It’s our first week back with Coach Mo - the build up to our 50 miler has begun, and he has given us some cycling as cross training.
Today’s work out was 1, 5 to 2 hours, easy cycling, time in the saddle. It sounded good - I do love that word “easy”. Ha! That was all well and good until the wind started to howl at over 20 kilometres an hour.
We decided to vasbyt and get the work done and here are two lessons I learnt.
Number One. Always do the first bit of the ride against the wind. Keep going as long as you can bear it because when you turn even uphills are good. And even if you do have to cut the ride short, no worries, you’re probably not training for Tour De France - go home and have a cup of coffee. The other trick is to find a long hill, at least two kilometres. Ride up the hill with the wind behind you and down the hill against the wind. Repeat and repeat and repeat…..
Number Two. When applying your chamois cream, slap some onto the lower half of your face. Riding into a roaring winter wind made me feel like everything was cracking and I would have given my eye teeth for some sort of balm.
So there you have it - cycling in the wind for beginners!