Since, i was not going to the race down in NH this sunday, i rode my mtb to Millstone (30 miles round trip). The Journey started at about 2pm in the afternoon in crazy winds changing direction spontaneously. I was having hero legs, so I thought, on the way to Millstone, which turned out to be a monster tail wind. The pace on the flats was about 21mph, I should have known better. When we got (My bike and I) to Millstone the trails were blown dry by the wild winds, the same ones who pushed me there. The sun was strong even thought the winds were cool, this made for a nice temp to work out in. In woods on the trails the sun splattered onto the trail in strong clumps and the large piles of granite would shelter me from the winds. We did the new bridge off of Grand Look Out and buzzed around down in Abbots Run. From there we went up to the red loop to get some paced aerobic work and to get a general feel for the over all trail conditions. It was just a nice experience, a hand full of folks doing there thing, I felt like I had the place to myself. Running out of time for the day I headed back down the pavement the way I came. This time the dark clouds were rolling in with nasty cold wind at its front edge. Right from Millstone, I was confronted with a speed sapping head wind. At points on the hills, I was almost at a track stand until that particular wind gust diffused. Climbing out of Barre into Berlin there is a stretch of high field that would be great to generate electricity on. It was particularly bad yesterday. It was depressing to look up the road going 4 mph, so I would just stare at my feet going around until it was over. The sky was turning more turbulant, but I managed to make it to Crosstown road where the tree cover gave shelter from the elements. It never rained, although the wind become colder and colder, making feel like early March riding. Once on my road, I pushed up the mile long hill and dashed inside for hot shower, the best part of riding.
andy