
I dressed in many fine layers and looked a bit like an expensively dressed color-blind homeless bike person. From inside to outside, and top to bottom.
Wicking brimmed cap under a wool Buff under my Nutcase helmet. Black, forest green, orange with silver flames.
Short sleeved Ibex lightweight merino shirt under a long sleeved version of the same under a midweight Ibex Merino turtleneck under my homemade Schoeller jacket (material from Rockywoods, again). Black, dark orange, blue, orange and brown.
Supplex tights under a stretch skirt. Black and blue, pink.
Smartwool lightweight crew PhD socks inside my mesh Pearl Izumi shoes, topped off with neoprene covers. Neon Yellow.
Red Leader proclaimed that I needed a few more colors. I think he was joking.
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