February 13th -- Florida biking weather at last

Temperatures are in the 70's; there's a thundertorm warning -- this is typical Florida weather.

Bob Schlobach is here again today to finish up the painting, and finish he did -- just by his normal quitting time of 4pm (he usually works 8 to 4). He has done a great job, including 5 coats of paint on the door between the den and the garage, because Sandy had not told him that it was supposed to be the same colour as the wall, and re-doing the guest bathroom because Benjamin Moore messed up the paint match. We will likely smell paint for a couple of days, but that goes with the territory. We can put the place back together tomorrow.

The back piece for the stove that Sandy ordered has finally come in so I finished the stove installation -- not a big deal, but it looks better with the back splash installed.

So ... I did not get moving as early as I should have and as a result got caught by the afternoon thunderstorm, right on schedule.

Biking was great, albeit windy again. You know that it's windy when you are biking with the wind at 22 mph and there is no breeze in your face ... since the wind was coming from the south and that was the way I headed out. Needless to say that the trip south took longer than the trip north. I did the Merritt Island route, opting to take the causeway to the mainland and back up US 1.

The prediction for tomorrow is even more wind -- 20+ mph from the west -- and high of 68.

I gassed up -- water and restroom -- at the visitors center. Then once on US 1, I lost a few minutes fixing a flat -- first one in a long time -- and did not like the look of the black clouds gathering northwest of me. The wind was with me on the way back though, and my cruising speed was around 22 mph (vs 13-17 going south). I thought that I might make it, but about 3 miles south of the causeway the lightning started and I thought that discretion was probably the better part of valour for this ride. I called Sandy and continued on, hoping to make it to the causeway before the rain got heavy but decided to stop about 1/2 mile short. I pulled into a strip mall and took shelter while the rain dumped down. Traffic was heavy and the wind was picking up so it was not worth the risk. I only shorted the ride by about 4.5 miles though, so not too bad.

Nutrition -- breakfast around 6am, cereal & coffee then glass of juice and a salmon sandwich at 10am, hit the road at 10:30. Cliff bar at 25 miles, then carb-boom gels at 45, 55 and 65 miles. 3.5 bottles of water. I was feeling hungry before each one of the gels, so I was probably shorting myself a little -- my weight is down about 2 pounds so I'll have to watch that. I don't need to lose any weight.

Ride stats: 73.4 miles; 17.5 mph avg.