Just Beat The Rain!

Now that I've got momentum going, I hate to miss a riding opportunity on a potential ride day. At this point in the season, all days are potential ride days except Tuesdays and Thursdays when my children and wife have back to back to back karate and/or kickboxing lessons (once school is over next week I hope to sneak in a Tues/Thur ride here and there). Yesterday was no exception, especially when Wendy reported patches of blue sky and "no threat of rain whatsoever". But she was driving down the highway and I was staring at a radar screen at work. No rain now I told her, but there's a solid line of yellows and reds headed our way...at which point she reminded me how often our hopes are dashed for a good old-fashioned thunderstorm as they fall apart and die crossing Rhode Island. Good point I told her...I'll be on the 5 and plan to squeeze in a short ride.

Of course, by the time I get home the threat of rain is imminent. Not liking to have my hopes dashed yet again, I decide to stay local so I can cut the ride short if need be. There's a 5 mile loop from my house...I call it the basic loop...which I can ride one or more times with add-on loops to get anywhere from 10 to 20 total miles. Figured I'd do 14 miles. That was one cold ride for June...even with a LS jersey and vest on. At mile 12 I decided to stay out longer and predictably at mile 13 rode into a few sprinkles. But basically the rain held off until 10 minutes after I got home at which time a good steady rain developed. Wendy told me that the whole time I was riding the main area of rain was getting closer but that the light green leading edge on the radar didn't move beyond the MA/RI line just to our west. Now that's called just beating the rain!

Ended up cranking out a total of 18.3 cold miles at an average pace of 17.5 mph. Funny how the threat of cold rain makes you go faster.