Last week there was the last skating session for the time being. With the weather here, you can already cycle outside again. My little rule of thumb is: As soon as the streets are clear and the temperatures go above 0 degrees, you cycle.
In the past, when I was young and not in control of my senses, I only kept to the first part of the rule. I describe the following experiences as my highlights, in ascending order:
1.)
After 3 hours of mountain biking at -14 degrees, not only were all my clothes frozen and covered with snow, but also my fingers. I had to ring the whole house until someone finally came and took my front door key out of my pocket and unlocked my door. I didn't even have the strength in my fingers to turn the key myself!
2.)
One day before Christmas I had set in my head to do a quick lap to catch up on lost training 😉 With the racing bike! I reeled off my 4-hour route at -7 degrees and was on the plane to the resort the next day with a fever.
And the winner:
After 2 hours of mountain biking at -15 degrees (with the wind chill effect it was below -20 degrees), I got 2nd degree frostbite on almost all of my fingers. For about 2 months (after a week the entire skin peeled off) I had no more feeling in individual fingers and really jittered that I would ever get some again. Thank God that wasn't the case. But since then I've been a little more sensible 😉
Should the temperatures really go down, the only sensible thing to do is to run (cover your neck!) And cross-country skiing. Due to the additional activity of the upper body, the fingers do not become cold, but rather well supplied with blood. And if it gets cold anyway, just step on the gas. When cycling, on the other hand, this only has a limited effect, since of course the cold wind blows stronger here.
skin in!
krelli