Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Maybe not possible for the whole route. But, especially on a bike... you can spend 20 minutes going uphill and 2 minutes back down (or so). So if your hill is in the middle, it sure seems like one is going uphill both ways.
Yep, I've gone to school on a hill. Out the door of my house, and headed up the hill. Then coming home, it was out the door of the school and uphill again. I never had to worry about getting cold in the mornings as the hill was good at warming me up. Yep, there was the zipping around the loop at the top of the hill, and that brief downhill, but those uphill rides were the memorable parts.
As far as the winds, it is not uncommon for the morning and afternoon winds to be in the opposite direction. The trick is to choose a location for one's home to take advantage of the natural wind patterns.
Around here it differs with the seasons. I work south and slightly west of my home. Morning winds are generally very light, except on a few occasions. Afternoon winds are generally from the south and west when it's warmer, and from the north and west when it's colder. So for the sections where I go east going home, I usually have at least a small tail wind, or cross wind. Summer humidity is always high, which usually means a tail wind for me when going home (my home's elevation is also lower than at the office). So whenever there's a slightly drier day in summer, that usually means headwind going home. A warmer day in winter will mean a tailwind going home.
Another common occurrence is to have a cold front come through during the day, where the temperature drops all day long (high temperature for the day happens at midnight). So in the morning I'll have a headwind from the south, and in the afternoon a colder headwind from the north. Those are the absolute worst days for me. One day it was in the 60's and raining in the morning. That afternoon it was dry, but in the 40's about to hit the 30's. Miserable. *edit* I just looked it up on Strava, it was one year ago this week actually. Morning commute I had a west wind changing to north, with rain, 60 degrees. Afternoon commute was a NE wind (the worst, headwind every way I turned), and 36!
