Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2176:
Last night my wife and I went to a small town county fair about 30 miles from the city where I live. We were walking around when a guy came up to me and said he recognized me from my bicycle posts on Facebook. He introduced me to his friend, calling me the "Tony Hawk of bicycle commuting." I don't know about that. Maybe I'd agree with the "Mr. Bean of bicycle commuting." In any event, that was kind of a weird experience. My wife kind of liked my very brief moment of celebrity however.
This morning I woke up pretty tired from the previous evening at the fair and feeling the after-effects of the fair food. Looking at Google, it said it was currently raining. Rats. I wasn't really in the mood to ride 8 miles to our company office on my hybrid bike with fenders. Plus, there was a 17 mph cross/head wind that would slow that bike down even further. My road bike is significantly faster, and I'm significantly lazy so I much prefer to ride that bike whenever conditions allow.
When I looked at the radar though, it said skies were currently clear. There was a big storm rolling in to the west (the direction I would be heading) but it wasn't supposed to hit for about 45 minutes. I was in a room without windows as I was looking all this up, so I wasn't sure who to believe. I made a decision.
If when I looked out the window it was indeed raining, I would sit down in my chair and take a 45 minute nap, then ride the hybrid with fenders directly to a client's office only 4 miles away. Plus the wind would push me there.
However, if when I looked out the window it was not yet raining, I would hop on my road bike as quickly as possible and try to beat the storm to our company office 8 miles away.
When I walked to the living room and looked out the window, the pavement was dry. So I stuck to my decision and got out the door as quickly as possible on the road bike. The temp was a sticky 71°F and humid. I cranked hard against the wind trying to beat the storm.
At mile five the storm was ahead of schedule and it started to sprinkle. I pressed on. By mile seven the rain was coming down steady.
I arrived at work 35 minutes after I left my garage, which considering the wind wasn't too bad of a pace. However, I was pretty soaked between the sweat and the rain.
The good news is once the storm passes the rest of the day will be clear. I'll have mostly a tail wind for my ten mile noon ride to the client, and then just have to fight the wind for four more miles at the end of the day.