I Made a Bank Withdrawl and Even Borrowed a Little

This Ride: 19.5 miles
Month: 198.2 miles
2011: 4,472.6 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 10,592.3 miles

It was after getting dressed and putting the bike outside before I discovered it was raining.  It was a light rain, but it was raining.  I went back into the garage, pulled out my fenders, installed only the rear one, and pushed off in the rain.  That didn’t help my attitude much this morning.  I had been arguing with myself since waking up about whether or not to take a break today.  There was every excuse in the book.  My legs hurt.  I didn’t sleep well.  I’m fatigued.  I have a busy day lined up.  My shoes were not completely dry.  You get the picture, and now it was raining.  Visibility was awful even without the raindrops on the goggles.  I started out grumpy and figured I would be the only one out.  I wondered if I would even ride if that were true.  It wasn’t feeling like it.

I went past the Rusty Bridge to my usual turn around point, and on the way back to the bridge saw headlights.  Dave was out.  That meant I would hear, “How are you going to learn how to ride in the rain if you don’t ride in the rain?” Soon, another rider showed up, and we were three.  We pushed off, not seeing any other lights.  I discovered that like me, the other rider was too far committed to ride to bail when he discovered it was raining.  We did the usual route, being careful on the paint and in the turns, but still having a fairly brisk pace.  We averaged 17 mph in the rain, after all.  To tell the truth, the rain let up about the time we pushed off  from the Rusty Bridge.  Most of the ride was ridden in a light mist to heavy humidity.  The road surface was wet.  Brakes didn’t work well.

By the time the decision needed to be made about whether or not I would continue to add miles, I was done.  My attitude had not improved much and I even took the shortcut home.  I withdrew all the miles I had banked earlier in the week and still was about 2 miles short of where I wanted to be by the end of today’s ride.  I think I can make that up tomorrow.

Now to re-dry my shoes, re-lube the chain, and to eventually stop whining.