Risk versus Reward

I went out tonight to scoop the snow off my driveway and discovered what a 20 below wind chill feels like. I am not super human. I have my limits. I probably won't bike in that. Well, not this season at least.

When I biked home Monday the wind chill was about 5 below. That was bearable, you are your own heater.

The temperature is going to be about 7 below first thing in the morning, the wind chill will make it feel like 35 below. Let me tell you how I'm not getting to work. While I value both the mental toughness it takes to persevere through adverse conditions and the physical fitness gains from climbing Nebraska Mountains, I'm going to sit high and mighty in the heated leather seat of a Ford on the trips to and from work. I just can't fathom the small rewards from such a high risk activity.

While yes, you are your own heater, the intensity level needed to keep warm at those temps coincides with your body's natural tendency to sweat automatically. Once that sweat freezes to your skin, game over.

To paraphrase an old Denis Leary punchline: "Death, the ultimate physical fitness!"

Tonight was a good night for a moderately intense indoor trainer ride, pushing my heart rate into L3 and holding it for 30 minutes.

I'm going to do it again for the next two weeks regardless of the weather, but for 45 and 60 minutes.

Some people Bungee jump, I pedal through tornado watches.

I should have remembered the camera. This was an awesome ride home.

I checked the weather before I left work. I allegedly had a 20mph wind from the SSW, that usually means I get home in about 17 minutes.

I walked out and it was calm. The sun was peeking out from behind a few clouds. Hmm.

And then I saw a massive front moving in from the north as I approached the bridges at 27th and highway 2. So that's why there's no wind.

The wind started blowing out of the northeast about 1/4 mile past highway two and kept getting stronger. Same effort that started out at 19mph turned into 17, then 15, then 13, then 9.

I don't know how it happened, but one minute I was grinding it out against the wind and the next minute I had a branch stuck in my derailleur. I couldn't pedal. I had to fish it out with a terrible wind blowing and rain falling all around me.

The wind had shifted and strengthened after I passed under Capitol Parkway and 27th. I was pelted with all manner of small debris from there to Randolph street. One normally doesn't have to wait for cars at Randolph street, because there aren't any.

Of course that doesn't happen today. No sir. Today I had to wait for 8 cars from each direction. That's when the wind really picked up. I got hit by a few small objects that stung a bit.

I honestly thought I was going to get picked up and dropped in Oz just as the light let me go through.

I saw a branch fall off a tree and land across Capitol Parkway at Lincoln High. Tires screeched as cars tried to avoid it and each other. I pressed on. I turned on to J street and headed up the path, where small branches, leaves, signs, dirt and assorted house debris blew across the path in front of me. I stopped under the O street bridge and let the worst of it pass for a few minutes.

It was at that moment that I realized I had been laughing the whole time.