When Chafing for a Cause Becomes Soul-Crushing (Strong Headwind Edition)

Riding your bike in 30mph headwinds--with (we think) gusts up to 45 mph--in 90+ degree heat, is a good way to motivate you...

...to give up cycling, eat a gallon of ice cream, and pout.

At least... that's what it made me want to do. There's nothing quite as frustrating as working your butt off going up a half-mile long hill with a 7% grade into a 30mph headwind and looking at your cycle computer to see you're putting out a MONSTROUS ... 9mph.

Oy.

Spencer has a really great post on the day here. It's worth a read because he communicates the utter soul-crushing nature of the day pretty well.

Another way to demonstrate the soul-crushing nature of the day is to show you two pictures. Before the day:

After the day:

You might be tempted to say to yourself, "He chose poorly" (+10 kudos points to he who can name the movie first... the big hint is the shriveled Nazi above) while considering that we rode out with a 30 mph tailwind... the logical corollary being that we were basically asking for it. And you'd be right.

But, being that we're only 20 days away from the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, we decided to test our metal. It was a tough day... but at least we all survived. Mostly thanks to the courageous efforts of Matt and the Glorious PowerAid of Victory he delivered from his SAG wagon (read Spencer's post for details on the SAG wagon). So many thanks to him... we literally had buzzards circling above, and without that liquid gold I think they would have been the victorious ones.

Thank you all again for your support. With 20 days to go, the Hill Country Ride is almost half way to it's goal of raising $500,000 toward services for those living with HIV and AIDS. And because of you, I'm about two thirds of the way to my personal goal! And if you're so inclined, you can donate here.

Thanks again!

Ride Happy,

Luke