Riding into the wind doesn't scare me

Last night the focus was getting back into the pool.

Tonight it was putting some decent miles on the bike.

Unlike the pool, I haven't totally been neglecting my bike the last few months. I just haven't been showing it quite as much love as I should be. As in, my longest (outdoor) ride to date this year? 11 miles. Not bad. A decent post-work ride. But not quite up to the 21 miles that I'll be riding when the High Cliff Sprint Triathlon rolls around next weekend.

So today after work I hopped on the bike, intending to get a fairly decent ride in. I wasn't completely sure how far I wanted to go, I just knew I wanted to ride until I started to feel it. So I headed south out of town along the lake. I was flying. Feeling good. Got to my turn around point and soon discovered why the first 6 miles felt so good.

I was riding with the wind. And not just a gentle breeze. Nope. More like steady 20 mph winds with fairly frequent gusts around 30mph. And all of a sudden, one little turn and I was now riding into the wind.

Not as easy.

But I kept pedaling. Avoided being blown over. While my speed did drop, it never fell into single digits. And although it was hard, I didn't seem to be getting too tired. So I kept riding. Added on some extra loops around some neighborhoods. Kept turning away from my house. Because remember, I didn't have an exact route mapped out. Just wanted to see how far I could go and still feel good.

I ended up pulling into my driveway after 17.15 miles. Probably could have managed to tack on the extra 3 miles to make it an even 20, but it was starting to get late and my tummy was starting to growl. I was hungry.

So 17.15 miles in 1 hour, 13 minutes. And remember, there was wind to battle. Not bad. I'll take it. And after tonight's ride, I'm not so worried about the bike leg of the triathlon. I always knew I could do the distance, I just needed to get one longer ride under my belt before race day to reassure myself.

Tomorrow? I run.