I was lucky enough last night to get home in time for a ride. I love that daylight savings was moved, although I suppose at this point in the year it wouldn't have mattered much anyway.
It was relatively cool last night, but not as bad as the other day, even though the relative temperature difference was a measly 4 degrees. Go figure. What did kind of suck was the wind, which was steady at about 15 mph out of the west. I remember reading a quote somewhere, from someone, who if I remember correctly was a pro. They noted that the key to doing well in the wind was pretty simple—build leg strength. Knowing this is a bit of a double-edged sword. It's great when you have leg strength and can feel awesome about how you're crushing the will of nature and moving ahead without impedence. It sucks though when it's your will that's the one being crushed, and all you can do is try and spin along in a 39x21 or something equally weak, all the while, your flimsy-ass legs feeling like they're going to fall off.
Thankfully, as with good things, bad things usually end, and the tide turned mid-way through the ride. I headed away from the U of M campus and up out of the river bottoms. I thought the hill going up the west river road would kill me, but oddly I was able to hold some decent speed (about 20mph). I love tailwinds so very, very much.
I made it home in one piece, with no digits lost to numbness, and feeling pretty good about the ride. Not the fastest day ever, but slowly getting better.
As an addition to this, since it's supposed to be in part a “training” log, I figured I'd add in my ride stats just for fun (and no laughing, I know some of you train all winter and can kick the crap out of me). You can check out the route here.
Distance: 17.2 miles
Time: 1:02
Average Speed: 17mph
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