Rain drops keep falling on my head

Training by yourself is completely different than getting to go on a ride with a group of guys that feels like your big brothers- because that is what Chris, Willis, and Vince have acted like over the summer. I got to suck wheel whenever I wanted, they always were pushing me harder and making me ride longer, and they would step up to a car or a dog so I could always be a little safer. However, no boys today, they were all off doing their own thing and I was left alone to train, and in the rain no less.  

You see yesterday I was left on my lonesome too, and I never made it on my bike. So no excuses, I had to get peddling today, rain or shine. And of course the weather was rain. Couldn't tell you the temp, or the wind speed, or wind direction. But I can tell you that the rain would go from a gentle drizzle to a downpour of small raindrops and here I was on my bike. Surprisingly I was having a really good time. 

As long as I can remember I have always enjoy playing in the rain- from soccer, to track, to flag football on the front green, I swear to you that my mom has a picture of me drinking from a puddle when I was just a toddler. Since I have always really enjoyed spending time in the rain I was in a good mood about the rain and the ride and positive about the way the ride would go. Sadly, things did not go in my favor today.

 My destination was to get to New Carsile and back using the roads that I travel for school and if I didn't have the mileage I wanted I would just take a long block around on the way home.  It all started out great; 41 was a breeze, then childrens home I was really flying down. I even thought to myself "do wet road make you ride faster?" I was hitting 20-25 mph on my own, with a crosswind, and hardly even raising my heart rate. I turned onto Walnut grove and I decided to try and shift my Rings again. Because like the full service fiance I have, he took the time to fix my bike up so I could hopefully be able to get in and out of the Big ring. So here I am cruising up Walnut grove, shifting back up from the middle ring and wham.... Chain flysoff... No sweat, I jump off my bike, get it back on the ring and I am on the road again.... to Climb Walnut.. I did switch my rings with success very shortly after :). 

 I am in love with Walnut right now, you can not keep me off of it! It is this slow climb that peaks at the school. You can see the top from a little ways back and by the time you reach it your legs are burning. It just happens to be on my route to school and this is another reason I decided to ride the route I was taking. I make it up the hill, never dropping below 15 mph, and trying to teach myself to lower my heart rate as I climb up a hill. I do a pretty good job but I max it out anyways on the way up so I stand up and really finish the hill out strong. 5 miles in and feeling great and all warmed up. 

It continues to rain, and have I mention yet that this is the first time I have ridden my bike in the rain, a little scary but make my way all the way to New Carisle it‘s a little over 10 miles there. I really wanted to take a different way home, but I only really know the route that I take for school. So like a boring person I turn around and head back the way I came. The advantage to this is I know for at least a few miles it will be mostly up hill. More training for the mountain. It seemed as if when the road started to increase it incline into a hill the rain started to fall harder, and for the next few miles up the road it continued in this fashion. I am wiping my glasses constantly at this point, just to be able to see out of them, and trying to keep from getting hit by cars- there seemed to be A LOT of traffic tonight. Food for thought "If you are in a nice warm dry car, and I am out in the rain peddling my a$$ off, why is it that you feel the need to sideswipe me and cause the puddle on the road to splash me, and scare me to death" No sweat. I am already wet, and it seems like every time that a car feels the need to rush by, I just have more energy to put in my peddles. Like I am proving that I don't need your car not even in the rain!

  I make my way back to Walnut and I am debating in my head if 20-22 miles (which would have been the number of miles if I had gone straight home) was enough or if I wanted to squeeze a few more in. It was raining pretty hard, but it was just putting me in a better mood. I wasn't frying in the sun that was for sure. THEN ALL OFF THE SUDDEN I can barely control me front wheel- Holy crap what is wrong? - I pull over on the side of the road to check out what went wrong, wouldn't you know it I had a flat tire. No big deal I have a repair kit in my little bag thing under the seat. That is everything but those dandy tools you use to get the tire off the rim. So I put in a call to my full service Vinny Bear. He'll be right there he says. And he was. But that didn't make waiting in the rain for 10 minutes and more fun. The whole time I was trying to get the tire off the rim so it will take less time when Vince get there and I could get back on my bike and finish out my ride . 

I didn't get the tire off, but Vince does. We realize at this point there is a bad puncture in the tire. I guess my ride in the rain was supposed to stop at 16 miles. That's okay, I still had fun today, and I realized even if it is raining while we are in NY that it won't be that bad because rain okay too, just another training out. 8 more days :) Until Next time