The Wind Got Hold of Me!

Cece has been cycling now for quite a few  years.  She has ridden in many different weather conditions and those of you that read this blog, know that she does not like the wind.  Even though the cyclist's mantra is "The wind is your training partner" Cece avoids it like the plague if she can.

She had checked the weather Underground for her forecast in the Northeast Heights as she took her bike to work today to climb the difficult (for Cece)  Elena Gallegos hill.It is a category 3 climb...so says Map My Ride.  Once outside, she remarked out loud what a perfect day it was.  No wind, moderate temps...a wonderful day to ride.

She began her ride and a few miles later her climb up to the top of Elena.  We are fortunate in Albuquerque to have much land that is designated Open Space and the Elena Gallegos area is one of them.     Click on
 the clicky thingy and scroll down and you will see a  brief slide show of the area.  It is starkly beautiful.  This is the high desert and once at the top, you can look west and see the city from way above it all!

Training is challenging and so was this climb.She was grateful she was not wearing a heart rate monitor because she would have been scared at her numbers...but she was pleased she made it up.  Then the fun part.  The reward for climbing up...is the down.  Weeee!  Weee! We Weee!

Cece wanted to get a few more miles under her belt and decided to go north on  Tramway and then back  south to where she had started from.  When she made the turn to go south, she noticed a horrible head wind was developing.  Where did this come from?  She told herself this is Albuquerque and this is the box.  She was going south into a headwind that had a sheer to it from the west.  But really it was no problem.

But, she had spoken too soon.  Shortly, a gust of wind caught her ,seemingly out of the blue, and took hold of her and her bike.  Time stood still...it was like she was pedaling, but was going no where.  All of a sudden, her bike began to wobble and she was beginning to be pushed into the highway.  This was not good.  Nothing like this had ever happened before.  She thought back to the most horrible wind day she had ever experienced...that day on Frost road with the team....but this was worse. because she found she could not control her bike!

It took only a moment to decide to unclip and stop her bike.  She stopped and held on tight.  The gust passed.  She took a few breaths...looked behind her at the quickly flowing traffic and said a silent prayer
of thanks. 

After a moment, she got back on her bike again, wondering where the wind had gone too.  There was a gentle breeze that was wonderfully pleasant, but no monster wind that made her immobile!  Whew!

Another great adventurous day on the bike!