Shoulder to the Wind

I knew it would be bad. It had stormed Monday evening so heavily that I had to call for extraction from work. One of the entrances to the parking lot had been so flooded that we didn't dare drive through it in the Volvo and instead took the longer way home. Later that night the weather forecasters were talking mainly about the wind, and indeed it was strong enough to knock out power here and there around the metro area.


Our crazy dog seemed kind of restless and even uncharacteristically wandered back to the study to see what I was doing late that night. As soon as I turned to look at him he freaked and ran back to the bedroom where he could cower on the floor next to The Wife. The poor guy was obviously abused by someone, probably a man, because he is still rather fearful when he finds himself alone with me, even though I have taken to walking around the house with dog treats in my pocket.


When I got up to ride this morning, the rain had moved off to the East and the streets were at least thinking about drying up. I didn't really want to get on the bike. There was a north wind that must have been in the 20-25 mph range, the temperature was in the low 40s, and the sky was cloudy, but like I said, I knew it would be bad. It was.


I guess I got to the levee more or less at the usual 6:15 am time, but as I'd expected, it was deserted so I didn't even slow down. As soon as I felt the full force of the wind I made the easy decision to shorten the day's ride to 20 miles since, at the speeds I would be going, it would probably take just as long as the usual 26 mile ride. Doing the regular Tuesday long ride, alone, in that wind, did not even enter my mind. I probably spent most of the headwind and crosswind sections of the ride in a 39 x 14, plugging along at 12-15 mph. The crosswinds were so strong that I had to really put my shoulder to the wind and lean the bike a few degrees just to remain upright. I passed Erich, who was running, and on the way back I saw Jon on his way out. Otherwise, I had the levee pretty much all to myself. This was good, because I occasionally needed a bit more real estate than usual when the crosswind would try to push the front wheel out from under me. At least I got in a ride. It wasn't fast and it wasn't fun and it probably wasn't all that great of a workout, but sometimes you just have to put your shoulder to the wind and do the ride anyway.