The Wind is my Friend

I did a nice long bike ride today. The weather was forecast to be cloudy, high 60’s-70, and very windy. My ride was fun, hard work, mentally challenging, tiring…in that order!

Today’s ride inspired this Haiku…

The Wind…
   The wind is my friend
         for I have mastered aero
               …my foes, I hope not

I chose a route that would give me a nice strong headwind for the last 10 miles along Orange Grove Road. I wanted to practice my tight aero position. The wind cooperated with my plans: 14 mph sustained wind, with gusts of 25 mph, which stayed with me all the way home! My hips are very sore now. Riding into the wind is alot like riding up a long gradual incline. Constant hard work!

While riding into the wind, I focused on maintaining a tight aero position, keeping my upper body scrunched as tightly – and as low – as possible…even to the point where my aero bottle straw was jabbing into my neck. I also tried to keep my knees to the top tube and to follow a straight line.

I was also trying not to push myself too hard while riding into that wind – thinking of maintaining discipline and patience, as one needs for an iron distance bike effort. I rode 50 miles, pace of 16.8 mph, heart rate of 149. HR a bit high, as that is just barely into Zone 3, and I really should stay in Zone 1,2.

Wardrobe Report: I am starting to log what I wear and how I felt during my rides, so I will know exactly what to wear at B2B. Today it was cloudy and 60 degrees at 10:30am. I wore tri shorts, rainbow bike jersey, and my REI cycling jacket. I was a bit cold for the first 20 minutes. Then I stopped to zip the sleeves off the jacket. An hour later, the temperature was 65degF. I wanted to remove the rest of the jacket, but had nowhere to stowe it, so got a bit too warm. In retrospect, I wish I had stuffed newspaper into my top…then I could have thrown it out later. I have done that before, and it’s great!