Great Ride

It's a beautiful day in Champaign. The day started with an early thunderstorm, then cleared up into a sunny, slightly windy warm summer day. I waited for quite a while to ride, putzed around the house, ran some errands, etc. Finally got onto the bike around 4:30.

I headed out on one of my normal routes, but headed north and then west towards Mahomet...the wind was blowing NNW at about 15 mph. Heading out was tough. I equate windy riding to climbing...we have no mountains here in Central Illinois, so the wind is our substitute. I was planning on a ride of about 30 miles, but when I got to the halfway point, I was past 17 miles. I stopped at a gas station in Mahomet to top off my bottle, and bought some vitamin water. I got the biggest bottle of water in the cooler, which filled up my bottle and I stuck the big bottle in one jersey pocket and the bottle with the rest of the vitamin water in another jersey pocket. It kind of felt like I had scuba tanks on my back as I rode the route back.

What was such a hinderance on the way out, was a huge boost on the way back. The wind pushed and I shifted up onto the big ring and cruised back at 24+ mph. Total mileage was 36.4.

Felt great...planning on a long run tomorrow.