I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to join the ride this morning. I was running about 5 minutes late so there was no one at the Rec Centre and I decided to ride Paul's fast circuit on my own. I headed out along Clayton Road and quickly managed a good pace. I knew the wind was strong and mostly easterly meaning that the ride home was going to be tough but I continued anyway.
I made the Airport in about 16 minutes averaging 32.7 and soon found my self making even better time. The wind seemed to swirl and back, occasionally giving me a bit of resistance. I made the turn to Williams in around 55 minutes averaging 35kmh. I thought briefly about making the turn to Williams and having coffee with the "slow" group but wanted to be home around 9 so I headed toward Narrogin along the Narrogin Williams Road.
I figured that I had about 5-6 kmh assistance on the way out so hoped to average about 25kmh on the way back. I was very mistaken. There were times when I was riding on what looked like a level stretch of road and struggling to maintain 16-17 kmh. Then a gust of wind would hit me and I would drop back to under 13kmh.
I battled on. Around 15 km from town I seriously started to think about calling Catherine to come and pick me up. At around 48km into the ride I pulled into a parking area had a drink (it was too hard to drink while riding I was mostly concentrating on not being blown into traffic) I had a pee, zipped up my man suit and started the last leg home.
The wind seemed to settle a bit and the I managed a little better time for the last 12-13kms finally arriving home in 2hours 17 minutes taking about 1hr 22min for the 28 kms home, average pace for the entire ride 25.8kmh.
I must need my head examined, I should have gone for a mountain bike with Jonno and Jeremy instead.
I'll see every one Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment