Wind, To Hate, or To Love? How About Both!

It's a rather chilly finish to April here in Maine.  A couple days this previous week we had downpours of rain followed by freezing cold days with blustery wind gusts that just take your breath away.  I did two training rides today in this cold windy weather.  I live in an area that is a few miles away from the breezy ocean so it wasn't too terribly bad, although we crested a hill that overlooked many surrounding hills and I had a hard time breathing through all of it.  All I can say is, layer up!!  You end up taking them off, putting them back on.  Some areas are warmer than others.  And some areas were so windy it made it a huge challenge for me to haul my heavy mountain bike up and down hills.  I hate it, but know that it's only going to make me stronger, so therefore I love it.  This type of weather is certainly not for everybody, but honestly, you burn more calories in the cold than in the warm.  I am a lucky person that I have experienced enough cold from cross country skiing in the winter and biking as early as February that I can handle it!  So our first training ride was about 17 miles and I got to ride some unfamiliar roads that my friend knew.  I was feeling pretty good by the end of it, but had also made plans to go ride with another Trek Across Maine teammate too.  We ended up doing almost 11 miles in a big loop through town.  My endurance is definitely getting better, but I really need to work on going up steep inclines, that is my weakness especially with the heavy mountain bike with a saddle rack that holds all my tools just in case something happens.  I have suffered with enough flat tires on the road that rather than being stuck stranded in the middle of nowhere I can just fix it myself!  We might go out again tomorrow, but maybe not, it's supposed to be cool and windy as hell just like today was!  All in all I am closer to my goals of where I want to be when we actually do the Trek, already I am twice more prepared than I was last year!

Saturday Ride

We decided that even though the weather was kind of iffy to go out any way, and on a new route we hadn't done before.  The air was damp but the road was dry.  If you can understand what it's like to be hot and cold at the same time with dampness then that is what our ride was like today.  I didn't have to drink a lot from my camelpak since it was so damp in the air, it makes for retaining water a little easier.  Our route from today is below, it was 20 miles around a nearby lake.  We did it in 1:48:25 with 20 of those minutes taking hoodies off, and putting them back on blowing noses and wiping of sweat.  It was warmer on the east side of the lake with very little wind, the west side however was much chillier and the wind was coming right at us most of the way back.  It was a great ride!




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And here's an interesting picture from today.  It's a beaver dam, complete with beaver swimming nearby.  We live in Waldo County in Maine, and seeing a satellite dish on top of a beaver dam in Waldo County doesn't exactly surprise me at all, but it's still really funny.  The landowner put out big huge signs nearby that said "no hunting" because they raise deer there.