Metric century in the wind

For a little while in the middle of the ride, that's what it felt like, that I was going to be on the bike for a century to get to the turnaround point. Not that it was an unpleasant ride, not at all. Today was beautiful, low 20's. For a short while at the start of the ride I even had the wind at my back, which was a nice change for riding west.

I was beginning to think I had bike cooties or something. Like usual, I waved at other people on bikes. The entire way out, nobody waved back. There was a small herd of people, mostly in Speed Theory jerseys that passed me without a word. Not a hello, not a hi, not a how's it going, not even a passing on the left. Fuck you very much.

The fun part of riding out 22X that far is that there are some Texas cattle gates. I'm not sure exactly how wide the flat metal bands are, maybe 4 inches, but you have big incentive to hit the band, and not the rows of pipe (BUMP BUMP BUMP!) Now do it at 50 Kph. With people right behind you watching.

Somewhere between 22 N and the info booth for K country the wind picked up big time. A head wind of course. I didn't mind because very soon it would be blowing me home, but it made the last 5 or 8 K really slow. I saw some riders there, and THEY waved. I turned around right at 50 K, and shortly caught up to them as they regrouped. A little while later 4 of them gradually caught up and passed me. We all chatted a bit, then they turned left to go into Bragg Creek the back way.

Then the wind changed on me. By the time I got to the long flat bit the wind had changed to a steady headwind again. It was strong enough going down the hill into Priddis Valley that I barely got up to 60 Kph, and normally I do about 70 to 75 down that hill.

I pushed a bit harder on the way home, trying to keep the rpm up, with the last hour typically being 130 to 135 bpm rather than the 125 to 130 or so I'd been maintaining. Still, overall my watch says the average heart rate is 128 bpm over the entire 100 K. Did the ride in 4:01, for an average speed a hair under 25 Kph, and cadence average of 79 rpm. Lots of hills and lots of wind. I was never even close to breathing hard, not even going up the hills. Used to be I'd be puffing like a steam engine on some of them.

Overall, a really nice ride. The wind cooperated to make a great training aid. A few times going up hill with the wind it got really still and hot, but that was the exception. There's lots of hay freshly baled, especially the big round bales. They always amuse me, and there was a nice scent.

Oh, and Friday's workout was a brisk walk with Linda in Fish Creek. I'm calling it 45 minutes. My arm is much better but still not up to swimming.

We discovered Sookie! Two episodes last night, and another disc tonight.