Kapplooie!

Morning Workout
BIKE
5 hours 20 minutes of hills and winds and windy hills
71.5 miles
Heart Rate Zone: Aerobic (Zone 1) / Lactate Threshold (Zone 2)

Random Comments: Rich, Cat and I had a wonderful ride this morning. A bit hilly, but that's part of what made it wonderful. As for the wind, well, I think that's the part that made it challenging. It wasn't really the 20+mph headwind that we bore into while riding out. Nor was it the sudden gusts that we tucked ourselves through while riding up the hills. It was really the surprising, unpredictability of the sideways gusts that we got slammed with when riding downhill. And these are nice, long, fast, curving downhills. We'd be zipping around the corners like it ain't no thang when all of the sudden - KAPPLOOIE! - an enormous burst of wind would smack us from the side. We'd tense our bodies and grasp our handlebars with all of our mights, leaning into the wind so as not to blow right off the side of the street. Then, just as suddenly, the wind would be gone. And we'd relax, and speed up, and zip around those corners again until - THWAPPO! - another side-gust would jar our existence. Finally, only 15 miles from home, we descended the last, shorter hill. Cat was in front of me, tucked into her downhill position with her butt high in the air, head and hands as low as possible. She was building up speed in what seemed like a wind-free zone. And then it hit her. The biggest burst of the day slammed her from one side and pushed her to the left. Just as suddenly, it smacked her from the other side and pushed her right. It continued to give her the one-two punch, tossing her around like a dryer of lingerie. My heart skipped a beat as I watched her. Don't let her fall, I prayed as she swerved about the street. Please don't let her fall, was the thought I had when - POW! - I biked right into the fighting wind. I tensed, I held on tight, I did everything in my power to maintain my balance. And as I broke through the other side, I heard a slight howl from Rich as he too got wind wallopped. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, our legs were shaking a bit more than normal. Enough with the wind already. Enough. Hey, whattaya say we take it a bit slower the rest of the way home?
___________________________________________________________________