Not Quite Dry

It was darker than usual at 5:50 a.m., and the barely perceptible flashes of light filtering through the blinds sent me straight to The Weather Channel. There I found lots of green and a bit of yellow on the map, but decided to take a shot at a training ride anyway. As I climbed the levee I could see that the meeting spot at the water intake pumps was deserted, but by the time I got there Rob K had arrived. We scanned the skies briefly and Rob said he was just not in the mood to get wet, so he headed home. We picked up a few riders and by the time we were past the playground I guess there was a dozen. My legs were still feeling a little bit stiff so I was reluctant to push the pace, especially when it ramped up to 27 or 28 mph, but eventually a few more people turned back and a smaller group of us continued on to the end of the bike path. The skies ahead of us continued to improve and it wasn't until we were about half-way back that it became obvious we were not quite going to be able to stay dry today. The group came back fairly slowly and we started picking up a light drizzle around Williams Blvd. which very gradually turned into a steady light rain. The Wife called to tell me it was pouring down rain at the house, but by the time I arrived it had slacked off to a light drizzle again, so although I was wet, I wasn't quite fully soaked. I was glad that I had made the decision to ride, and equally glad to find a pot of hot coffee waiting at the house!

I waited for it to stop, but it never did, so I headed in to work with hat, helmet, and rain jacket, plus a full change of clothes in my bag. The bike room at work was quite empty of course, populated only by the bikes that were stranded there yesterday and the handful of dusty ones that are obviously abandoned. Although I had a change of clothes, including socks and shoes, my feet still feel cold!

As usual, I've gotten a few e-mails about errors in the results from last Saturday's race, particularly the Cat. 5 race where there were a couple of big crashes on the last lap. Hopefully the CR will eventually get me some better results for that one before I submit to the USCF Results and Rankings database.

I stayed up a little late last night and caught Lance Armstrong on the Letterman show. It's nice to see that he has finally learned to give a decent interview. When this all started, I used to dread seeing him on these talk shows or in interviews because he always seemed to be completely disinterested and confused.