Normally I don’t detail specific training workouts but today’s ride needs to be written about. Today was my last hard and long ride before Coeur d’Alene. I won’t go into the specifics of the workout but let’s just say it was a hard ride to simulate my race strategy a tough day with good weather and when everything goes right let alone today which I’ve affectionately named “The Miserable and Scary”.
The forecast was for scattered showers and sunbreaks with highs near 60 degrees. Now I’m not sure where the scattered lack of showers were but they weren’t where I was riding. The rain ranged from a drenching misty rain to full on monsoon deluge for 4.5 hours of the nearly 6 hours I was on the bike today. The temperature never cracked 50 degrees during the ride and I won’t even get started on the wind.
I decided to ride my road bike instead of my TT bike with the forecast since I wasn’t interested in the front tire sprayer all day. It only took about 90 minutes to be completely drenched to the bone. Just keep on pedaling and think about the warmth of Kona….oh how I wish I was still there. Surprisingly there were lots of other riders out today in the misery which was great to see I guess with Seattle To Portland coming up in little more than a month folks were feeling like they have no choice.
About 63 miles into the ride I got my first flat tire of the day and found a safe place to change the tire, which was fun in the full on deluge of rain. Finally about 10 minutes I was back up and rolling. Up past Snoqualmie Falls then out to North Bend and back towards home.
Now for part one of the scary. I was just starting down the fast, winding descent from the falls and I noticed a paper grocery bag moving across the road and thought that’s odd, it’s raining and there isn’t much wind here…… OH CRAP…..not a bag, it’s a big rock!!!! The rock had come to rest in the middle of the lane (it was big enough that cars weren’t going to clear this one it was probably 20 inches high). I dodged the rock to the right and looked up to see the hillside where the rock came from and there is mud, rocks and trees cascading down the hillside. I’m out of the saddle and cranking as hard as possible the slide crashes onto the road about 10 feet behind me and all I hear is the screeching of tires of cars from both directions. A few seconds faster or slower and I would have been toast. Now the heart is racing, the good news was I had the whole road to myself on the rest of the descent.
A few more miles and I hear the thump, thump, thump of another flat tire. In both cases I had rolled over some broken glass from broken bottles. I’ve written about this before so I won’t get on my soapbox. With all of the flower buds, road grim and water on the road it was tough to discern glass from the less harmless stuff. Needless to say more misery changing the second flat in yes, the rain. Having already had some practice on this ride I as back on the road in a few minutes but hoping that was it for the day as I had no more spares or CO2 with me.
Now for part two of the scary. A few more miles up the road I’m headed down a slightly downhill section going about 30 miles an hour head down with all of the sudden out of the tall grass from the side of the road a deer hops right into my path, I hit the brakes has rip the bike to the left and miss the deer by inches. Not sure who more freaked out me or the deer. Once again heart rate racing.
I was in the final homestretch to home about 40 minutes away and I starting to feel the tell tale signs of getting hypothermic. I just kept the body working hard trying to keep my body temp as high as possible. Finally I arrived at home just in time for the rain cease, I was supposed to do a transition run but given my condition I decided it was time to get warmed up. Hey I got good transition practice last weekend in Kona right.
So goes “the miserable and scary”. Forecast for the next 10 days is for more miserable weather in Seattle. I can only hope that it’s warmer in Coeur d’Alene in two weeks at least out of the water.
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