Breezy.
The wind battering my house woke me up at 3:00AM. I was not pleased. I listened to it for a while, then went back to sleep when I was fairly sure the walls weren't going to be blown over. When I finally got up, I went out to re-secure the plastic sheet covering all of the junk I removed from my garage the previous day. I don't really care about any of it, as it's all heading to the dump, but I figured the boxes will be easier to move if they're not soaked and falling apart.
I got ready for work, threw the bike on top of the car, and took the kids to school. When I dropped my youngest off, I considered taking the bike off of the roof. The wind was ripping through there, with nearby reports putting the gusts at about 45-50 MPH. Up on the hillside it was around 80MPH.
Because I'm all about cheating the wind, I had deep section carbon wheels on the bike, which are primarily used for spontaneous and unintentional direction changes. They're just great, big fucking sails, as I was reminded as I drifted off the back of Saturday's group ride. Every time I started going fast in the paceline, a gust would cause my front wheel to twitch. I tried all sorts of weighting and balance tricks, but they pretty much did what they wanted no matter how hard I tried to keep them under control. They'd twitch and I'd open up some space between me and the pack, so I wouldn't take anyone down if it caught me just right.
So, given my level of preparedness for the conditions I would face on my ride, I did the sane thing. I punted. I went home, took the bike off the rack, and rode the trainer. It took a while to get stuff sorted out again, because I had swapped the saddle over to the Compact and there were boxes of bike parts blocking my path. Eventually I hammered out a workout where the wind couldn't find me.
I didn't want to be a wuss. I certainly didn't want to ride the trainer again until the snow fell in the fall. I wanted to ride my fancy titanium bike and enjoy the wonderful variety of nature. However, all of that was trumped by my desire to not be blown across the inlet. The landing would probably hurt a bit, and I'm tired of hurting.
Maybe tomorrow.
I got ready for work, threw the bike on top of the car, and took the kids to school. When I dropped my youngest off, I considered taking the bike off of the roof. The wind was ripping through there, with nearby reports putting the gusts at about 45-50 MPH. Up on the hillside it was around 80MPH.
Because I'm all about cheating the wind, I had deep section carbon wheels on the bike, which are primarily used for spontaneous and unintentional direction changes. They're just great, big fucking sails, as I was reminded as I drifted off the back of Saturday's group ride. Every time I started going fast in the paceline, a gust would cause my front wheel to twitch. I tried all sorts of weighting and balance tricks, but they pretty much did what they wanted no matter how hard I tried to keep them under control. They'd twitch and I'd open up some space between me and the pack, so I wouldn't take anyone down if it caught me just right.
So, given my level of preparedness for the conditions I would face on my ride, I did the sane thing. I punted. I went home, took the bike off the rack, and rode the trainer. It took a while to get stuff sorted out again, because I had swapped the saddle over to the Compact and there were boxes of bike parts blocking my path. Eventually I hammered out a workout where the wind couldn't find me.
I didn't want to be a wuss. I certainly didn't want to ride the trainer again until the snow fell in the fall. I wanted to ride my fancy titanium bike and enjoy the wonderful variety of nature. However, all of that was trumped by my desire to not be blown across the inlet. The landing would probably hurt a bit, and I'm tired of hurting.
Maybe tomorrow.
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