evil east wind

"...and leave us not out in precipitation, but deliver us from the evil wind."

rain was predicted for this morning. it was highly likely - 46% chance. when i woke up it was not raining. the radar showed the beginnings of a storm 30 or 40 miles to the south headed north toward argonia, but it was slow moving. i had time to ride.

i dressed in layers before heading out. it was 39 degrees out with an evil east wind at around 10mph. i checked my clothing against bicycling.com's "what to wear" tool and i had it spot on - base layer, long sleeve jersey, light jacket, skull cap, tights over shorts, socks, shoes, shoe covers, gloves and a helmet. more than seven years of riding in all kinds of conditions is as good as an online fashion consultant!

i took my time riding north on pine street. it was cold and i didn't want to strain any cold muscles. i turned east at the highway and headed toward my goal - mayfield. i worked pretty hard today, pushing it up and over the hills as they rolled toward me. on nine mile hill, i had to shift down, but all the rest i took in the big ring.

when i arrived at mayfield road, a car was coming from the other direction. it slowed and turned on its turn signal. it wanted to go south to mayfield. i had decided a few minutes earlier that i didn't have time to ride into mayfield proper, so i wanted to turn around here. the car sat there, waiting on me. normally, i'd be pleased - it's not every day a motorist is that kind - but today i wanted to turn around and i didn't like him sitting there. i tried waving him on. he didn't budge. finally, i took the plunge and u-turned right in front of him. he turned only when my back was to him.

the ride home was a breeze, literally. the evil wind which had been fighting me was not my ally. i sped up and over rises. i dropped quickly into the valleys. what took me nearly an hour going out took around 40 minutes coming back. i ended this first leg of my journey - 24.11 miles - in 1:33'13".

after breakfast was done and the table cleared off, i checked the radar again. the rain was still headed our way, but it was still 15-20 miles to the south. i got on my bike again. my goal was to get in 14 more miles putting me at 100 miles for the week.

i rode a little harder this time. i had barely enough time to get in my workout and get cleaned up. on the way out, my average speed dropped only a tenth of a mile per hour to 15.4mph.

i turned around at conway springs road and flew back. i hit 20mph on every hill, up or down. i maintained 17-20mph for most of the time. it was a blast! the clouds thickened as i neared argonia, but they didn't drop anything on me. i leaned hard into the corner as i turned south onto pine street. i hit 20mph, the limit in the school zone, then backed off a bit. my cool down consisted of two blocks of easy spin back to the garage.

when i pulled to a stop, the clock stopped and i had 38.38 miles on the day. that put me just over 100 miles - 100.31 miles to be exact. it also put me a couple of miles over 6900 for the year. i'm really trying to get in some decent miles this month so i don't have to ride 50 miles a day in december to reach my 8040 goal. today was a good mileage gobbler. hopefully, tomorrow's predicted rain will be like today's...late in coming, so i can ride. (38.38 miles @ 16.1mph)