This is going to be a tough week weather-wise (Boulder forecast). Today it was the wind. Boulder is notoriously windy, and today furthered the legend. The wind woke me up at 5am and, as I write this at 6pm, it's still howlin'. At 6:50am, NCAR's Mesa Lab Weather Station recorded a gust of 88.1 mph (that was the one that ripped off 5 fence panels in our yard as we ate breakfast), and NCAR caught an 89er in the afternoon. That's hurricane force, people. Granted these wind speeds are not sustained, but merely gusts. But still - those are some mighty gusts! Normally, Boulder's winds are the Chinook type, which are warming winds, but today it was the Bora type - a very cold wind. As weather goes, we in Boulder cannot complain about much, but the wind here can be awful.
I almost bagged the running today, but the forecast, while less windy, calls for crazy-cold temperatures this week. So, since it's all going to be tough this week, I went out there and did the Rail Trail in the Bora gusts. 53 minutes of moderate effort, solo, in the early afternoon. The pace was easy to moderate, but just being out there in those winds takes it out of you, so the effort was more difficult. I had to keep it moving fairly quickly just to stay warm with the wind chill, and the gusts were knocking me around a lot. A couple of gusts almost took me down. It really wasn't that bad once I was out there - kind of a challenge. I'm glad I wasn't a wimp today, as I must leave myself a little breathing room to be a wimp later in the week.
