When you don’t follow your guidelines you pay the price. Today was one of those days. I decided to ride north at first today for some variety and this happened to be with the wind. The guideline bike into the wind at the start and enjoy the tailwind coming back. Most of the time the is not a serious issue but today the 12 mph south wind with 22 mph gusts got serious. As forecast by our trusty weatherman, it got up to 77 degrees settling down to 75 when I finished. Clouds rolled in and out some so the sun peeked out once in awhile. Even with this temperature I decided to wear a long sleeve jersey in case I hit some cool air and for some sun protection.

Paying the price was when I turned back toward home into the wind. The 29.4 mile route did not offer much shelter from the wind so while I could spin along at up to 24 mph going north heading south I slowed to below 10 mph at times when I got hit with some strong gusts. The road bike handled it much better than I did. I should have lowered my gears going south but I hung with the big gear and pedaled slower RPM. I ended up with 14.8 mph average speed but at the turn around point the average was almost 15.6 mph. With the strong tailwind I maxed out at 23.9 mph, averaged cadence 76.0 RPM. The RPM’s would be higher if I used lower gears. Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to repeat today’s. January miles reached 171.24.

Garmin Connect data link                              Ridewithgps.com data link

1-20-2012 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

1-20-2012 Home Weather Station End