Last night I hoped that my ride prep wasn\’t for naught.

I did the usual things: put Nuun in the fridge to chill; and got my recovery drink ready. I planned my ride food, too. But I can\’t do a thing about the weather; and the forecast looked chancy.

It predicted scattered T-storms all morning; and by 11 am, T-storms. I discovered that a flash flood watch was in effect from 1 am today; and there was a \”slight risk\” of severe weather. During these severe storms, wind gusts might reach 58 mph or even stronger!

Do I have the strength to stay in control of a bicycle if the wind gusts are 58 mph? Heavy rain in addition to strong wind makes it hard to see anything. If there\’s lightning, I get VERY uneasy. The ride food in my top tube pouch gets soaked. It isn\’t fun.

The Upshot

The upshot of it all: my ride prep wasn\’t for naught; in a sense.

I checked the forecast at 6:30 am, and it looked like the bad weather was still about two hours away. I decided to take a chance and go for a ride; but I kept it short. As I was getting ready, I heard a few drops of rain; and that made me uneasy. It was very cloudy, and for all I knew the floodgates might open at any moment!

Not a drop fell on me; but there was a stretch of a mile or two where it had already rained. I\’m glad it missed me! Luckily the wind wasn\’t too much of a problem; and riding \”short\” meant I could work harder and not have to worry that I\’d end up exhausted when I was still 15 miles from home.

It was about 8 am when I got back here. Soon afterwards, I checked NOAA. The temperature was down from 75 to 69; and the site reported a T-storm at the airport, which is West from here. I figured the storm was probably heading this way.

It feels weird to not be doing a 40-50 mile ride on a Sunday. It\’s rather frustrating, too: I want to get in my miles for Bike Month! On the other hand, I didn\’t want to get caught in a T-storm with nowhere to take shelter. All my hard work and mileage would be for naught if I got struck by lightning!