It’s cold out there. It was 16F when the ride was done, I think a little colder when I started an hour earlier.

The photograph is me with what I was wearing before the ride. I was a little optimistic about the temperature. By the time I had ridden 3/4 of a mile, I turned around because 3 body parts were already getting too cold.

1. My face had too much exposed skin, with sunglasses not keeping the cold wind away from my forehead and eyes. I swapped my glasses for an extremely old pair of ski goggles.
2. My hands were already chilling. I took off my lobster gloves and put on leather mittens over some thinsulate knit gloves.
3. I was already losing heat with wind blowing across my torso. So I added a windbreaker beneath my bright yellow outer shell.

With those three changes, I was quite comfortable, even after an hour riding in the cold. The toe warmers attached to my Smartwool socks did an excellent job keeping my feet warm.

As chilly as this February was (more than 10 degrees below normal), I am still a full month of riding ahead of last year. I ended last March with 65.63 total miles YTD.

Today 11.42 miles. YTD 67.25 miles.

That’s 7 years of riding, at least once each month, on the roads in Wisconsin. Yep, that includes the winter months. The streak began in March 2008. I met the 84th consecutive month today. During that time, including today, I have logged 23,094.03 miles.

Much like January’s final ride, today’s was a moment of opportunity. Though there’s much work to do, none of it was time sensitive this afternoon. So a little shuffling was in order.

The temperatures are in the upper 20’s. That’s warm enough that my clothes were sweated up pretty good by the time I got home, yet cold enough that my feet were thoroughly chilled.

While on the ride today I passed by the Fox River Boardwalk just like I did a couple week ago. I had the idea that it might be interesting to capture the same view each month this year. Since there’s no guarantee I’ll get another February ride, I’m featuring that image today.

There is more snow on the ground today, but the sky is only most cloudy instead of overcast. So the image is a little brighter and there’s a noticeable shadow behind the building.

14.12 miles. YTD 55.83 miles.