Training Diary: Rain cancels (not!)

Today was the “Jingle Bells” ride sponsored by the Positive Pedalers, leaving from B.’s Bikes in Sausalito and doing a nice, short, 20-mile loop in Marin. At least, that was the theory.

I arrived early, having given myself 90 minutes to make what turned out to be an hour’s drive. I sat in my truck and knitted up a test swatch from that glorious silk yarn–it looks fantastic, and a Navajo-plied 3-ply seems to be the right size/color. (I’m thrilled by it.) It was FREEZING out, but I figured I’d warm up as we rode. I was dressed to the nines with an orange-and-blue AIDS Lifecycle jersey and bright orange tutu, and I was set to ride.

As I got out of the truck and went to join the others, the first drops of rain started falling. Fifteen minutes later, it was obvious we were going to have to cancel. It wasn’t raining hard, but it was raining steadily, and it’s extremely dangerous to be cold and wet on a bicycle–the wind-chill can lead to hypothermia fast. And, we had one steep (now wet) hill and a bunch of novice riders.

I think for me the deciding point was the cold. It was just too dangerous to ride.

So, after driving an hour to get to the training ride, I turned around and went home.

(My orange tutu, however, was much admired, so it wasn’t a total loss. I also dropped off some food for the food bank, hopefully making someone’s life a little merrier.)

That, however, does not end the story. It looks like it’ll rain all weekend, but I’m determined to train–I’ll be traveling the next two weekends, so I won’t be able to train then. So I went to the bike shop and bought a trainer–this little contraption you put on your bike that allows you to ride your bike indoors–and will be training on it tomorrow. (I still need to set up the blessed thing!) I expect I’ll be doing quite a bit of riding on the trainer–it’s a good thing I’ve got Netflix, I can set it up in the living room and ride while watching movies.

So nyahh to you, weather.

I also picked up a heart rate monitor, a cycling-oriented one that does a bunch of whizzy things, but mostly all I care about is that it will, well, monitor my heart rate. That’s what tells you how hard you’re working, and it’s important for some kinds of training. I had one, but it broke–now I have a brand-new one, and I can monitor my heart rate again!

So that’s the scoop for today’s training–tomorrow I cue up Lord of the Rings and start trying out my trainer! (It’s too bad it’s a road bike, otherwise I could knit while riding!)

Tien

Please sponsor me at https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=1918!