The wind and the lion

Well, actually there was no lion (I just happen to love that movie), but there was a helluva lot of wind. Based on our weather forecast I moved a few things around and did Fri's 30K TT today. This would have been a great idea had I got out in the morning before the wind picked up, but my bike shop of choice doesn't open until 1pm on Sunday's. You'll recall (since I know you all hang on my every post) that I had a front derailleur issue, as well as realized I was given a generic set of rear gearing when I paid for SRAM Red. So... I was at the shop right at 1, and they promptly fixed the derailleur and found me a nice shiny new set of Red 11-23 gearing (also picked up Liz's new pedals and a new tub of chamois butter- the tingly kind ;-) From there I drove out to Haines Point to ACTUALLY RIDE OUTSIDE. If anyone here has run the Marine Corps Marathon, you're familiar with the Point. It's a nice 3.4ish mile loop with minimal traffic (other than cyclists, roller bladers, and runners). You can extend the loop by about 2 miles if you ride the back straight out to the Lincoln Memorial and back.

But I digress- I hopped on my bike for my warm-up lap and enjoyed actually riding on the road for once. This lasted for about a mile until I made the turn up the back straight and turned into the wind. Holy Schniekies! The front straight is relatively protected, but the back straight is open to the Potomac, and if there is any wind it tends to be a direct headwind. I went from a cool 20ish down to about 13-14, and it was gusty and increasing. On the bright side, my new gearing was smooth like buttah, but it wasn't doing much in the way of calming mother nature. I gave it a total of 12ish miles as the wind steadily increased (speeds varying between 12mph into the wind, and 26 without the headwind).  I was almost blown over twice, and I saw a smaller lady trying to come to a stop get completely knocked over on her nice shiny P2C (I stopped and talked to her- she was fine. Just a bruised ego). That's when I called the quits and headed home to finish my last 10K on the trainer. Blech. Total time 1:02.49.