Gutsy...I mean gusty...Ride

Weather was crazy this weekend.  Warm front came in and gave us 2" of rain (made my yard happy, but the MU Tiger and Alabama fans not so much).  I did some work on Friday and picked up kids and spent the evening shuttling them around to an activity.  Saturday was overcast and the usual Saturday laundry called for more of a chillax inside day. 

Was scheduled to hit the road with Walter this afternoon, but he texted at lunch about 25+ mph wind gusts and voted to cancel our outing.  It was clouding up and looked like another storm so I figured it was for the best.  It also saved me from juggling chauffeuring duties for afternoon basketball practice for my daughter.  But by 3 PM, the sun was back out and the rain looked to be past and I figured I'd brave the wind to knock out some more bike miles.  I took my phone in case I needed a pussy pickup though.

Felt pretty good aside from my choice of jacket (it was in the upper 60's, but the wind was cool so I didn't know - though I like having the bigger pockets).  I had my usual struggle on the hills, but kept plugging along.  I kept changing my mind about how far to go.  First I was just going to stay close to home and do some flat loops, but then I thought it would be mentally hard to keep going unless I did more of an "out and back".  Then I thought I'd go out to the Y/M intersection in Taos which would give me 17 miles.  Then I thought it is so nice and I am not needed back by a certain time so I'll just go out to the other end of Bode Ferry.  Oh, what the heck - out to Kleffner Ridge.  That last climb past the ballfields was a bit tough, but I made it out there in 55 min. 

Headed back and toyed with the idea to stop and take pictures of the pretty leaves, but didn't want to ding my pace calculation.  Let's just say that I am very blessed to live in such a pretty area this time of year.  The good news related to that is that I rode mostly along a ridge (roller hills) and could look out over the Osage River valley treetops that were beautiful in the sunshine.  The bad news is that through most of the "ridge riding", I didn't have much protection from the wind.  A few gusts were pretty scary, but I powered on.  I was running low on fluids (didn't really initially plan to go out for so long - note to self: take an extra bottle anyways!) so once I got back to the flats by Scholastic I didn't plan on adding a whole lot - just a loop or two. 

It didn't matter though - because when I turned onto Algoa by the Guard, I was pedaling with all my might in my middle front ring just to make forward progress on a relatively FLAT section.   Yikes that wind was brutal!!  So I swung behind Scholastic to see if the trees back there would provide a break, but it was more like a FUNNEL for the wind!  I swear that last 3 miles or so to get home was the WORST!  And my music crapped out on the Wavco hill so I didn't have anything to distract me from the pain of the last hill and the wind in my face.

Got home and mapped the ride for a total of 24 miles!  Yay!!  Took me a stupid 1 hr 53 min for a wretched pace of under 13 mph, but with the wicked wind and some hills mixed in - plus a brief stop to drink twice (hard to drink on the bike when getting blown around) - I'll take it.  Still way behind on the miles towards the goal, but that helps a lot!  Why can't warm weather ever come without all that wind??

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 661.3 mi / 1000
Run: 281.2 mi / 350