The weather was much colder today. In the low 50's, winds from the North West. I wore arms, knees, 1 base layer. I should half brought my cap. Today's ride was all about the wind. I'd say it was a consistent 20MPH wind with gusts above 30MPH. I wasn't exactly sure what today's ride was going to be like. But, given that the winds were from the North-West, I knew the return trip on Highline was going to be brutal, and it was. My legs felt sluggish out the door, but I think part of it was the wind. I cruised it to Route 202. The wind was holding me back, so no point in red lining it so soon. After reaching Route 202, I assessed the situation. There were, what appeared to be, rain clouds from the South West. It looked like it was going to hold up, so I decided to commence with the ride that I planned. I started the outbound leg moderate. It became apparent that the tail wind was not only strong but also perfectly to the East. It felt like I had a third leg. I stopped at the top of Highline to make some notations on my smartphone. After that, it was all business. I was doing 40+MPH for part of the beginning of the descent. It really felt exhilarating. I decided to put most of my cookies on the out-bound leg to see if I could best my PR of about 26MPH average. I haven't checked the metrics yet, but I'm optimistic. After reaching the turn around point, I was preparing for the worse. I started with easy/moderate tempo. I didn't go above good tempo, putting most of my eggs on the last kicker. I was cold at this point. I could have used a scull cap. I think I was going slower downhill than I was on the outbound in this part of the ride. I was trying to keep myself from getting too discouraged from the head-wind. I big sigh of relief when I reached the end of Highline. From that point, it was mostly fun and games. Concentration was spot on, few lapses. Ailments consisted of a sore right wrist (still plaguing me for over a week now) and mild lower back soreness, mitigated via stretching on the bike. Balance and form felt good. There were some sections that I wasn't hooking up, but it was good for the most part. Gear is working perfect. Other notes, I saw one other cyclist with panniers. I saw him as I was on the outbound and he was on the most difficult section. He was going fast, given that he must have been carrying an extra 10 lbs minimum.