October Winds

Look...I took a picture without a bicycle in it! Miracles do happen.

We are on the backside of a low pressure system right now. That gives us some serious wind off the big lake. When I left work it was 47 degrees with sustained winds around 20 mph and gusts up to 37 mph. I think most people would groan at this kind of weather. I use it to my advantage. I am working at increasing my overall conditioning on the bike for the Arrowhead 135 in Feb. What do you need to ride a bicycle weighing in over 50 lbs (gear and bike), with 4 inch wide tires, off-road on snow for 135 miles? You need to have the power to keep it rolling for long periods of time without fading. To help develop that kind of power I pointed my bike into the wind and rode for a hour and fifteen minutes today. Directly into the wind. I was on my fixed gear, with panniers containing all my work stuff. I covered 14 miles in that time. I felt good and never faded. At the end of that hour and fifteen minutes I had a reward waiting. Twenty miles of tailwind to get home. A nice spin after a leg burner workout always feels nice.

Sunday: 0 mi
Monday: 42 mi
October: 551 mi
2007: 6,080 mi