first long ride in forever

connect.garmin.com/activity/79495881

i woke up a little before 6:00, got dressed quickly and was out the door and rolling down the road by 6:15. i only had a four-hour window between 6:00 and 10:00 when i wasn't on call with EMS, so i was pretty happy with my departure time. wanting a long ride, i started west, into the wind. thankfully it had died down a little overnight. last night there were gusts near 60mph!

even with the lessening of the wind, i still had to struggle to maintain speed on the way out. i was creeping along most of the time, with little motivation to push harder. i've learned over the years that on days like this, you set the cruise and endure. if you fight the wind, you will die.

i did not die. in fact, i made it twenty-four miles in the first two hours. the way things were going when i turned north on highway 14, i didn't think i'd even come close to that before i needed to turn around in order to make it back on time for my EMS shift.

i hit the lap button on my garmin as i turned around, so i could compare the into-the-wind distance and speed to the with-the-wind portion of my ride. no comparison! i rode another 31 miles in less than an hour and forty-five minutes. my average speed over those miles was 18.2mph, bringing my overall average up from 12.0mph to 14.8mph. i was rolling along at over 20mph with little effort heading south and i rode in the upper teens headed east.

there was a little detour on the way back. just before i got back to harper, the train crossing arms started dropping, so i turned and rode back north a mile, ensuring a half century ride!

when i got back to argonia road, i still had almost fifteen minutes to spare, so i turned north on argonia road for a quick out and back. with these extra miles i bumped my total up to 55.11 miles. i love it! my first long ride in, like, forever! (55.11 miles @ 14.8mph)