Monday, November 17, 2008

Cycle Commute (In the Rain)

It turns out I'm not in fact related to the Wicked Witch of the West - I don't melt in the rain!

I had planned to run at lunchtime but I need to drop Jez off at work tomorrow so I am riding today. I got all my kit ready even though the forecast was for rain, I haven't done that for a long time (I have become a fair weather commuter). I did have a kit dither: do I wear fleecy lycra that will get wet but stay warm or thinner lycra and the waterproof trousers. I chose the lycra which was probably a good thing, my waterproof trousers are really for short rides only. I also couldn't easily fit all my kit, lunch and laptop into one pannier today so I rode in with both so the bike was a little better balanced.

It was raining when I set off but not chucking it down so it actually wasn't too bad and it stopped eventually. The mudguards did their job pretty well but feet got a bit wet eventually (but not totally drenched). I dawdled a little to start with and also adjusted my saddle up even further.

I was overtaken on the Marsh Road by a bloke going a lot faster than me and for some reason this made me speed up a bit. I rode the rest of the way to work at a good speed, hitting 17/18mph on the section between Warton and St Annes though have a sneaking suspicion I had a tailwind. My knees didn't ache and the bike didn't feel as heavy as it did on Friday. Felt pretty good when I got to work, just need to attempt to dry off some kit.

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure it wasn't a tail wind, you were just going fast!!!

    I prefer wet but warm lycra on longer rides! If your weather was anything like here you did well commuting, I had visibility for about two metres through the mist!

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  2. Actually wasn't too misty, just raining but I couldn't believe I had voluntarily set off in it! I also had very fresh legs.

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  3. There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!

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