Epic moments

Ever start a training ride with your fingers crossed?

I did that this evening as I tried to get in a ride as a storm brewed overhead. Had it not been for the fact that I was doing a 20 minute TT fitness test I probably would have stayed close to home. However, there was a specific route in mind to accomplish the test. I am really building upon my recent successful hard efforts in order to knock out these types of rides with ease. In other words, I was looking forward to 20 minutes of suffering!

I started in Lebanon and headed out on Cainesville Road going towards Norene and Lascassas. This stretch of road is flat to rolling and perfect for doing time-trial efforts. There's very little traffic, perfect pavement, and without any traffic stops to slow down a hard effort. I've used this stretch of road many times before when doing maximum effort intervals, and on some longer rides I go this way and complete the Lascassas road race course. I know the lay of the land quite well, which helps tremendously if you're doing a time-trial effort.

I'm attempting to start this around 6:00 PM, but the dark clouds are already making their way from the direction of Gallatin. You could smell the rain, hear the loud thunder, and in the far distance see lightning. What better time to start a ride huh?

Since I'm flying out tomorrow.....wait.....there's another story to tell at the end of this. I must tell on myself. It was an "oh s**t" moment.

Ok, since I'm flying to California for wine bottling at www.centuryoakwinery.com this weekend it meant I had to get this test done today. Come hell or high water, both likely scenarios, I was going to do this test.

I've got a warmup process I have to go through before the test, and all the while I'm looking over my shoulder hoping to outride this storm. I get no more than 5 minutes into my ride and bam, rain. Ok, it's not a major thunderstorm yet, but just some solid cool rain. I can handle this I think and go on with my warmup. I go through a few teasing intervals before the actual test begins, and it's pretty much raining the entire time. I'm soaked from head to toe by the time my 20 minute test begins. Nothing like soaking wet feet when you're pounding the pedals!

As I ramp up into the test I begin to ride out of the storm allowing me to relax on dryer roads. For about 60% of the test I've got a slight tailwind, but the last 40% it's a strong right-side crosswind. This is where things get interesting. I'm looking to my right and I see those dark clouds engulfing the area around me. Damn, I'm riding straight into that mess. Sure enough, the rain picks up again, but this time the wind gets super strong. Where I was at this point was the valley area at the exact point where the first right turn is on the Lascassas road race course, but I'm going in the opposite direction of course. I'm having to lean into the wind coming from my right, but there were three times where I almost got knocked off my bike!

Here I am, a grown man, on a bicycle, in what looks and feels like a tornadic situation. Smart dude the people are thinking as they drive by me. Yeah, that's about right I'd say. I'm thinking about this as I'm also battling the elements and trying to put out as much power as possible during the final minutes of the test. Dadgum, a grown man I am.

I do eventually fulfill my test requirements and turn around to head back to Lebanon. Just as I turn around the storm picks up steam and sets up a wall that I'm not about to try and penetrate. Fortunately as I started my ride I saw Ben and Whitney from the Cumberland University Cycling Team. We shared some fun and laughs about their great race last night that saw Ben take the sprint victory after Whitney's two lap lead-out. Ok boys, have your phones handy in case I need a rescue.

Here's where the grown man finally used his head and made the rescue call. After they had a good laugh about me being pretty far out past Norene they started driving out my way. Come to find out they had bets out on whether or not I'd call needing help! I waited it out for a few minutes to let the storm die down because the wind was ferocious, and couple that with the rain and it spelled disaster. The weather became manageable and I started riding towards Lebanon. It's still raining hard, fairly dark, but at least the wind isn't as bad. By this time my PowerTap has had about enough of the pouring rain and quits registering. Whatever, let's just get home and let it all dry out.

I finally get picked up by the boys and head back to campus. Ahhhh, safety and comfort. The only way it could have been better is if they had an espresso drink for me, or Icee, I'm not picky. As we drive back there's debris and a few branches in the road, and on campus there's a huge tree that suffered damage. So what, I got my training ride done! :)

Ok, back to telling on myself.

I almost pulled a Jeff Hopkins with this one. I've blogged about my trip to California this weekend. When I got home tonight I looked through my itinerary for Friday's flight and read through my email confirmation from Southwest Airlines. Uh oh, my flight isn't on Friday. My flight was TODAY at 11:55 AM! Yeah, "oh s**t" is right!

Fortunately with all that's happened today the airlines was very cooperative to reschedule my flight for Friday. I was able to get the same flights for Friday that I was supposed to have flown on Thursday. Whew! I'd have felt some kind of dumb if I had screwed up this opportunity to go bottle wine in wine country.

Geesh, a grown man.