It May Explain A Little

I don't think we'd even gone 5 miles and Amy's rear tire found a thumb tack. First we heard this rhythmic click coming from her bike, so we stopped to try and discover the cause. She saw the tack, pulled it out and then we heard the tsssssss.
Wind, wind and more wind...that was tough. Our route kept the wind from hitting us head on most of the time, but it was like riding into a wall when the course took us directly into it.
It's really beautiful out. You can tell that things are changing. Steve pointed out a Maple that had leaves with red tips.
Finally we made that long awaited turn, and our speed rose as our heart rates dropped. That's a fun scenario.
We'd worked hard and had a couple of miss steps through some road construction in Delano, so the thrill of the ride was diminishing some. Shana needed to get home so she went solo from Delano, leaving just the three of us. It was time to make a decision eighty or ninety. Eighty would've have kept the wind mostly at our backs for the remainder of the ride. Ninety would mean riding into that wall again, with the added enjoyment of rollers at the same time for a good 8 miles. The choice seems so obvious, doesn't it. Yep, at the last second I turned right instead of left, and we enjoyed speeds in the high 20's and low 30's through drop-dead gorgeous farm land all the way into Mayer. I was sure that this part of the route would make the extra 10 worth it, but we would have to pay for it. From Mayer to Waconia we still had the wind at our backs, but it was more of a cross wind now, and that made the effort a little more intense. As we slowed to come into Waconia Steve said, so that was the payment for the extra 10. Oh no, 'fraid not.
Trying not to be negative, let me just say that with 70 miles on the legs, going up several small but noticeable hills in rapid succession is never really all that fun. Add some wind...it ain't a barrel of monkeys, it's more like a barrel of s&%t.
I did wind up questioning the wisdom of the extra 10 decision. We did it, worked hard, pulled it off, and just kept my chin on my stem.
Once again the wind came at our backs... a little bit of a cross wind, but a far improvement from the wall we'd just endured, and soon the extra 10 was more than worth it. 92/20.1

This has been a tough cycling year for me. Since I started keeping records, today's average speed was the fastest I've generated in August, except for racing. April was a very good month as well, with early year average speeds that I've never seen in my records, except for racing. That helps to explain a little why my speeds and miles have been down this year.