Month: December 2008

Andrea

80 miles, tractors, and a near-epic chili failure

Even though I stayed up late last night for a Christmas party, I managed to drag my butt out of bed early enough to start a crock pot of sweet potato chili before my planned 10:00 departure for my long solo base ride. Everything looked good- I even remembered to turn the Crock Pot on! There’s nothing better after a long, chilly ride than a giant bowl of chili, right?

So I head out on my ride (I altered the last bit to go through Arlington in order to make it longer, so it was close to 80 rather than 74):

After 3 hours of riding, I made a stop at the infamous “Cat Pee Store” on the north side of Oakland. It was closed, but it’s got couches on the porch, so it’s still a nice place to take a break and have a snack. While I was there, I got a text message from Ryan:
“Do you mean for crock pot to be cooking? It is unplugged!”

Oops. So at the time of this posting, I’m having leftovers instead of chili. It will be ready by dinner time, but it would have been much worse if my goof-up hadn’t been caught!

So I head back out towards home. Along the way, I was on Hwy 196 outside of Galloway (it’s not on the above route since I changed plans mid-ride). I ride up behind a large tractor with two men on it- a driver and his passenger. They’re going about 15mph, and I was cruising at 17-18mph. So, I go to pass them… the passenger starts lauging and pointing at me- and the driver guns the motor to match my speed. The passenger is still laughing, and in the distance, there is a car coming in the lane that I’m trying to use to pass. WTF?! Effing rednecks. So, rather than slow down and get back behind them, I (for lack of a better term) attack the bejezus out of the tractor and ride my butt off until I was sure that they weren’t going to catch back up with me. They were close for a minute. It kinda sucked. I got away, though, so it’s all good. I imagine they’re back at home sippin’ Natty Lite and tellin’ me-maw & the kids about some crazy idjut on a bike that they were messin’ with the same way I’m telling the story about some backwoods rednecks not wanting to share their tractor-transporting road.

Thankfully, the rest of the ride was uneventful (though I did get chased by several dogs earlier in the ride). I felt like I still had a little “go” in my legs near the end, which is a nice feeling.

Andrea

Product Review: Descente “Wombat” Gloves

…possibly another addition to my “top 10 favorite things of all time” list.

Those of you that know me might know that I have HORRIBLE problems with cold hands in the winter. I have all the syptoms of Reynaud’s Phenomena, so cold hands to me aren’t just uncomfortable- they’re effing PAINFUL and put me at risk for tissue damage.

Because of this, good gloves are a must for me. I’ve got a pair of Pearl Izumi “lobster” gloves, which I don’t especially like because A) They’re PI, and I think that PI is trash for their latest ad campaign, B) the liner is really bulky, and C) if I sweat in them, they get reeeealy cold and cause my usual hand issues.

So, when it got cold out, I went out in search of something less bulky than the lobsters, and NOT made by PI (I swear, if you have any respect for female cyclists, you’ll avoid giving them your money). Enter the Descente “Wombat” glove. They’re a mid to heavyweight glove that have a cool little wind/waterproof “mitten” cover that can either wrap around your fingers or tuck into the back of the glove if not needed. They’ve also got a decent amount of snot-wipe area, and stretchy, articulated knuckles.


I LOVE these! The knuckles make them much more “wearable” than other gloves in the same category- meaning that you don’t have to take them off if you want to lock a door, use an allen key to adjust your saddle, zip your jacket, etc. The finger cover is the absolute BEST feature, though. I pull it over my fingers for the first few minutes of a cold ride while I’m warming up, then tuck it in, and will get it back out any time my fingers threaten to lose circulation… and it’s worked so far!

Yesterday was a great test- temps in the low 40’s, and two hours of riding followed by a 10 minute rest stop and another two hours of riding. Typically, the worst pain I experience is following a rest stop- my gloves are sweaty, then I stop, and both me and the sweat cools off, so when I start back, the cold, wet gloves will often cause the painful vasospasm associated with Reynaud’s. After my rest stop, I pulled the windproof covers over my fingers and it prevented this from happening! Not to say that my hands didn’t get a bit cold, because they did. They just didn’t get to the point of losing circulation & going numb.

As long as these don’t disintegrate like the Gore Vulcano gloves I bought last year, they’re WELL worth the $55.00 I paid at the LBS (you can get them cheaper online, but I can’t stand buying gloves w/out trying them on).

UPDATE: I wore them today w/temps in the 30’s, and they were comfy. I’ve seen reports of people using them in colder temps, but I think that I’ve found my personal limit for them.