When is calm better — when you want to ride easy, or when you want to work on speed?

It was a wonderful ride this morning. Yes, it was already 79 degrees at 5 am; but the moon was out, and I got to see the moonlight on the river.

I heard katydids! The seemingly endless clouds of flying insects seem to be abating somewhat. There were some clouds around, and I saw a few flashes of distant lightning; but it didn’t rain on me. And no wind!!

Oh, how I love the rare windless day! Here’s the catch: do I prefer the lack of wind when I want to go easy, or when I want to push for speed?

It makes a lot of sense to want a windless day when I intend to ride very slow and easy, trying to stay in heart rate Zone 1. On the other hand, a stiff headwind is quite frustrating when I’m working for X mph, and the wind makes it nigh well impossible.

This is when I catch myself wishing for a power meter. When a headwind is slowing me down to 9-10 mph, I might actually be putting out enough power that I’d be going 15-17 mph on a calm day. But X watts is X watts, no matter what the weather conditions; so a power meter would let me know whether I\’m truly getting stronger.

A calm day is much easier on me when it’s cold, that’s for sure. My nose gets runny when the temperature falls below 70 degrees, and wind only makes it worse. On top of that, I have exercise-induced rhinitis.

In a humid climate, the cold seems to penetrate right down to your bones no matter how many layers you wear.  When the weather is hot, I still don’t want wind to fight, but a breeze would be nice when I stop riding. It would cool me off.

So when is calm better? I guess that depends on how you look at it.