Drenched, punished but committed

So I was asking myself this morning "how committed am I to this" as there is a long time until April (Paris ride) and do I really need to go out today in this awful weather as it's nice, cosey and warm sitting with my cup of tea looking out at the rain lashing down. The point is the question shouldn't be asked. Cycling is not about fair weather folk enjoying the sun on their backs wearing "all the gear" this is serious and there is a job to complete and at the back of my mind I can already picture myself raising aloft my bicycle in front of the Eiffel tower posing for a picture to eventually put on my social networks and most importantly achieving my targeted revenue for the charity Mind.

With the decision made I unwillingly dragged on my cycling attire and lumbered out to the garage to prepare my beloved road bike for action. I got pretty wet just stepping between the house and the garage to do this and feared the worse.

All mounted and ready to go the only decision to be made was how far to pedal. I hit start on the Garmin and thought let’s see how bad it gets before making that decision. Before leaving the end of the road I think I was completely drenched and maybe this was a good thing as you would naturally think it couldn't get worse.......well.......

About 3 miles in I decided to take the long road to Leighton Buzzard and on reflection it was probably not the best idea.

The roads and lanes were waterlogged and you occasionally had to cycle in the middle of the road to avoid puddles and what started to look like small rivers forming. The Leighton Buzzard road is one that is used quite frequently by traffic and often used by larger vehicles when transferring goods around the country. So when I said earlier it couldn't get much worse this is when it did. Over a 5 minute period I think at least 4 very large artic lorries took their turns it giving me a very comprehensive shower at intermittent times.

With the rain beating down all the way of the ride I eventually got back to Hollyhock having achieved 17 miles in 62 minutes and the pleasure of cycling on a road bike in brand new conditions for me.

All that was left to do was lock the bike away and pile up my soaking wet clothes that now felt about 15 times heavier than they ever had due to the amount of water absorbed and then run, squelching to a very very hot shower!

Training complete for this week.