Here in Los Angeles, we've been having record high winds over the past few days. It's certainly made things interesting. Trees blowing down, power lines whipping in the breeze, free of their poles, houseplants flying through the air (my poor neighbors. First, the feral cats ate their ferns, and then the wind blew the replacements into the next ZIP code), etc..
The winds were predicted to taper off today, so this afternoon I decided to go for a ride. Since I'm just starting a training cycle (no pun intended), I kept it on the small ring and enjoyed the beautiful blue skies that we get when the winds blow all the smog out of the city.
I only got in real trouble with headwinds at one point during the ride, but I was going downhill so it wasn't all that bad.
Also, this was my first ride on new shorts. Over the weekend, I took advantage of the big sale at our local bike shop and got myself a pair of Mavic shorts at about 70 percent off. The pair I got are women-specific and have some sort of extra awesome waistband. Or something. My French is a bit rusty.
Holy crap those things are comfortable. It's almost like not even wearing pants. They didn't solve the problem of my toes going numb after about an hour, but I think that my saddle is too wide.
When I was shopping for saddles, since my hips can be politely referred to as 'child-bearing', I only looked at the wider models of road bike saddles. Turns out, I might have purchased a saddle that's too wide, according to the bike shop guy.
So next week I'm going to really have a look at some narrower saddles. Tonight, I have to go to a friend's concert, and since it's in Venice (where there's never any parking), I'm going to ride the commuter down there.
Just have to check the batteries in my tail lights.
What neighborhoods are you finding bad winds in? I was surprised that our coastal westside mountains are pretty calm.
ReplyDeleteI'm near UCLA, and the winds were pretty strong here, although not as bad as Pasadena, thank heavens.
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