My girls have a picnic every year on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and I try to make it when I can. That made an afternoon ride impossible so I shifted my ride to first thing this morning. It was pretty windy out but because I made friends with the wind a few weeks ago I wasn’t fretting it. Clouds were plentiful but the local radar showed all clear. I wore a loose shirt to make the ride a little more work and headed out. The first mile was with the wind followed by two with a cross tail wind and then I started into the wind. It was ugly but survivable because it was only a few miles. The next leg is where the ride got a little long, six miles into a cross head wind that got old after about three miles. I put my head down and just concentrated on spinning the pedals around as fast as I could. At mile 13 my ride got fun – 15 mph wind at my back. I shifted to the big ring and got to cookin’…for all of two miles before the clouds opened up – so much for the local radar. After about a mile in that mess I started chuckling to myself – the rain really wasn’t all that bad. Sure it was a bummer, riding through that much water would obviously require a bike wash this afternoon, but I was very comfortable as long as I wiped my glasses off every now and again so I could see. At mile 15 I came upon a choice – either keep going or turn right and cut 7 miles off of my ride and call 18 good for the day. You know which one I chose.
The rain continued for another 2 miles before it quit and it started clearing up rather quickly and the rest of my ride was quite enjoyable, even if I did have to ride through soaked shoes and socks. I met my goal for the day and kept my speed moderate at 18.5 mph so I’d be fresh for a long ride and run tomorrow.
So my “first” was not riding in the rain – it was enjoying riding in the rain. It was a fun ride for sure.
