ninety six

RIDING DOWNHILL INTO A HEADWIND

Cycling is mostly climbing if you measure it in time. It takes forever to climb a thousand feet at four or five miles per hour, the decent takes only minutes at thirty miles per hour. The down part is the most fun but it is short lived. 

I once looked at climbing as torture, but spending the day in the beautiful outdoors in this mind set is silly. With the right gears climbing is easy but it just takes time so I try to enjoy it. However, if I climb for a couple of hours I want the payoff of a long down hill coast. 

This was a day of headwind, what I call the invisible mountain. I live and train in the Phoenix area where there are very few steep hills.

The valley usually has an afternoon wind so I used it for my mountain training. This steep down hill section of highway can usually produce speeds of forty miles per hour and faster which is faster then I like to ride a loaded bike. 

I usually worry about heating my brakes but this day I couldn't coast faster then fifteen miles per hour. The headwinds were so strong I had to peddle down hill. After looking forward to some miles of coasting this was very disappointing.

Earlier I faces a tail wind on the climb. This is not helpful because you ride in still air which is hotter. 

Gravity takes you down the other side so the tail wind isn't a factor. A small head wind is cooling, but a strong one is a real pain. This day the climbs were brutal and the down hills were like flat ground. 

However every day on a bicycle is a good day. This is a phrase I say out loud when the riding conditions are not favorable, it has worked so far.