Dropped and light? That sounds rather contradictory. But I did it during this morning\’s ride.

To start at the beginning, I got rolling about half an hour later than I had wanted to. The forecast last night predicted possible T-storms starting at 6 am; and of course I don\’t want to be out there on top of the levee in a T-storm! I thought of starting my ride at 5 am, so that I could beat the bad weather home.

Wouldn\’t you know, I didn\’t get out until 5:30. I thought of riding 7 miles, then turning back. About 5 miles out, I saw a blink like a flash bulb going off; and thought, \”Uh-oh. Was that lightning?\” Sure enough, it was. I saw a second flash about a mile later; and decided to turn around early.

The lightning came from a westerly direction; and as weather typically moves West to East, I was uneasily aware that I was going to have a T-storm chasing me home. It spurred me to work harder and ride a bit faster than usual. And, as usual, I had a headwind on the way home; and here is where \”dropped and light \” comes in.

Riding on the drops lets me pedal harder and also reduces wind resistance a little, so that I can ride a little bit faster. So there\’s the \”dropped\”. Here and there, while riding on those drops, I caught myself adding in a bit of my unclimbing technique.

So there you have it: dropped and light!

Getting Home

Getting home was a bit nerve-wracking. The lightning became more frequent; and I was still nearly three miles from home when I first heard thunder. They say that, if you can hear thunder, you\’re close enough to the storm to get struck by lightning. That\’s not a comforting thought. When I\’m out riding and the lightning fires up, I get the uneasy feeling that I\’m a rolling lighting rod!

On top of that, when I\’m riding a bicycle, lightning is probably pretty close before I can hear the thunder! That\’s because of wind noise: the noise of a headwind can block out a lot of other sound; and there\’s always the wind noise generated by my own forward motion.

It began to sprinkle a bit when I still had 1.5 miles or so to go. I didn\’t have a poncho with me; and I could only hope that I would reach home before it began to pour. It\’s too cool for me to need rain to ease the heat; and rain can wreak havoc on visibility. I don\’t have windshield wipers on a bicycle!

I arrived home about 6:30; and soon afterwards the drizzle became heavier. Just before 7 am, a weather statement was posted about strong T-storms, with wind gusts as strong as 45 mph! It made me glad that I got home when I did. Dropped and light might not help much in such conditions.