a windy apology

i had to apologize to yesterday this morning. i feel bad that i called it blustery. it was not windy at all. today is windy - 30mph sustained winds with gusts up to 40mph expected. forgive me, yesterday. i was so wrong. feels good to get that off my chest.

my confession behind me, let me tell you about this morning's ride. i woke up at 4:30 and rolled out of bed a few minutes later. i might have fallen asleep again if i hadn't, but who needs sleep? there are miles to ride. flawed logic, i know. but let it be.

i rolled down my driveway and up pine street around 4:45 and turned west onto the highway. that was the direction the wind was supposed to be opposing, but it didn't seem very hard to keep going so i turned around after a mile and headed east. turns out that was the smartest thing i did on my ride.

with my directional decision made, i put the hammer down. i pedaled with the same intensity that yeilded a 19.9mph ride last week. today it got me up to 16-18mph. it was probably 20 or 30 minutes before i got above 20mph. but i'm getting ahead of myself.

i rode into the wind up and over mock hill and bruce hill. i pushed down cemetery hill. you heard me right. i pushed down the hill. i started to climb the foothills of antichrist hill when it happened. i thought, "maybe i should turn south toward milan and see what the headwind feels like." every part of my body except my hands voted no! my hands steer the bike. stupid hands!

i turned south into the wind. my speed dropped immediately to 12-15mph. i grunted and groaned, straining at the pedals. i thought about turning around at the railroad tracks, but my hands overruled that notion. they held a semi-steady line as i bumped up and over the triple tracks and continued on toward main street, milan. they did not turn around there either, but forced me to the south edge of town where the asphalt runs out. only then did they allow retreat.

for a mile, the wind was my friend. i was a gale-powered rocket blasting through town, over the tracks and toward the highway. i hit 30mph on the flats.

then i turned east again and rode toward mayfield. on the way there i momentarily thought about turning into the wind again on chicaskia road. my hands liked the idea, but the rest of the body beat them into submission and the straight line prevailed.

at mayfield road, i turned south again. my loss of speed was greater this time. i was giving it my all and managing just 10-12mph into the angry blast. i crawled to the railroad tracks on the far side of mayfield and turned for another rocket ride. unfortunately, i was too worn out to power a rocket and had to settle for prop plane speeds.

when i reached the highway again, my westward return trip began. the wind wasn't helpful at all. it had dropped me down from 16.9mph to 16.4mph over the course of my outbound leg and it dropped me another tenth over the next several miles. i limped into town with a sustained average of 16.3mph.

did i stop? was i done? no. i kept going so as to cover 30+ miles. i rode a to blackstone and back and pulled into my driveway with 31.93 miles. i was beat.

i ate breakfast and then, much to the wind's dismay, went out for a few more miles. i rode out to milan road and back adding another 10+ miles to put me over 40 for the day and 100 for the week.

i returned home, showered and headed to work. it's lunch time now and it's even more blustery now than it was a few hours ago. should be interesting to watch junior high football tonight. some of the smaller guys are going to be toppled by the wind. can't wait! (42.24 miles @ 16.3mph)