We Aren't Going To Get Wet Are We???

Okay, so last year I had an 'incident' per se. It was an overcast day with a bit of a sprinkle happening. I put on many many layers of clothing, figuring if I had fleece on and I got wet I'd still be ok. My theory failed, really really badly.

I was going up Horse Creek Road and by the time I thought, hmm, it's raining out quite a bit now and I'm cooling down, it was too late. The rain came down harder and the wind picked up. Halfway back to my house I lost feeling in my hands, and face and all other bits. I decided to call and ask for an emergency pick up. The problem was, my hands were so frozen I couldn't unzip the ziploc bag my cell was in. And when I finally got that open, with my teeth, I couldn't take my helmut off so I could put the phone up to my ear.

Panic started to set in, but I managed to stay calm and use my speaker phone etc to get help. I got a ride from my buddy David and once home I spent the next few hours trying to thaw out. My lips finally went from blue, to purple to pink. Phew. Ever since then I've been scared to ride in the rain for fear of a repeat experience. I just don't have the right gear.

Yesterday I had a ride planned with my buddy Lance. Just to shift topics a bit here, his name isn't really Lance. It's Andrew. But in University there were 6 Andrews so we nicknamed this one Lance Romance on account of the fact that he was romancing this gal to no end. It was so sweet - totally worked too (for any dudes out there wanting to meet a gal). Anyways, that's why we call him Lance. Although now that he's doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer and he's taken up the sport of cycling and triathlon, I have a feeling it won't be long before he earns the nickname Lance after a certain famous cyclist we all know...

Phew, that was a long explanation. Anyways, Lance and I were going to go out riding, but all day I was looking out the window and seeing rain. A lot of rain. Did I mention Vancouver is a rainforest?? This is why it's so green and pretty! By the time Lance got here, just before 4 pm, the sky started to clear. Ah yes, Mother Nature truly does love me!

Of course, I've lived here long enough to know that things can change really quickly, no matter how much I am loved by Mother Earth herself, and the rain can be back. So I made sure I had my new clear rain cycling rain slicker stuck in my back pocket, not to mention various layers of clothing. Also, we decided to do the route I did on Sunday, but stop at the major intersection and go back along the out and back. Essentially we went out, then back, then out again, then back again, in an attempt to get in 3 hours and some decent kilometers. Worst case scenario, we get caught in a monsoon, we could take one of the crossroads back to my parental units abode in no time.

After all that I was finally ready to brave the outdoors and my fear of hypothermia II. We left at 4pm on the nose. Mom made sure she had a photo of us before we headed out!

You may note in the photo that I have enough nutrition to feed a small pelaton, whereas Lance has one bottle. Yup, I've bonked more than enough times too to make sure I have enough! Lance is 8 years younger than me; therefore a pup, so I figured he'd do just fine. (And yes, I'm allowed to call him a pup cause he teases me non stop about being 'old'.)

At last we headed out into the great blue-grey yonder. It turned out to be a really great evening for a ride. There were some clouds, but we managed to stay away from them for the first part of the trip. My legs felt pretty good considering I'd done a ride the day before and, for me, rode quite hard.

On the way back from the first out/back we did get a sprinkled on a bit, but nothing major. I somehow lucked out and wore just the right amount of clothes.

The second time for the out/back was a bit different as far as how my legs felt. The littlest incline made them burn. I still wanted to make sure I rode as hard as I could though for a couple reasons a) I am trying to push my riding this year and b) there was no way in heck I was going to let young Lance drop me. Not that he would because he's nice, but hey, I wanted to make sure I was nearby. Yes, I have an ego.

As we rode I found it amusing that the roads were soaking wet. This was amusing because we really didn't see any rain. Just a very brief sprinkle. So somehow as we rode we bypassed all the rain when it actually did come down. A very cool thing. As we made our way back to the parental units we noticed how very dark and scary the sky had become ahead of us. We were pedaling towards it actually. I hoped that it would stay ahead of us and it did!

Just for the record, I sooo love Mother Nature! I look after her and she looks after me. Can't ask for more!

Today I was supposed to do an hour aerobic run. I headed out in the afternoon with the best of intentions. My hip and butt said otherwise. I felt like I was about 100 years old and a robot. This is when Styx's song 'Mr. Roboto' popped into my head, much to my chagrin. "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto, Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto". There it's in your head now too. Gotta share the pain!!

So my hour run turned into a 20 minute run. Honestly, it was disappointing. I was so slow that if you poured some molasses down beside me, it would run faster than I was! Just when you think you are in decent shape, blammo, you can't do an hour run at an easy pace. This is triathlon though. Some weeks you are a rockstar, some weeks you are not. If I were to let this get me down though I'd be a wuss of the umpth degree, and I'd prefer not to be that so instead I will chalk it up to experience and move forward with a smile! Afterall, I did cover 130 km on the bike in two days.

Thanks to Lance for coming out with me on the ride, it was awesome getting to hang with you again! You are going to do amazing on the Ride To Conquer Cancer and I'm super proud of you for taking on such a challenge. You rock dude!

Peace out my friends!