All Kitted Up & Nowhere to Go
Rain, Rain, Go Away...Come Back ONLY on my Rest Days!
As of this writing, my last ride was nine days: the Saturday shop ride was cancelled because of rain. Fortunately, I anticipated this and rode Friday morning as Sunday would also be called on account of rain.
It’ll be another two days before I can throw a leg over a bike again, hopefully after work Wednesday.
While the rest of the country has been dealing with Winter Storms and record low temps, we in Florida have had some wind issues up in the panhandle and the rain has been relentless statewide. And, I’m standing here at my desk in shorts and tee shirt, whining about not being able to go outside to play bikes.
Wednesday came and went, without the ride for which I was hoping. Turns out, more rain was forecasted and I wasn’t aware.
Just as I am getting into a routine, I am disrupted. And that makes routine-setting challenging. Yes, I have a gym membership but it’s the BEGINNING of the year and I “just know” it’s going to be backed in there. Plus, I don’t really love going to the gym anyway.
Do you detect a pattern? I make excuses. A lot of them.
This past Sunday, a week to the day since my last ride, I knew it would be cold, windy and spurts of rain. But I was determined to get outside to ride. Until I wasn’t.
I turned off my alarm when I went to bed Saturday. The plan was to wake up when my body was ready; enjoy the morning with my significant other and drink my coffee black and bitter. I’d eat a bowl of carbs so that around 1030 a.m. or later, I’d be ready to ride a couple hours.
Kitting up for a cold start in Florida is an exercise in bringing only that 1) which you need to be comfortable to start the ride and 2) which you can carry in your pockets or bags once you invariably shed the layers and the temperature jumps 20 degrees in 90 minutes. 3) Alternatively, to minimize layers, we have to determine what level of discomfort we can bear until our body heat and the sun inevitably heat us.
Sunday wasn’t going to be one of those days.
Sunday, whatever I put on to start the ride, I’d likely would need/want for the whole ride. Maybe, I’d take a layer off while stopped get more water or enjoy the view of Gulf of Mexico from one of the keys but surely I’d be wanting all the layers for the whole ride because not only was it cold, it was overcast.
The first step was getting off the couch. We had left our H-VAC system off and thus our place was chilly and so being on the couch, under blankets was a very comfortable place to be. And for those keeping score: it was about 65-67 degrees inside and closer to 60 degrees outside. That’s Florida Freezing.
Next, I had to mentally calculate what I was going to ride (road, gravel, MTB, Fixie, etc) then for how far/long. The shorter the ride made it easier to pick warmer layers as I wouldn’t really be out long enough to overheat. A potentially long ride took more contemplating. I finally settled on a long-sleeved “gravel” jersey, long bibs to cover my knees, socks thicker than I’d typically wear for a ride and arm warmers under the jersey. I’d start with my hi-vis wind-breaking vest. That’s the one clothing article I might pocket if I got too warm.
After selecting my clothing, I checked the weather apps and looked outside. Drank coffee. I changed into my riding kid because though windy and cold, the rain seemed at bay for a few hours.
I walked back into the living room around 1130 a.m. It was raining.
Dammit!
I found my place on one of the couches and to my other quipped, “At least it’s not cold in here anymore.” Because I was wearing cold weather riding gear.
We watched something, probably and episode from Season 2 of Reacher. An hour and a half passed. It was still raining but lighter.
I dug out my lightweight rain jacket and put it on to make sure it still fit. It did, though a bit more snug than I recall.
I hemmed. I hawed. I hemmed a few more times.
I called it around 130 p.m. I just couldn’t bring myself to start a ride in the rain. It’s been a long-standing rule of mine to never start when it’s raining but to keep calm and pedal on if the rain started falling after I had been riding. Off came the gear and I put it all away. The two bottles I had prepared were put in the fridge. I was in my couch clothes again. We turned on a movie: The Sound of Freedom.
Though it was the right call for me in that moment, I was disappointed because I had already cancelled a weekend of riding back in Highlands County….my old stomping grounds. It was an event for which I had created three routes for my friend Steve Ayers who organized and created: The Orange Blossom Special, which you can read about Feb. 5.
The biggest challenge missing all of that riding was not spiraling out of control, with bored eating, emotional eating or just overeating eating. There were cravings and urges, but I managed to take them head on and deal with them in a way that maintained my smart eating choices through the weekend so that at least that aspect of my life would not be derailed.
I adjusted my training schedule so that this time off the bike was a rest week and a new rest week has been scheduled for three weeks out.
I have prided myself over the years of being flexible and accommodating when things don’t go the way expect but when it comes to cycling and eating, for whatever reason, I struggle when things don’t go as planned.
I am working on that and this past week was a success in my book.
As it would turn out, mostly because of the weather, my first ride after two weeks would come on Friday, Jan. 19, and even then it was just commuting miles to take my Ford Flex to the mechanic in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon for a total of 11 miles roundtrip. The success in this is that I rode in 55-degree temps and drizzle of rain during the morning drop-off. Yes, I could have called a friend for ride and my mechanic offered to give me a lift home but that’s not what I wanted or needed. I need to ride, in the rain and in the cold. Even if they were at the same time.
It was cathartic.
