22 degrees was the temperature as I watched cartoons with my kids determining what was going to be required to race the 45+ race at 10:20 that morning. I decided to go with our Merino wool socks under the poly pro CX socks we make to keep the feet warm.
DL leg warmers under my DL Stoemper race bibs, and a no sleeve and long sleeve base layer under my long sleeve jersey. I didn't go skin suit only because I forgot it at work. #PRO. I also wanted to do some testing on our new post race (and embrocation) clean up kit that we are close to finalizing. I put the bibs on first and the DL chamois balm (organic, natural, hand made in Wisconsin) prior to even looking at the embrocation. I rolled the bibs up as high as I could and socks down as low as they would go. I dug in and started massaging our medium embrocation in to my legs.
I also rubbed some on my lower back and neck as those are the areas that cause me issues later in races and I love the heat that develops as you start sweating (embro is activated by water.....try getting in a hot tub after a race.). I pulled on my socks, and then sprayed the natural cleaner on my hands. Using our microfiber rag I dried my hands off throughly. I pulled on the leg warmers and then the bibs over the top. hands were clean so all systems go on our cleaning system.
I headed to the race with my winter cycling boots on and left my race gloves, shoes, and hat in the car to stay warm while I registered and warmed up.
Race - went ok, big crash, big chase, 2nd place. But this is not about the race but about the embro - it was great, legs were great - not sure if that was the embro or the training) never thought about the cold one time other than late in the race when my feet got cold (frost bite packer game in the late 90's). I used the clean up kit (with a different microfiber #pro tip - make sure you don't screw up the post race towel with the embrobaction cleaning towel).
Hot shower 4 hours after my race and the legs and back reactivated with a nice glow of warmth!
Look for the kit on our site soon! great for those lunch rides when you have to go back to work and need to shower in the car!
