I tried

I tried today, I really did. I told myself that was not the wind, that it was a jet fighter flying over the house. I didn't even look at the weather (which lists a 77mph gust right by my house already this morning). I ate breakfast and suited up for a nice long ride on the new bike. I spun out of the subdivision at 8mph, you know, taking it easy. Not because of the wind. I rode out to Simms, taking twice as long as normal, just because I was taking it easy, not because the flags are about ready to rip off the poles. I turned up Simms now heading North. The first time I got blown over I got back on. Then again the wind shoved me into the gravel, then down the hill, then jumping off my bike. Screw it, I'll walk. So I held my bike while it flew, wheels parallel to the ground, leaned into the wind and walked up the hill much to the amusement of anyone passing by I'm sure. At the top I got back on and rode in the gravel again, leaning into the wind with most of my weight, pedaling 4.8 miles an hour all the way to highway 128.

At that point I had enough. No good training would come of this, if I survived another 6 miles just to get to the trailhead and it wasn't all that fun. In order to not die trying to ride down Simms I hung a right and rode 128 all the way back to Wadsworth, going 30mph the entire time in 32x20 gearing.

Now I'm back home where I will get to know my trainer all that much better for a few hours, joy.

Edit: Later I will post a race report from the weekend. I am waiting to get a few pictures from other people.

Gusty winter (as usual)

It's always windy here in the winter so I generally try to ignore the weather forecast unless it's really bad. While we were gone on vacation, one wind storm of 91 MPH blew down at least 10% of the fences in the neighborhood. When the forecast mentions "wind prone areas" that's my house. Luckily so far our house has survived all this without any major damage.

Today it was supposed to be 40s and only 10-15 MPH winds. Great I thought, I really would prefer to ride outdoors. I should have known that was a trick from mother nature. In reality it might have been *just* 40 deg F with 30mph sustained winds and 65 mph gusts. Sweet. I survived a few hours before I tucked tail home to warm up my body and fingers and I was even wearing more clothes than I thought I'd need! Amazingly it's supposed to be even worse on Wed/Thurs as we get a warm up before the next storm front. A W E S O M E.