So Tuesday's plan went to hell in a handbasket thanks to New England's finest weather casters. I need a job where I can be wrong on a regular basis and just explain why I was wrong after the fact. With the unexpected snow (whatever happened to the 40% chance of showers in the evening) and the mercury hovering in the mid-thirties, I decided to double-lock the giANT bike in the cage at work, grab a Zipcar and join the mess that I had so hoped to avoid. By the way, if you've never checked out Zipcar I highly recommend it (assuming you live or work in an area where cars are available). I signed up back this summer when we had to get some car repairs and I split time between biking and borrowed wheels. I kept the membership for occasions like yesterday when I had biked and needed a car. Anywho, enough unpaid advertisements...
So the ride home was tolerable since I avoided the 45 mile backup on the Pike, but still not much fun. This also meant I got to drive it back in this morning and ride home tonight instead. Perfect, the weather nerds are calling for mid to high 40's and cloudy. Ok, I can do that. I got up at the ass crack o dawn so I could roll out early and have a little bit of daylight to play with. I hoped to make it to the townie part of the ride (past Waltham and into Weston) before all traces of daylight were gone. Well I almost made it, but as I was crossing into Waltham the water came. Now it wasn't rain, but it certainly went from comfortably cool to damp and gross. About 2 miles later I had to make a decision... keep my glasses on and get blinded completely by the combination of headlights and water on them, or take them off and ride nearsighted the rest of the way. Well there was plenty more traffic to come so I chose some vision over none most of the time. Ok, now we're really having fun... it's around 40 degrees, I'm not wearing any sort of vision correcting device which is what gives me enough warning to avoid potholes, it's really dark, it's misting, and low areas have become foggy. I really wish I could have gotten pictures of some of the looks I must have gotten. To all those who saw me, yes, I am crazy, thanks for asking. Anywho... I eventually made it back here to the land of far far away. By the time I did it was 39 degrees, I was good and soggy, and I had been on very limited vision for about half the ride. Thanks to whatever force it was that got me here in one piece...
Good news is I got 3.5 hours of saddle time in 2 days. I raced Sunday and I'm racing Saturday. I guess this week is a final training push before nationals... maybe I can squeak a couple more places out of it yet.
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I took 117 once and that was in the summer so it was light... never again. I come up out of Waltham on 117, but then ditch off at the train station and pick up back roads up to Sudbury center. Hudson St from there heads right towards my house and it tends to be a lot safer.
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