Windy tempo

Since I did today’s hard ride yesterday, I did yesterday’s tempo ride today. It looked like it could rain when I left, so I said to myself "Kyle, (that’s what I call myself) if it’s raining by the time you hit campus, turn around." It did spit a few drops out before I made it to campus, but I was like "f#*k it, I’m going." I’m glad I did, as it turned out partly sunny. It was in the low 60’s, so temps was perfect. The curve ball: the wind. It was the windiest I’ve ridden down here (at least that I can remember). It’s a steady 20-25mph and gusting to 35. Because of the lay of the land here I had either hills blocking it or tree cover a lot of the time, but at times it was just brutal. That kind of brutal where your cadence drop to 70 or so rpm and you’re going 15-16mph. Plus on the one big hill on the Bottom Rd loop it was a headwind and this is a 8-13mph grinder hill anyway. Add in a gusty wind like that, and the objective changes from ‘get up the hill w/ reasonable speed/cadence’ to ‘keep moving forward and don’t get blown over.’ All in all it wasn’t too bad of a ride. I guess since I was expecting it to be a torture fest, it could only be better than expected. There you go all you Cynics (or ‘realist if you’re a TRUE cynic) and pessimists: expect the worst and you can’t be let down.