Long rides, snow and wind

In the past week I have finally gotten in some solid miles on the bike. Last Wednesday I put in 4.5 hours with good climbing and steady effort. Saturday I snuck in 2.5 and Sunday was 3 hours, but a hard 3 hours. The weather forecast was for lite snow until 2:00pm, when there was no snow for a few hours at noon I figured I was safe. Took out the road bike and started riding, after about 45 minutes a few flurries but not enough to cause me to turn around. After about 1.5 hours it started snowing, and I mean hard. I was at least an hour from home and the snow was coming down, roads getting wet and not ideal riding conditions.

I did have lots of wet weather gear with me so I didn't get cold or wet and rode through snow for about an hour. Finally it let up and I figured I'd sneak in a few more miles. This turned into a bad choice as I ended up flatting and having to change a tire in the cold just as it was starting to snow again. Ended up riding for 3 hours with about 1.5 of it in some level of snow. Hopefully the hard work yesterday will pay off in races this year.

Today I went out with the intention of riding for 4-5 hours after work (I left early since it was/is a holiday and I was technically "off"). Headed out to Golden to ride Lookout mountain with a fierce wind coming from the west. I averaged 12 mph out to Golden and started out Lookout, climbed for about 15 minutes before turning around. I was literally scared I would be blown off the road with the wind. Found out on the news wind gusts were up to 50mph in that part of town. I still managed to ride for 4 hours, just mostly on flat roads with a good cross or tail wind.

These rides should help come the race season and at least make me feel like I'm HTFU.