jschen

Sunday's usually my long ride day, so as usual, a decently long ride was the order of the day. I decided to ride a hilly metric in the foothills east of San Diego. Things were going great until I started climbing into the foothills. (Scripps Poway Rd, on the way out to CA-67.) That's when the headwinds started getting to me. Okay, no big deal. Take it a bit slower, and enjoy the tailwind later. So I tell myself. Then headed into Ramona (along CA-67), it really hit me. Fierce headwinds. Not just fierce gusts, but sustained winds. I kept gearing down to be able to maintain cadence at a reasonable effort, but even with a triple, one eventually runs out of gears. I've cycled through that region a few times before, so I can say that the winds most definitely are not usually like that! At one point, on a slight downhill, I was spinning in my lowest gear (a 30/25!) trying to maintain cadence and sustain 8 MPH. The wind was fighting me, and it most definitely was winning.

I seriously considered turning around. It would have been an awesomely fast return trip with a nice, strong tailwind, and fighting those winds, I was truly beat. But I decided to push on. I struggled on and completed my ride, but the wind definitely got the best of me today. And with my ride not returning by way of Ramona, I didn't even get to enjoy a massive tailwind later in the ride.

I think people who say the wind is like an invisible hill are crazy. Hills, you can not worry about aerodynamics and just focus on generating sustained power. Wind, that's not the case. You can switch climbing positions and use different muscle groups when climbing. The strong winds, on the other hand, simply burned out the muscles that I use to spin in the drops. The wind definitely won today. I'm unashamed to ride a triple, but I never thought I'd need it to go 8 MPH downhill.

Belugadave

You DID win!! You got a great workout and you'll be stronger for it. You just need to remember that the wind is your friend. That's what I keep telling myself and it is working. You know you're going to have windy days so why not have a good attitude and use them as a good workout.

Barese Rider

How strong were those winds?? They held you up on a downhill!! Sounds like it would have been a good day for those who sail.. ..
I saw a fellow yesterday here in NJ that I really admired.. I was returning from a visit to a friends house and driving along Ocean Ave to get a gander of the ocean as the first signal of a strong storm is strong northeast winds.. They kick the ocean up.. It had started to snow and the strong winds were blowing it out of the north.. That combination is always an awesome sight to me.. While admiring it out of the blue comes a fellow on a roadbike riding stoically right into the teeth of the wind rain snow and sleet.. And that strong wet cold ocean wind always goes right thru you.. The wind was blowing a steady 20 with stronger gusts.. Hail, sleet and snow were blowing right into his guys face.. Yet on he road at a steady cadence with his face tight and jaw out.. No those elements were not going to deter him from his Saturday ride..Got to give him credit whoever he was..

jschen

Well, that's in a sense true, too. It was a challenge, and I was beat, but I definitely had fun out there. I'd just rather pick my challenges than have Mother Nature pick them out for me.

Not really a great sailing day. Winds in the coastal region were rather calm. Admittedly, it wasn't particularly steep when I was struggling to maintain 8 MPH on a slight downhill. I just remember thinking it was notable that I was going 9 MPH downhill while pedaling in the drops and that I should note that and share, then the winds picked up a bit more and next thing I knew, 9 MPH didn't seem so bad. I'm not sure how strong the winds were. 20 MPH is probably a safe ballpark estimate. It doesn't help that I'm not particularly fast, so sustaining 20+ MPH air speeds tires me out very quickly.

jww106

i had a similar experience last weekend in virginia with the wind and i too was hating the wind by the end of the ride. no matter what direction i kept turning i was always riding into the wind. although by the time i got home i had had a great workout and was wiped out for the rest of the day...

Lecterman

Sounds like the winds here in Texas today. Luckily, I had headwind half of the way and tailwind hlf of the way.

Mojo Slim

My friend and I rode in an organized but unsupported ride last Sunday, in Chico, CA. Our plan was to do the 50 mile version. The wind came up and we rode 37 miles into a strong headwind, without stopping. Fortunately, it was flat, but 8 mph was about the best we could do, to. When we headed home we had that rare occurance . . . an actual tailwind for much of the way! Our 50 mile ride turned out to be 70. Bonus miles.

mr. peugeot

Wind sucks.

