On Riding In Wind, & Accepting Crazy Cat Lady Status

Yesterday I got a text from one of my athletes asking about my thoughts on riding in high wind conditions. We are fairly new together so still learning about each other... Anyway, her group ride had been cancelled b/c of a high wind advisory. She still wanted to ride but wanted advice from me about whether or not that was a good idea or not.

My advice was along the lines of Make sure you're wearing your helmet and watch for flying branches... Of course I said Go ride!

Wind can be a giant PITA for sure but unless its a hurricane, tornado, tropical storm, etc, it's not a reason to bail on riding outside. It takes practice to learn to how handle yourself on a bike when wind is blowing 20-30mph, and even though your power file might look prettier if you were to retreat to your trainer, you're not going to gain confidence riding in wind when you're inside. And last time I checked, the only thing that gets canceled or modified on race day b/c of high wind is the swim. And don't even get me started on that!

I rode ~40 miles today and our wind was pretty standard like 15-20mph. So not really crazy, but windy nonetheless.  Pretty much the whole time, I thought a lot about riding in wind... The type of athlete who embraces it vs the type of athlete who shies away from it... I remembered that when I was a really strong cyclist, I rode no matter what the conditions were on the day. It was often windy and wet but regardless I was out riding. So it doesn't come as a shock that over time I got very used to those types of conditions and didn't even blink when it came time to riding in them. I did consider though what would be 'no go' scenarios for riding outside and here's what I came up with...

~Hurricane, tornado, other tropical storm
~Tsunami warning, though in this case could still ride outside, just not along the coast
~Icy roads
~Living in Haiti

That's pretty much it. Am I missing anything? I guess I should clarify that I'm talking about weekends when people generally have more time to ride outside. During the week when work takes priority and time frame to ride is small, yes, get your quality trainer ride in. BUT on the weekends, put your big girl pants on and get out there!

Ok enough about that. More fun kitten pics coming up... Turns out, abandoned kittens aren't typically actually alone. My neighbor sent a text last night that she could hear another one crying in the park... So I went out at about 9:30 and got that one. Sent a message to the cat people who trap/fix/feed all the feral cats in the area and they were on a mission to find the other one that was still crying in the thick brush... so we brought kitten #2 down so he could call to his sibling... Took a while but eventually we caught the 3rd one as well. I've never really thought of myself as a 'Crazy Cat Lady'. Until last night. But seriously. Look at these babies!!

They are quite happy together and I'm really glad to be able to facilitate them being back together! That said, I'm really not up for having 4x cats so I'll be looking for a home for at least one of these kittens here soon. Maybe 2 of them?