How stage 7 of the Tour de CA kicked my a**
(and I didn't even do the whole thing!!)
In short: my straight shot UP to the lifts @ Baldy was not the problem. UP was plenty challenging, and fun, and all in all it was great and I was happy. 
DOWN, however, was a whole different ball of wax and somewhat reminsicent of writings by that dear poet, Dante. 
As with all near disaters, there is usually a chain of events that leads up to it. And this is how we learn. Notes:
I had planned to take off my gloves and arm warmers once I got really into climbing because I planned on getting warm, and then using them for the way down.
Riding in the clouds with increasing altitude made it more chilly than I expected and ended up keeping them on.
However, I was still working pretty hard to get up there. At the ski lifts, it became apparent that my gloves were soaked with sweat. (uh. oh.) 
It was cold up there and I knew I was going to get cold going down so I figured lets just get this over with. I got to Mt Baldy village and was already so frozen that I decided to ride along the ridge part of the route for a little bit to try to warm up. It was sunny (at the time). Got out on the ridge for a while and then the clouds came in and it was all cold again. (never warmed up anyway). Decided really now, lets get this over with and zoomed on down to my car but by the time I got down was so cold I was pretty much delirious. 
Warmed up car with heater on full blast and sipped gatorade while frantically rubbing my arms to generate more heat while trusty guy-i-am-seeing talked me back into sanity over my cell's speakerphone. 
Lessons: bring totally seperate layers for the way down - (including my EN wind vest!!! & maybe a long sleeve something else)
It did give me pause - how to people deal with stuff like this on hilly ironmans?? Do you ride kind of like a camel in case you have to adjust before hitting special needs bags?
PS - and if anyone else wants to share similar learning experiences to make me feel a bit less alone in my naiivite (sp?), 
please feel free and I'll be grateful.
Comments
Julia,
Good on ya' for riding all the way to the lifts! We need a merit badge or something for that ride, totally legit.
SoCal riding is alllll about layers. I didn't dress exactly like this for the ride but I probably should have. This is my standard, riding in the mtns with lots of temperature changes kit:
Climbing: take off vest, open up jersey, roll armwarmers down to my wrists, glove liners in my pocket. If long climb, will take off leg warmers. Black belt of you can do this while coasting, without stopping the bike
.
At the top: armwarmers come up, vest and glove liners go back on, swap bandana for beanie. Again, bonus points if you can do all this no hands without stopping.
If gonna be a really long, cold downhill, I'll bring a rain jacket instead of the vest. Does a better job of blocking the wind.
Rich - Thanks for the props!!
I like the detailed layering plan. This definitely gives me a better starting point for the future. Thanks for the info!!
If The Boy rides a bike, come on up to the SGV, yo. Lots of climbing and you can hit Pasadena, etc afterwards.
i just wear a diving suit for every ride. i don't mind heating up on the way up, i only care about freezing on the way down.
saturday i broke that rule and it made for a very uncomfortable time when not climbing.
i too will start following rich's layering plan!
gh