I will just share here how I feel the past few days. The weather was a balmy closer to 20C or so for last week for the highs. Then all of a sudden at nights it dipped to -3C. I was not dressed well on two occassions when it dipped so much so fast. As a result I got severe back/leg cramps. It was openly evident to anyone who saw me, I was limping and pulling myself. I never expected something like this to happen and it was a good experience. Sometimes, My legs even felt like spaghetti for a few moments. I didn't bicycle to work most of this week. I felt like I had been thru a breaking wheel: en.wikipedia.orgBreaking wheelOpen ↗
Riding too fast all of a sudden causes leg problems (This I know but I felt that I had enough riding time this year. Time I had yes but not this speed against any significant wind, in significant cold temp.). This combined with the cold has even more serious effects. I couldn't bicycle this whole week !! There is so much learning here that I need to reflect on, this will help avoid severe injury/health problems in the future. Comments/suggestions welcome.
Check the weather forecast every morning/evening, have something on hand for every condition, and use part of the commute as a warm-up (it'll be that, anyway).
Doing that, you can handle a commute in temps/conditions as low as *0!*deg F. (not up on the conversion factor), as I've done nearly every year this millennium.
