Since the first of the year I’ve been riding irregularly – mostly short rides every few days. Except for two glorious days the first weekend fo the month, when the temperature got into the lower sixties, it’s been mostly right around freezing. Three days ago, it snowed, then it turned colder and continued snowing off and on. Today, it turned markedly colder.

The temperature is 12 degrees, but it’s clear and sunny, and the wind is mild, so I decided to try a short run and continue testing some of my cold-weather gear.

Results were mixed. I was only out for about 45 minutes (10 miles), and it wasn’t altogether unbearable, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant, either.

I started off with three layers of socks, two layers on the legs, three thin layers on top, two layers of gloves, and a winter skull cap on my head.

After a half mile, I realized I needed something on my face, so I stopped and swapped the skull cap for a balaclava. This worked fairly well except that it fogged my glasses up pretty bad, making it very difficult to see. I kept this configuration until the turn-around at mile 5. Up until this point, the wind had mostly been at my back, and I was feeling pretty good, except the fingertips of my right hand were very cold.

After swapping out the balaclava for a Masque/skull cap combo, I headed back home. It felt fine just standing there swapping headgear, but as soon as I got moving again, my upper body was quickly cold. So after a half mile or so I stopped and put on a thin shell.

I kept this configuration the rest of the way home. Using the Masque instead of the balaclava solved the glasses-fogging problem, and I was otherwise pretty content, except that my the time I got home my fingertips were again cold, as were my toes. Heading into the wind at 13 MPH, that works out to be about a -7 degree wind chill, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Still, I probably won’t ride at this low a temperature again, if I have a choice. It just wasn’t that enjoyable. I feel like I’m getting closer to figuring out my layering strategy, but I’m not there yet.

On the positive side, the next two days are looking to be in the mid-thirties. Balmy!