Over the past week the Greater Puget Sound region has gotten buckets of rain. Yes, that is a very technical metric that is used by most amateur meteorologists - buckets o' rain. This doesn't show you everything that has happened (and dont get me wrong, this is nothing like the floods of 2008), but still, it was a lot of rain.
Over a 5 day period we got just over 3 inches of rain. Our backyard was flooded, which our golden retriever loved splashing around, and then I started to keep a closer eye on the forecast. BREAK IN THE WEATHER. That is right folks, a time to celebrate and a time to ride. Unfortunately Monday I woke up and it was still raining - buckets. Question my dedication to cycling if you wish, but I wasn't planning on cycling through buckets. Tuesday came around with some rain in the morning but a break in the weather for the afternoon. Unfortunately, my morning routine/twitter check found that there were several local cyclists and CascadeBicycle were tweeting about landslides and flooding that took over various local bike paths. The main path that I was curious about, due to the route of my commute is the Sammamish River Trail. Today the weather was looking was too tolerable and my sanity needed a bike. So off I went.
There wasn't too many remnants of flooding along the trail so I probably could have/should have biked in yesterday (nothing like shooting yourself in the foot, right?). It was a glorious, but windy ride in as I was being battered by 11 mph winds. The ride home should be a breeze though - just what you need after a long day in the office.
I'm the first one to admit that I'm actually still in my youth when it comes to life as a cyclist. However, I love every bit of it and I've done a fair bit of studying. Typically when the weather gets cooler I've been wearing a long sleeve base layer under my jersey, I upgraded this year from some tights to bib tights (always recommend bibs over anything else). Just recently LIVESTRONG was honoring the 28 million with cancer and offered 28% off all of their items. It is fair to say that my wife has been amazing over the last year and I've spent my fair share on cycling (don't worry she will be rewarded by Santa). I should have purchased more at such a discount, but instead I just got a pair of arm warmers. They are so much better than my typical attire. A sleeveless baselayer under my jersey and armwarmers and I was set. A windfront vest would have been ideal, but I had the rain coat with me. Being just as "windfront" (sometimes too resistant), I knew I would be fine. I read on the CyclingForum the other week a person who was complaining about getting too warm while riding. The recommendation (which some responders said they never thought of) = pull up the sleeves of your jacket. You would not believe how much that really helps. You get warmed up, pull those sleeves up, and there were a few times I was still thinking that a vest could have been better, but with a 60% chance of rain, I'd rather make sure I'm dry on the way home. Plus, pulling up the sleeves allowed the few other cyclists to see the LIVESTRONG arm warmers (the note of the few other cyclists means, c'mon people, get out and ride - its 45 degrees in December!!)
LIVESTRONG
No comments:
Post a Comment