Barking at shovels

Rained out

We checked all the forecasts for today, and they all said some variation on "chance of showers". Well, we have rain gear. We're tough. You don't get to pick your weather. fanw and zsquirrelboy and I decided to go for it.

The rain started about ten minutes in, got serious five minutes after that, and did not let up. We rode around Fresh Pond and out Concord Ave and by the time we got to Belmont Hill we were drenched. The rain was steady, soaking, and unrelenting. My shoes squished, my shorts were saturated, and my gloves (actually, zsquirrelboy's, who was prepared enough to have brought two pair) were sodden. I insisted on doing the Belmont Hill climb since we'd gone and made it there, but after that we bailed on the remaining two thirds of the ride and took Pleasant St back to Arlington Centre. All told we were an hour and half out in the rain, and it didn't let up until a safe half hour after we'd been chased like rats back to our boltholes.

But, things I learned:

• My rain gear is actually pretty good.
• It's not good enough for that.
• Belmont Hill makes me break a sweat, but I can still climb it in reasonably good order.
• I need gloves.
• Bike shorts still wear reasonably well when saturated.
• It took a long time to bring my legs back up to normal room temperature, even with hot water in the shower. But it didn't actually bother me that they were physically cold; while I was riding I hardly noticed. I was wearing four shirts and a jacket so my core was quite warm.
• I am not defeated.

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