We always hope that our ride will be on a 75 degree, sunny and calm day. Unfortunately, we rarely ride in these conditions. And while this year will be my first Mt Washington race, my understanding is that race conditions are rarely, if ever, even close to ideal.
My taper plan is to do a quality ride every third day leading up to the race. Today is Race Day minus 7, it was to be a pretty easy ride. The plan was to ride for about 2 hours with no real targets, other than to ride easy and enjoy the day.
Mother Nature didn’t exactly cooperate with me, however.
It had rained overnight so the roads were wet when I got out, but the temp was warm and the wind light. It was cloudy, but the forecast was for “0%” chance of rain until well after I finished. Well, the 0% chance of rain turned into a 100% chance of rain.
About half way through the ride I could see a massive wall of black clouds to the west – northwest. I thought I had a good chance of beating the rain home so I didn’t push it, and tried to stay within my “easy ride” plan.
The clouds moved faster than expected, and within about a half hour, I knew I was going to get it. So my easy ride turned into more of a time trial as I raced to beat the rain. But within minutes I could see that regardless of what I did, I was going to get rained on. And judging by the look of the clouds, it was going to be a heavy rain. I just hoped there would be no lightning or hail.
Sure enough, I got about 15 minutes from home and the wind switched (to another headwind, of course), them temp dropped and it got darker. Then the drizzle started then the rain, then the downpour.
At least it was a warm rain, though. And once you’re saturated, you can’t get any more wet, right? So I imagined I was a kid again, playing in the rain. In addition, I figured there was a good chance I’ll have some rain at Mt Washington next week, so as long as I was wet, I rode another half hour or so.
So while I didn’t exactly stick to my plan, the warm rain felt good, so it was actually sort of fun.
Tomorrow’s ride will include a bit of quality work. I’ll give you the details then. In the meantime, GET OUT AND RIDE!
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Hi coach, I wonder if Sat AM was the day you are describing. The Turtleman triathlon was also on the schedule for this AM. It was a mess. We all stood around waiting to see if the huge black sky would clear. I was one of about 8 people who ventured into the water to warm up. It was hardly a swim – more like a weed crawl through muck. Well the storm did not clear and the swim was cancelled (that is 8 months of training unfulfilled for me). The duathlon ride started and the deluge came and the rain and wind never let up throughout the ride. No fun. Then the run and it rained harder. It was running from puddle to puddle and then half the participants had their run cancelled due to worsening weather. So much for the Turtleman. We survived and thank the gods for warm air temp at least (not like the April Ironman as you recall). Say did you do the century that day? Just thought I would share. Rick Goullaud
Hi Rick,
Thanks for your note. Yes, my post was about today (Sat, July 8). Sorry about the tough day. I bet there were lots of unhappy people – and race organizers. But yes, at least it was warm, unlike the MN Ironman. Yes, I did ride the century that day. Not very pleasant, was it? Thanks again, Rick. Good to hear from you.
Bob