Aeolus Is A Bastard

I certainly thought it might take ten years to get home today, thanks to the winds.  I had a bit of an assist at the start of my ride, and some at the end when I was too tired to really take advantage, but most of the loop I either had wicked crosswinds that made me fight for balance or strong stuff blowing right into my teeth that took about 5-7 mph off my usual pace (at one point about 9-11 mph). 

Roughly 15 consecutive miles seemed like I'd been riding uphill the entire way and when I did finally arrive home my legs felt as though I'd done another 40-miler.  Instead, it was a mere 24 miles at 14.9 mph.

Here's where I rode:

If you'd like to see the track in Google Earth so you can zoom in and see POIs and such, I've uploaded it as a KMZ (compressed KML) file and have also posted a detailed version with clickable waypoints where you can see my Lat/Long, altitude and speed (or lack thereof).  Probably not interesting to normal humans, but I found it neat because I remember just how much I was cursing the wind at some of those points and it might even be instructive for me.

Anyway, this brings the Bikeathon total to 149.5 miles!  And with a couple more pledges in the last 24 hours, we've shattered the unannounced dollar-per-mile goal I had in mind and hit 374 bucks, for which I am incredibly grateful.  I hope I can do some good in DC in a couple weeks, even if the wind does sometimes blow against us.

ntodd