Apr 19 - dodging the raindrops

... which I didn't do successfully ! I did, however, avoid a full downpour.

Riding my southbound Populaire again, which causes me to go north to check-in, before heading south ... I brought my raincoat. I wasn't worried about getting wet in the warm weather but sometimes a thunderstorm can bring a sudden drop in temperature and/or hail, so I'd rather be prepared. As it was I just barely escaped getting drenched, riding through puddles on Merritt Island just after the downpour came through. I did get wet a few times, however, and dirty due to both the crap coming up from the road as well as clouds of no-see-ums that I rode through .... yucch.

I noticed after 30 miles that my Garmin 705 was showing 80,000+ feet of climbing. Let's see ... 80k of climbing over 158,000 feet of riding would be just under a 50% grade ... not bad ! That's quite a workout ! It's hard to hold the road, however, without falling backwards :). As I noted on Facebook, that's a lot of climbing but somehow I don't remember going downhill ... shucks !

We never got the rain at our place; it went around us north and south. That seems to be par for the course.

Oh yes ... three flats ... and I couldn't even find the source of the last one. The first one was a thorn stuck through the tire which broke off inside with my fingernail and then popped out of the tread. The second was a failed valve, one mile later -- and the third a seemingly slow leak that I couldn't find. That worried me as did the fact that I was out of tubes. One more flat and I'd be patching, which I can certainly do if it's dry, but would have a hard time doing in the rain.

While I was fixing the second flat a rider went by on a recumbent. I caught up to him, which surprised me, but he wasn't going all that fast. He was riding from Key West to Jacksonville in stages, planning on staying overnight last night in Edgewater. He caught up to me again as I was fixing the third flat and then I went by him shortly thereafter since he'd stopped to take a break.

We had flounder, quinoa and Sandy's sauteed carrots and leeks for dinner, just in case you're wondering :).

Today -- John again at 7am. I really felt like I'd lost ground yesterday in my workout, but then again he changed things up to be more resistance exercises -- resistance until failure. I'm not sure what his plans are for today but he left me a vmail on my cell phone last night at 10:30 p.m. to call him back. I'll go for 7am whether or not he's going to show.

Onward ...