Commuting problem due to Climate

Since 2001, over 90,000 cyclist's have joined Cycling Forums to discuss topics from general cycling to equipment, training, racing and travel or vacation destinations (especially in europe during the tour de france). We also feature an great deals in our online store, 100's of articles, classifieds and product reviews.

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:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel

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.

Thanks in advance.

Vijay http://cyclingforums.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Always put too much clothing on. You can always take it off. :D

Uuuuhh...

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.

Either that or do what I do...

Dress light all the time and get your body used to the cooler conditions... Of course, the coldest it ever get around here is about 25 (-4 C).