Oh, baby, baby, that's just what I needed... Yeah, now I'm ready to kick back some and just relax and enjoy the feeling.

Oh, gosh no; this is a family-rated site. Good grief, I went blading this evening just ahead of the storm front. I hadn't been for nearly a week, what with the sick kidlets and all. ...and yesterday I didn't want to chance it 'cause I was still skosh sleep. But this evening...

This evening, the winds were picking up as I came home and I almost bailed on the trip; but I got to thinking about maybe pacing myself and at least getting a warmup round in. Heh. That lasted until the first turn downwind...

Down wind... For a mile or two... Even with the switchbacks, it would still be mostly downhill and downwind. ...and if I did pace myself, maybe I could pull the full return run. So yeah, I went for it; running with the wind for the entire first leg and maintaining enough speed to have fun, but not pushing too much right away; I'd need that on the next two sections of roadway...

...and it worked well. Man, on those downhill chunks, with the wind at my back? Sheer beauty! ...and the traffic was still light enough to let me stay in the center of the road, which made for great turns as I'd pick up speed coming off the berm.

...and I caught a break on the next two legs: the wind shifted so I was dead on working into it for the next half mile or so. ...and that was okay, because it meant on the uphill chunk I would pull a crosswind instead of heading into the prevailing winds as I usually do. ...and I could still pace those two sections.

Things were a little more grim at the top of that rise as the loss of conditioning and my general fatigue started to assert themselves. ...but the next section was with the wind. ...and my time for that split was actually where it normally would be. So I didn't take the shortcut; I just ran with the wind until the pavement ran out and I had to turn back towards home. ...at the same time the wind decided to pick up!

Oh, boy; now I was running on empty. ...and the best I could do was tack back and forth through the neighborhood instead of trying for a straight run; I'd have never made it against the winds the storm was now sending. So... Slow on the runs into the wind and relax on the crosswind portions; just a slower pace to finish off the run.

...and keep remembering that first part: running with the wind.

Oh, yeah...