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March 22, 2007
So You Wanna be a Triathlete 'Eh?
What. The. Heck? I think today I experienced the most miserable ride I've ever experienced. Seriously people - it really stunk!
First let me explain. It was 60 degrees today! I ran this morning (50 minutes) in shorts and a long sleeve and I was hot. It was wonderful. But by the time I got home from work the rain was rolling in.
I debated my whole drive home whether I should ride outside or not. I had a 2 hour ride on tap and I knew it would rain during that span and I knew it was going to be really windy but it was 60 degrees and sooner or later I'm going to have to ride outside regardless of the conditions. What if it rained and was really windy during one of my races? So by the time I reached home I had myself convinced that I was riding outside.
Then I got changed and was getting my bike ready when it started to pour - I mean really come down and I thought "no way - that's just crazy." So out came the trainer. Booo.
10 minutes into my trainer ride and it's looking nice outside. The rain had stopped and I knew it was warm and well...I just couldn't stand being on the trainer any more. I rode until 30 minutes inside and it still hadn't started raining again so off with the t-shirt, on with a long sleeve, on with my helmet and outside I went for the remaining 1:30 of my ride!
Happy day! It was very warm and it felt really nice to be outside riding and even though the wind was brutal I was loving life. And then the rain started again. Easy at first but then about 40 minutes into the ride, really, really hard. And this is about the time when things really started to suck. Suck really bad.
The wind is crazy in my face making it really impossible to move forward let alone with any speed let alone in the correct HR range. And it's really raining hard, pelting me in the face. And big trucks and cars keep blowing past. And now I'm soaked and getting cold. And now it's a crosswind and I'm doing everything I can to lean into it so I don't get blown over. More than once I yelled out to nobody in particular "you have got to be &*(&Y86786%^&% kidding me!"
When I finally turned around to go back towards home things got marginally better because I now had a tailwind and instead of struggling along at 16 MPH I was pedaling smooth and easy and going 26 MPH. Gotta love that wind. But in all honesty I was still pretty miserable. Cold, wet, majorly gritty from the road grit/salt/wet. And I was about 13 miles from home. Bugger.
Anyway, I did make it home and I survived just fine and although I was a majorly unhappy camper during the ride I'm glad I did it now (after a hot shower, a hot dinner and my bike already being cleaned - the worst part of riding outside!). Because the fact of the matter is I will eventually have to race in all those conditions. And if I always choose to ride inside when it's anything less than perfect than I'm not doing myself a favor. I'm used to running outside in nastiness but riding is a whole different story. Wind, rain and cold are much worse when you're cycling. Whose idea was it to do this triathlon thing anyway? :)
Posted by beth at March 22, 2007 9:14 PM
Comments
Beth,
After all this time running, me thinks you're pretty acclimated to tolerating the whole gamut of outdoor weather conditions. I do believe the same will happen with cycling given enough time in some crazy conditions. Besides, you're a super-tough girl. You handled this today, and it sounds like it was really bad!
Posted by: Meghan at March 23, 2007 2:04 AM
hang in there.. there will be worse... but there will be a LOT better soon
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at March 23, 2007 10:31 AM