Sunday, March 6, 2011

3 Rounds against Mother Nature.

First of all, thank you for all the good wishes for my birthday. I'm now at the age that I always thought as old. Please indulge me on the next few Quotes of the weeks. As you can imagine, there will be a theme and I haven't decided if "geezer" or "fossil" is most appropriate.

I had a lot of training on the schedule this weekend and I wanted to try to get it done outside. The weather report for this weekend wasn't the best (but it wasn't horrible) with Saturday being forecasted as better than Sunday. In fact, Sunday was potentially a wash out with the rain starting late Saturday. The roads here still aren't great with a lot of sand and stuff down from the snow. Not all the snow is melted but what is left is ugly crusty snow piles that will probably be here until the summer. Some of it is still melting but that makes for wet roads. Mother Nature was throwing her best at us. The Crew decided to ride early on Saturday and run on Sunday.

We decided to meet at 6:45am to get the 2.5 hour ride in before the rains came. I woke up and looked outside to see if the rain had started. All I saw was dark but it looked like dry dark. I found text messages from the overnight that most of my group was bailing. I decided to go anyway and was please with myself for winning the mental battle.

Six minutes into the ride it started drizzling. A few minutes later it was a soaking rain. This coupled with a 44 degree temperature made us miserable. I looked at DrFran with the rain dripping off my helmet, he back looked at me, and I offered to bail and for him to ride the IMLP Computrainer course at my house. He said, "sold!" Our outdoor ride was 2 hours and 10 minutes short of what we wanted. We got back to my house and I let him ride the CT for a while on the IMLP real course video (he is doing IMLP this year). Of course, the weather started to clear then. Round 1 to Mother Nature.

I couldn't ride outside right away since I had family errands to do (including a round trip to Connecticut). It didn't rain at all the rest of the day and the weather kept teasing me by being nicer and nicer. I got back on my bike at 3:30. It started getting very windy with the storm now approaching. I was able to knock off a little over 20 miles of hill work so I viewed that as a victory. Round 2 to the Rock Star.

The rubber match would be Sunday when I had a run scheduled. The forecast was updated in that, although it was supposed to rain heavy later, earlier there was a chance of clear. I had 75 minutes to get done. We decided to go early, meeting at 7AM. I woke up to 100% humidity but no rain. We did our run and only then it started to rain. The rest of the day was a washout. I took Round 3!

I'm sure Mother Nature will want a rematch. I don't know when the rematch will be but I'll be ready for it. Weekends like this are money in the bank that will be withdrawn when I need it come race day.

Rock on.

10 comments:

Caroline said...

I missed your birthday...sorry..
happy belated birthday...I see it was an important one!!

Mark said...

happy belated birthday hombre. i was under it for a good two weeks and have just come up for air to catch up on my blog reading.

how do you like your ct? does it make riding indoors at all bearable? i start hallucinating only minutes after spinning around on my trainer.

Michael said...

Riding in the rain is miserable, but glad you won rounds 2 and 3! Happy Belated Birthday!

Unknown said...

Way to duel it out with Mother Nature!

Heather said...

Happy Birthday.

I hope your weather clears...for at least a bit soon. You'll be rocking that biker's tan before you know it!

Ewa said...

I don't mind riding in the rain but that and cold and add wind to that and I am ready for a hot chocolate and a warm blankie.

Katie said...

Nice job :) I got out there on Saturday, but on Sunday I stayed in!

Annie said...

I think you taught Mother Nature the lesson she needed to learn. Don't mess with endurance athletes! Way to go!

Mike said...

Sorry I forgot your birthday...I forget everyone's...I suck.
M

Caratunk Girl said...

I can't believe you are riding outside. Way to go, I like the alternate plan.

I want a CT someday.

Happy Birthday BTW!