On the road

I did a difficult road ride today. I didn't plan it that way. In fact I didn't even want to ride. It was pretty overcast and rain was on the way. Plus the house was nice and warm. But I got my butt into my long-john bibs, Craft undershirt, long-sleeve jersey and Pearl Izumi Vagabond jacket and headed out. The cloud cover made it warmer that it was the past couple of day, so I decided to ride further than I had planned. The fun was deciding what route to take. I eventually decided to take a route that I had not done before that led up to the north end of Skyline Drive. I took 185th to Germantown to Kaiser/Brooks to Skyline and then back home. 23 miles total. Generally 23 miles is not a big deal anymore, but my legs were pretty tired on some of the climbs going up Kaiser. I burned 1450 calories according to my Polar. Now if I can just keep from eating rediculous stuff this evening I should be fine. Evening is the worst for whatever reason. Many days I am good the whole day only to ruin it by eating a half a bag of cheddar flavored Goldfish, hot&spicy pork rinds or something else similarly idiotic. It would be sweet to break 200 at the next weigh in, but I think that losing nearly 3 lbs in a week is a stretch.

Anyway, back on topic. I think that getting out the door is the hardest thing. Once I am out there I don't have much of a problem being out in the weather. For the last 8 miles it rained on me. My clothing did its job and I stayed dry--except for the sweat I was making. Funny thing about that. I didn't realize that I was sweating so much. As the rain started coming down it started dripping a bit down on to my lips and mouth. It tasted awefully salty. It kind of freaked me out for a second. I thought that maybe the water off of the road was getting lifted up off and flung into the air and onto my face by my front tire. I thought that maybe I was inhaling and tasting road moisture, which would be pretty gross. But no, after a bit the salt from my sweat was washed away and I was left tasting only the rain water. If I was getting road water flung up in my face it was no different tasting than regular water. And really odds were slim of that anyway, as fenders are amazing things.