Week Six - Day Two

TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 28 min.
WEATHER: light rain, 8C, 7km/hr wind there; light rain, 5C, 37km/hr wind (gusts up to 57km/hr) back
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, turtleneck, waterproof shell, my new "ColdOut Running Gloves"
NOTES:
Maybe I'm a weirdo (well, I doubt that's a maybe), but when I left the house this morning I thought, "Oh, wow, what a lovely day!" It was overcast with light rain, virtually no wind, lacking that wintry chill in the air - seeing as how I kind of like rain, and I hate wind, it seemed like a nice day! The beautiful autumn colours of the trees in the river valley, the peaceful hum of my bike tires against the road. What a lovely way to wake up!

Then . . . there was the ride home. I have been dreading this wind ever since I saw the red banner of warning last night on the Weather Network website, warning of an approaching wind storm. By the time I left for work this morning, it still hadn't hit. I held out hope that maybe the storm wouldn't come in until this evening and I'd completely miss it! But, alas, by the early afternoon I saw the top boughs of the big campus trees begin to sway in large arcs, and I knew I was in trouble. I finished up with work and left 15 minutes early, worrying that my ride home (riding directly into the epic wind the whole time) would take a while.

I have to say, it wasn't that bad. Really, it was tolerable. Yes, it kind of hurt my ears after a while. And, yes, it made my trip home longer than usual. But I never felt like I was dying, which I thought I might. It actually just felt like pretty good training for the crappy weather that's on its way. It's going to get a whole lot worse, and because I survived today's trip home without actually feeling too hard done by, I'm feeling a whole lot more confident about facing the winter.