Cold and sweaty

I've been up before 0600 for the last few weeks, which is a bit early for my liking at this time of the year. I like to be on the road early in summer, but I also prefer riding with a bit of daylight. It's just too easy to get run over on a bike at night, regardless of how much you spend on gigawatt lights and reflective gear. In the end, it all comes down to the inattentive nut behind the wheel of a car.

I had one of those today - on the Roundabout of Death no less. My video batteries had gone flat, so I missed filming him tearing up to the roundabout, then realising he had to give way, and then the slamming on of the brakes, and him ending up parked halfway through the roundabout with a sheepish and idiotic grin on his face. Bloody Mercedes drivers.

Anyway, to Cold and Sweaty.

As usual, I goofed around the house whilst I waited for a bit of daylight. A bowl of Weeties. A bit of bag packing. The reading of a few blogs. And then a few more blogs. Some checking of the weather forecast. Yuk - 8 degrees. Another three layer day.

Even at 8 degrees, it is not really cold enough for 3 layers. After 5 minutes of easy riding on the flat, I'm starting to sweat. However, it's also too cold for 2 layers. I can unzip a bit here and there, but I can't take the top layer off as I'll start to freeze. Better to be too hot than too cold.

If I was going for a long ride - say 2-4 hours - I'd reach a point where I'd be getting really hot, and then the top layer would come off regardless. But with a 45 minute commute, there's no point in stopping and shedding. You just push on, knowing that hot shower is not far away.

By the time I got to work, sweat had actually pooled in the sleeves of my jacket. When I took it off, I heard the splosh of a good sized puddle impacting on the floor.

But at the other end of my body, my feet were frozen. Hence the hot shower.

I could spend a small fortune on cycling kit of different weights and thicknesses and so on in order to get around these problems, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to put up with it. Mainly because I can't fit much more cycling kit in the wardrobe!