I HATE Headwinds!!

malglass

Thats it really, title say it all.

They have been the blight of my weekend, so just thought I would share my frustrations with you all!!

Cheers.

-steves-

I too hate headwinds, however, that usually means at some point you get a lovely strong tail wind, and if you mix that with a bit of downhill, thats gotta bring a smile to anyones face as your top gear peddling like mad, well it did to me over the weekend anyway, a big beaming smile at near 40 MPH considering I had not gone over 30 MPH before that

ShutUpLegs

Careful route planning required

or MTFU

Chip \'oyler

Head winds put hairs on your chest.

They're the bain of every cyclist - however the fitter you get the less you notice them!

rick_chasey

The flatlander's mountains....

danowat

ShutUpLegs wrote:

MTFU

This ^

Did a 10 mile TT today, avg speed 21.3mph on the outleg, avg speed 28.1mph on the return leg.

Bet you can't guess which way the wind was blowing

Peddle Up!

I do too normally, but today the combination of a cooling wind and warm sun on my back when I was peddling hard was oddly pleasant so I just laughed it off. 8)

hambones

I did the last 200 miles or so of my Lejog into a headwind to protect my riding companions who were really struggling. It was spirited stuff

CiB

hambones wrote:

I did the last 200 miles or so of my Lejog into a headwind to protect my riding companions who were really struggling. It was spirited stuff

Good going Hambones. I'll claim 96 miles solo on Sunday from Hereford to near Hinckley including the many undulations of The Fosse Way (up, up some more, more up, up a bit, ooh down, up, up, up, down a bit etc), from Stretton On Fosse to High Cross on the A5, every last yard of it into a 20mph headwind. Character-building is one description. Topped it with a 45mph wind-assisted blast down Smockington Hollow just for the hell of it, then suffered the inevitable jelly-legs for the climb out of Smocky on down to to the M69.

Well done on the JOGLE too BTW.

malglass

Well done to you all, makes my minor complaint seem trivial.

I was more looking for it as an excuse to buy a new bike, the other half said I looked wasted and I pointed out that perhaps a newer lighter bike may of helped....

Mmmm Cube GTC Pro, or save a bit with one of those new Ribble Sportives.....

twotyred

Use Lance Armstrong psychology. Just keep saying to yourself "The wind is my friend, the wind is helping me to get stronger"

Also the fitter you are the less it bothers you.

It can be quite useful. I needed to do the last hour of yesterdays training session at threshold so I arranged the ride to have the return leg against the wind.

StillGoing

No matter how I planned my routes the wind always ended up behind me going out and in my face coming home. Bugger!

plowmar

Has any one noticed that even with no wind you always have a head wind :evil:

Garz

You can still get directional change so 'careful route planning' is moot. :roll:

briantrumpet

Garz wrote:

You can still get directional change so 'careful route planning' is moot. :roll:

The wind speed & direction given by the Met Office seems to be one of its more reliable forecasts, though I get stumped when all the arrows for Devon are pointing in completely different directions. But I generally find that if you combine that with the recent and forecast wind data from http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ you can make a reasonably good prediction.

Garz

Very true Brian.

As we know the weather can be unpredictable however to state planning overcomes this problem is false in the sense that I have gone out on a ride and on the return leg experienced a headwind due to change in wind direction.

It is very unlikely but can happen. XC weather is a good site and is far better than say bbc weather to judge the wind. Alternatively having your own weather station may be just as handy..

briantrumpet

Garz wrote:

As we know the weather can be unpredictable however to state planning overcomes this problem is false in the sense that I have gone out on a ride and on the return leg experienced a headwind due to change in wind direction.

It is very unlikely but can happen. XC weather is a good site and is far better than say bbc weather to judge the wind. Alternatively having your own weather station may be just as handy..

And when that does happen in my fury I'll check the wind data when I get home so I can feel justified for the swearing I did on the affected leg of the journey.

Re weather stations - there are a couple of private online ones within ten miles of me that I always check, especially for temperature (and the risk of icy roads) - but, given that the Met Office HQ and two airports are also within five miles, I seem to be quite well provided with data for making decisions. Though, at the moment, a pesky cold is having to be taken into account too. Bah.

Garz

briantrumpet wrote:

Though, at the moment, a pesky cold is having to be taken into account too. Bah.

Do you use a HR monitor and is this cold visible in your training?

briantrumpet

Garz wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

Though, at the moment, a pesky cold is having to be taken into account too. Bah.

Do you use a HR monitor and is this cold visible in your training?

Question 1) No. I'm seeing how far I can push myself performance-wise with just a cycle computer as an aid.

Question 2) Only when I blow my nose or clear phlegm out of my lungs.

When I haven't got a cold, I'm like a coiled spring. At the moment I feel like a coiled turd.