Sounds like a great ride, Crankin! Sometimes its the ones where you feel like you're struggling that show how strong you can be.

Mine was only 24 miles. It's just my 5th ride of the season, anyway. There was supposed to be a 13mph east wind, but I swear it was more like 20, with much higher gusts, and not really from the east. It felt like it was mostly uphill into the wind. I was going to take a side-road instead of the highway back, but got 1/2 mile down the road, and encountered several inches snow (that road doesn't get plowed in the winter, and takes a while to melt off). It would have been a hairy 6-1/2 mile stretch if it was all like that, especially on skinny roadie tires. So I had to turn around and go back on the highway, which includes a grinding 1-1/2 mile uphill, along with lots more uphill (the route I was going to take is more rolling). I'm pooped. And I'm still working on breaking my butt back in for the season. I rode 3 times 2 weeks ago, then we had 15" of heavy, wet snow, then rain and just yuckiness, and now I can ride again. Well, except for the rain in the forecast for the next few days. It's nice to be back on the bike.