Hitting and Missing the Scattered Rain

I was looking forward to a nice Northshore ride in the country, but the Sunday morning forecasts were distinctly inconsistent and noncommittal. Even so, if I had to choose between riding in the rain in the country and riding in the rain down Highway 90, I'd go with the country every time. Thus, 6:45 am found me at Puccino's, dumping four sugars into my cup of dark roast. A minute later, Woody walked in, so once we confirmed that Diego wasn't going to make it, I threw stuff into his truck and we headed for the Lee Road school. Since it was a holiday weekend, I figured the turnout would be sketchy so I wasn't surprised when we rolled out with only a half-dozen. On the plus side, though, we got going pretty much on time and the smaller group meant fewer complications and unscheduled stops. We lost Jason to domestic obligations somewhere around Enon, leaving just Pat, Steve, Jay, Woody and me. This was going to me a nice training ride.

Despite forecasts to the contrary, there were only some scattered clouds to break up the clear blue sky above us and the temperature, at least for the first hour or so, was relatively cool. For early September, "relatively" means upper 70 to lower 80s around here. Around halfway around the 65 mile route we turn onto Hwy. 437, and as always the pace picks up here. It's funny how training rides always seem to evolve so that there are specific sections where you know it will be fast and other sections where you know it will be easy. Well, after pushing the pace up a couple of climbs three of us split off the front and just kept the hammer down for the next few miles. This stretch of road has a number of the longer, harder hills on it, and so if you're feeling good, this section is really fun. If you're not, well, not so much..... Fortunately I was feeling good.

After a quick stop at the Enon store on the way back we headed up the Watchtower hill with Woody and Jay riding a smooth tempo at the front that kept the group from coming apart. A couple of minutes later I looked down at Woody's rear tire and asked, "did you check your tire pressure before we started?" It was soon apparent that he had a slow leak. We pulled over to a shady spot to change it as Jay continued on since he was running late. Woody checked the tire and decided to go ahead and see if it would make it all the way back. We were probably only seven or eight miles from the cars, but a couple of miles later we were forced to stop and fix it anyway. On the last run-in to the finish we kicked it up a notch just for fun. I really enjoyed this ride - a good workout, not too many stops, and back home before 1 pm. We had somehow missed all of the rain, although it did arrive later in the afternoon.

The email lists were pretty quiet on Sunday and it wasn't clear that anyone had a plan for a Labor Day group ride. Late in the day, Dave sent an email mentioning that there had been some talk that day about meeting for a 7 am levee ride, so I figured I'd go for that. If nobody showed, I could still do a nice steady ride solo. Well, as it turned out there was a pretty big group up there when I arrived. After Sunday's ride I was in the mood for a smooth, steady ride that wouldn't be too demanding on my legs, so I soon found myself sitting near the back of the paceline with cruise-control firmly engaged. It was really just what I wanted. The only problem was the threatening sky. As we headed northwest on the levee a nice bright rainbow formed ahead of us and stayed there for most of the way out to the turnaround. David L'Hoste took that great photo with his iPhone. By the time we were heading back, though, things were looking a bit worse. We rode through a little rain shower, then we were back on dry roads, and then we came to a section of road, a few miles long, where it had just rained. This was pretty messy with wheel spray and all, so I just dropped back behind the rooster tail zone for a while. By the time I got back home I was back on dry roads again. Scattered rain showers, indeed.