Tornado averted...ride accomplished.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Global warming…maybe, but we’ve been having some crazy storms these past two summers.  I returned to the office in Beachwood about 2:30 p.m. and was quickly shuffled to the building’s basement.  The entire staff and their clients were huddled there because the city was under tornado watch.  I’m a bit of a fatalist.  Had I known I’d be asked to go to a basement, I wouldn’t have left my car and would have instead chosen to sit or drive and just watch things develop.  If something’s going to happen to me, it’s just going to happen whether I was in a basement, driving my car and hunkered in a ditch.  I certainly don’t like being told what I have to do to protect myself.

I kept all this to myself of course as we spent the next 30 minutes chatting and sweating.  Finally, and for no obvious reason, we were allowed back to the offices.  As far as anyone could tell, the weather pattern that had sent us to the basement in the first place was still hovering over Northeast Ohio.  My thoughts were less about foul weather striking me and more about how I’d get in a ride later. 

Rains pelted the house until early evening, but then stopped.  Thunder continued to rumble, but by 7 p.m. I was starting to think a ride was in the cards.  I suited up and was on the road by 7:15 and though they were wet/damp and I was picking up plenty of road spray, no drops fell.  I took extra caution cornering and on descents, but for the most part it was a normal, albeit humid, ride.  I managed to get in a little over an hour and a half before I knew I’d have to wrap it up because of coming darkness.  I felt strong throughout the ride and can only attribute that to acclimatization and conditioning.  It was my third day in a row, something I’d not achieved in several weeks, and my legs were coming back fast.  I felt proud that I’d taken a night that had almost become another throw-away and gotten in a hard ride.  My goal of 200 miles for the week is still in play.

Bike duration:  One hour and 35 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  1325.