Rain

"Into each life some rain must fall." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Yesterday I woke up to the sounds of rain, heavy at times, overflowing the gutters. I was up a little early as there was a big workout on the calendar and I was meeting a whole bunch of folks at Hecksher Park. The Long Island TNT Tri team was meeting at 8AM and the Cycle team had the same bat place/same bat time thing going. Some of the EagleCronies were meeting there at 7 to get an early start too. My original plan called for an hour of hard work on the cycle followed by an hour of steady cycle work followed by a little over an hour of running. Since my calf was still bothering me I decided to alter the plan to get a couple of hours of saddle time in and try to transition to a jog for about 15 minutes as a test for the calf. Dawn reminded my that my bike was already in the trainer and the treadmill was ready but the weather report said that the skies were supposed to clear so I headed out. The same weather report said the next day, Sunday, was supposed to be the worst of the two days.

After a breakfast stop at the bagel store, I got to the park at about 7:05. Tim and Fran were doing the Norman Rockwell rain scene as modified for triathlon training and decided to do their weekly long run in the rain instead of cycling. I went out on the bike and the rain seemed to only get harder.

Workouts in the rain are not one of my favorite pastimes. I originally hurt my left leg last June while running in the rain. It poured during the the Mighty Hamptons triathlon last September. Of course none of this compares to the IMLP2008 stories but those stories aren't mine to tell. I think there were odds posted on the over/under on when I would bail(I overheard the number was 1 lap around the park, ~4 miles).

The Tri team sent out a mail to reset the schedule and meet at 10 rather than 8. The Cycle team showed up but formed a caravan to get pancakes instead of riding. There were a few lost souls riding and I was able to get in a little over 30 miles. The rain stopped so I decided to run a bit and failed the calf test - it was close, feeling the dreaded twinge at 14 minutes into a 15 minute run. Tim and Fran did their run and Fran commented this day could be good blog fodder (even though he said he doesn't read my ramblings but very few admit to reading them).

Fran, consider it done.

PS: Today was worse weather wise so I took Dawn's advice and did my workout on the trainer

PPS: A hidden cost of riding in the rain was having to spend a lot of time cleaning the mess off the bike. The Look now sparkles

PPPS: I still hate workouts in the rain.