SBR "U" (Page 4)

Apparently, 48 degrees...but I was freezing my azz off.  This was while I was in Vegas riding red rock.  Oddly, Silverman 70.3 was 5 days later and it was pretty toasty for Chris and Marc.  LOL.  Here in Hawaii, I'd probably ride if it was in the high 50's...knowing that it wouldn't last longer than 20 minutes after the sun comes up.  I have ZERO cold weather riding gear.

I should throw my bio in here since many of you probably have no idea who I am   My name is Jim Kelley and my BT username is Birkierunner….Birkie referring to the American Birkebeiner 51k x-c ski marathon that I’ve done every year for the past 18 years. I’m a 54 year old wildlife biologist that has been involved with endurance sports for over 35 years. In high school I raced fall x-c, ski team (x-c and Nordic jumping), and track. After racing in college a bit I spent many years just doing maintenance running mileage with no racing goals in mind, with an occasional 10k – I basically wasted my 20s and 30s as far as competing (busy with M.S. and Ph.D. programs) . A friend of mine convinced me to race the 51 km American Birkebeiner x-c ski race in 1997 and that is when my endurance racing kicked back into high gear. I ran my first marathon in 1998 and managed to qualify for Boston, which I ran in 1999. I’ve done a ton of road racing over the years, 10 marathons, one 50k and one 50 mile ultra. I still race x-c skiing in the winter. I got a little bored with marathons, and did my first triathlon (Olympic) in 2005. I followed that up with a half-ironman a month later and did an IM the next year. I'm focusing on Ironman racing and KQ right now and have managed to complete 8 of them so far with a PR of 10:20 at IMAZ in 2013. My A race for 2015 is IM CDA.  I recently re-married and have a 6-year old step-son, so I'm familiar with the challenges of training while considering family time.  I am a certified USAT Level I Coach and I’m an Associate Coach at a company founded by fellow BT’er JorgeM. I have started another BT mentor group of my own for 2015 but will try to contribute as much to this group as I can. Looking forward to some great discussions.

Above zero F.  Below that and I'm just not going to do it.  Even AT that temp, it's not fun for me, but I have the gear and will go.

These days, though, that gear is happily stuffed in a drawer (except I might end up using it if it gets below 45 - my blood has thinned).

Anyone have a temp ABOVE which they won't ride?  I'm thinking 110, as I've happily ridden in the single digits above 100, but might even go higher.  Looks like I'll get a chance to test that, likely next summer.

Matt

Everyone (except Jason maybe) ready for the polar vortex to come through tonight? 

I actually switched my tempo run to last night just because I knew it was going to be perfect running weather and tonight was going to be chilly (at least for me....it is actually supposed to drop below freezing, so I think that counts as cold!).  Tonight will just be a short, easy run with the dogs.....bundled up as necessary and no pressure to hold specific paces

As much as I am willing to run in some pretty cold temps, I wouldn't be out on the bike in much colder than Jason!  I have very little in the way of cold weather riding gear.  I can't remember ever being out in colder than 5 or 6 degrees C.  

You will ride near zero F???  Damn that's hard core.

As for a max, I haven't a clue, I've never found myself in a situation where it was too hot to ride.

-20 (-32 w/ the wind) here tomorrow.  So just below Matt's threshold to be out on the bike.  

LOL - that's awesome!

In NO world would I ever, in any way, compare myself to Jensie, though.

I will say that my minimum temp ride matches more the description of his Factor 5 (although my full on cold weather gear looks more spacesuit-like!).  To be clear, I've only done that a couple times, and they were desperation rides, indeed! 

I don't know if y'all remember how much I used to grouse about the trainer (with which I've made peace), but I would ride even when it was a bit stoopid... 

Matt - I will run or ride in any temp heat wise. I have proven to be very heat tolerant over the years (one of the perks of being small along with spending my summers in Alabama cotton fields) and actually really like racing and training in the heat and humidity. I know that tolerance is supposed to fade somewhat as we get older and every summer I am afraid that "well, this is it!" but so far so good. Our summers have not been so bad the last couple of years (more rain than heat) but in 2012 we had a heatwave roll through in late July, just before IM Lake Placid. I rode an organized century in which the roll-out temp in the morning was 93 degrees and the max temp during the ride was 111. Fairly flat for around here with only about 4200' of climbing I think, and I made it around in 5:07 including all the rest stops, of which there were many for fluids. I remember chugging 3 Coca-Colas at the end and thinking I had never had anything in the world that tasted so good. The next weekend it had "cooled off to 98 degrees" and I did my last pre-race brick before IMLP: 80 miles and 7500' of climbing, then 2 hours of running mountain trails. We planned that one to start and end at one of our mountain river put-ins, and I floated around in the water for about an hour waiting for everyone else to come in. And Oh yeah, both weekends the humidity was about a gajillion percent. Those two back-to-back training weekends are amongst most most memorable of late - makes me almost-but-not-quite miss Ironman training.

Very smart! I really thought about switching my run from tomorrow to today as well, but really wanted to be able to jump on this particular group ride one more time before school starts - I won't get a chance again before the spring due to my work schedule, which is too bad, because they have all kinds of funny point categories through the winter and awesome prizes at the end.

Now I am going to be running tomorrow when it is 13F/-10c ("feels like" 5F/-15c) But hey - at least the sun is supposed to be out!

Yeah, Marc - that is actually what I figured: it would be the generally crumby road conditions that kept off them more than the temps. Here we hardly ever get cold and wet together at the same time. And on the rare occasion that we do it warms up (and or rains) quickly enough to clean it up nicely.

I did a ~30 mile ride a few years back called Chilly Hilly which is on Bainbridge Island near Seattle.  It was February, I got snowed on.  Then I took the ferry back and found my car had been towed.  So I got to ride another 15 miles or so to the towing yard.  I think dollars spent per hour of misery was higher than Tahoe

Haven't really tried going that cold. Did get a couple in the 20's. Temps moved through the ride, 3-4 hour rides if I'm remembering right. Numerous not really creek crossings so much as underpass flooding. The path follows a small river and they go under the roadways. Feet went under a lot. A few spots had standing water sections with a thin ice layer on top I rode through (not on). The most annoying section was up at the north end of it. Some people had ridden their horses there while the ground was soft and the hoof prints froze solid. Lots of annoying chatter coming from that.

Starting at about mid 80's it depends on my mood. The amount I have to back off is so ridiculous I've tended to stay in more. Maybe for something really short if I want to get outside, but nothing bigger or harder.