Duke of Kent

Welcome to the Iowa-Illinois-Indiana winter type wind. Except we have that every day. And its a hell of a lot colder.

jschen

^^^Yes, it definitely gave me some appreciation for riders who ride in windy areas.

I think it blows.

peregrine

I hadn't realized how drastically wind can affect your stamina and speed until last week with our 30 mph winds and even stronger gusts. Jeez! I thought I was doing something wrong; I'm not a very strong rider but even I don't get tired that fast It's particularly annoying when the gusts hit you sideways suddenly. At that moment speed in not the main issue, steadying your bike is.

Anyway, I'm glad you didn't turn around, jschen. I do believe an expereince like that can make you stronger :]

oilfreeandhappy

I've ridden in many of those relentless winds you described. The slow pace doesn't bother me as much as the whistling in my ears. You can hardly think. When it's over, I always tell me myself, "That wasn't so bad".

TitaniuMerlin

Theres a short, but steep here just beyond campus. Its easy to hit 35 MPH while hardly pedalling going down it. Well, one day it was really windy out. The part of the hill i ride up is about a 3 mile gradual climb (runs lenght of campus and all the up beyond the farm near top of hill) but with the wind, it makes it challenging. Though the downhill on the other side is perahps 150 yds in length, its easy to hit that 35MPH mark. Well, with this wind, it was hard enough to hit 18MPH going down the hill while pedalling!

Mo'Phat

jschen: I, too, did my long ride in NorthEast San Diego yesterday...40 miles from the Wild Animal Park up Lake Wohlford grade to Valley Center and back. I, too, learned to hate the wind. It was a pretty amazing experience because I'd never really known how much my body acts as a wind break. I'd be cruising along at 26 mph...turn around and am dying to sustain 15...same road, same slope. Just a 10 mph wind differential. I'd really hate to experience a sustained 20-30 mph wind, but I'm sure plenty of people in the midwest deal with that everyday.

It didn't help that there was less than 10% humidity and they were dry Santa Ana winds and it was a toasty 85 degrees.

jschen

^^^Sounds like a fun route. I'll have to try it sometime. When the Santa Anas aren't blowing, though. I'm not sure how the people in the Midwest do it. I'm not sure I could get anywhere going into a 30 MPH headwind.

My head still stings a tiny bit from getting hit by a pebble on my ride yesterday. Was coasting along at about 47 MPH on the way home (Scripps Poway Rd, a decently steep descent, modest tailwind, 60 MPH multi-lane road) when an RV passed me and kicked up a pebble that went flying into my face just right of my glasses, 3/4 inch right of the edge of my eye socket. I saw it coming at me head-on, but it came so fast there wasn't much I could do about it. Man, it stung. How a pebble kicked up by a vehicle in the right lane can hit me head-on on the right side when I'm well over on the shoulder, it's a mystery to me. On the bright side, the resulting draft from the RV pulled my top speed for the day up to 49.1 MPH. Not worth it, though, as I didn't beat my record top speed (49.8 MPH).

platypus

I love hills, but I HAATE the wind. good job not letting it beat you.

botto 

i feel your pain. i live in the netherlands. plenty of wind, and never enough shelter.

jschen

Same here. Hills and mountains are great. Wind sucks (or blows). But I guess it's good training.

rule

I made peace with the wind when I was 11 and had to ride my bike into the teeth of it to get to summer track practice. It sucked and at first it sapped my legs by the time that I made it to practice. After about a month, I was sapped by the ride any more. By the end of the summer, I was the fastest white guy in my end of Oklahoma. Since then I figure that if it makes you stronger, it's a good thing.

patentcad

Yep nothing sucks worse than the wind. It (ahem) really blows.

I live in Orange Cty. NY, arguably the Wind Tunnel of the Universe.

botto 

at least you've got trees there

roadfix

I often times read that wind is ovoleg's best friend...

Duke of Kent

Very true. Once the soybeans and corn come down in the fall, there's nothing to break up the wind. At least with hills/mountains, you know you'll hit the summit at some point in the future, and get a break. Here, if you go for a 4 hour ride at this time of year, you go out for 2:30-40, and make it home in 1:20-30, easily.

According to weatherbug, the AVERAGE wind speed right now is 27mph out of the SW, gusting up to 36mph. Temperature of 29*F, wind chill of 13. It was 13*F when I woke up this morning, and I don't even want to think about what the wind chill was.