I did the 50 km to Mulvane and back today. I knew it was going to be windy but had forgotten what a train wreck it is to do the return leg with 21 mph winds punching you in the face. Honestly Kansas wind is the most evil thing ever. I think I would rather spend a weekend in Guantanamo bay. Seriously. Heading down south was great. With the wind at my back I was flying down to Mulvane. I felt like a member of Team Garmin/Chipotle! Then about three quarters of the way down I passed two other bikers heading north back into town. I should have known by their pace it was going to be one miserable ride back. I just waved and flew on by. One of them was riding a recumbent! I wish I knew who those guys were, that recumbent looked like such a sweet comfortable ride! So I get down to the Mulvane cemetery, which is my reast/turn around point, and take ten minutes to eat a couple of EAS bars and drink the rest of my first bottle of water. After ten minutes I snap a picture, fill up my water bottle with my refill bottle of camelbak hydration liquid for the ride back, then head off back towards home. And thats when the freight train of wind ground me to a halt. I was flying down averaging 22 mph. The return I averaged... 10 mph. And I was working to maintain that. Towards the end I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I thought for sure I was going to have to stop. But I knew if I stopped I wouldn't get back up until the wind slowed down even if I had to wait until nightfall. So i just told myself what an out of shape worm I was and pushed myself to finish. Have I mentioned how much I hate Kansas wind? I listen to other cyclists on an IRC channel I hang out on gripe about wind sometimes too. However these guys are in California or the Pacific Northwest. They don't know what wind is! I am convinced there is an open portal to the ninth plane of hell somewhere in Kansas generating all of our insane wind.
So without further hesitation... stats. 14.9 / 27.1 mph, 169 / 189 bpm, 58 / 164 cadence, 1,126 calories burned, 2h 2m 30s, 30.39 miles door to door. I'm no lance armstrong, but for a heavier rider I think this was an acceptable ride. I was feeling the pain all the way back in todays wind. I kept pushing myself not to stop and just get back home. So at least I managed to kick and claw my way back without stopping. This is only the second ride I have managed to do that burned over 1,000 calories. The other one was the first 50 km I did also to Mulvane and back. The other rides down there have not burned as many calories as today. I'm sure the wind had something to do with that since I was burning so much more energy just to keep enough forward momentum to not fall over.
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