Bloody Weather

Brick Day- Cycle/Run

Ride pt.1
time- 18:10
distance- 3.o9mi

MAP 1

Ride pt.2
time- 50min *approx
distance- 11.23mi

Run
time- 10min
distance- 1.1mi

MAP 2

Those of you who are paying attention may have noticed something odd there. I have posted a ride pt.1 and pt.2 and two maps to go along with them. "WTF, señor Dirtbag?" you may be asking yourself (if you were so inclined to throw random spanglish into your everyday speech). The answer, my friends, is very simple: It rained hard today.
I had such a good plan. Really, it was a KISS plan, couldn't have been easier. Today the wife worked at my school. So we threw the bike and my gear into the back of the truck with the plan being I would ride home and she could drive home. I figured the ride from school to my house would be just under an hour, and since my ride time today was supposed to be one hour I would find a way to fill the extra time. Once home I would quick fast change shoes and go for my ten minute run. Mr Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) also liked my plan. Because he got to mess with it.
All day long I would glance out the door of my classroom and see dark, foreboding clouds gathering on the horizon to the north. You know, the direction I'd soon be riding in. Damn. So wife and I came up with a plan. She'd drive on ahead and I'd ride, but if she got to a spot where the rain was really bad then she would flip around and come get me. Good plan. And a good thing too, because that's just what had to happen. The first map is from my school until where she picked me up. The next couple of miles were sheets of rain. I'm glad she did what she did. It would have been the suck. Once it cleared up she pulled over, let me out, and I was on my way once more, which is where map 2 finds me.
Only it didn't stay clear. It looked clear. But it was not. Because I had to make up missed time and distance I rolled onto the base where my hill is and rode through there. I didn't assault the hill, not enough time, but did ride through pretty good. And got poured on. Heavy. Drenched. The street was staying-in-the-middle-of-the-lane-because-the-side-of-the-road-is-deep-and-it-might-turn-into-a-swim-workout filled with water (by the way, I just won the Longest Hyphenated Term in a Blog award for September 2010). Had to pull my glasses down to my nose because they were so wet they were doing more to block my view rather than keep rain out of my eyes. Kind of the suck.(Also, you'll notice the * with the second ride time. I'm going soley by the JogTracker numbers, which are normally accurate anyway, because genius-boy forgot to start his watch after stopping for the red light to get on base. Durf. This why I have two forms of time tracking.)
But I can't complain too much. It didn't get really cold. The people on base drive significantly safer than the rest of the island. And I was working out. The only frustrating part is that I never felt like I got into a good rhythm. I never really got working today. It was more like just going from point A to point B rather than training for a race. And that's kind of my problem on the bike right now. Because I'm still so new to it a lot of workouts are spent making the muscles learn to ride rather than getting a really good cardiovascular workout. I rarely feel out of breath when I'm done, just tired. Meh, it'll get better. I'll figure out how to race it eventually. Having somewhere flatter to ride will help. We kind of live on the highest point of the island right now so going any direction very far entails a drop then a climb.
Got home, hopped off the bike, took off my dripping wet riding shoes and my helmet, threw on my Vibrams, and headed back out for a ten minute run. I'm still taking it easy, keeping a close watch on the foot. But, aside from very little soreness, it was fine. This makes Dirtbag happy. Tomorrow will be a bigger test since I'll be running farther. But I will be watching my stride, not overrunning, and doing what I know how to do. Covered a mile in ten minutes, which is my default cruising speed anyway. Feels so weird to go from 90rpm to a jog.
Long stretch, good shower to get the road grime and rain dirt off me, lots of water and a banana, and now for some sushi.