Intense Workouts

Today I was fully prepared to make the journey to class. That, however, changed when I realized that it was too windy for me to make it to class on time. I hitched a ride with my boyfriend, who drives a pickup truck, and I just rode to class from his parking spot.

Leaving my class presented me with an odd choice. I usually have two kinds of workouts that I focus on: distance workouts and time workouts. If I'm going for distance I try to ride 20 miles and if I'm going for timed I try to ride one hour at a rather brisk pace.

This presented an issue for me: I didn't have the time to do either kind of ride today, as I had errands to run before I had to drive to my afternoon/evening classes. (I drive to my evening classes for reasons of my own personal safety. WSU is in a dangerous area!)

I remembered something that my mom said that I kind of took to heart. She said that sometimes it's not the length or the time that matters, it's the intensity of the work. I was riding with the wind going back, so I said what the hell. I put my bike in the 3rd and 5th gears and just let loose.

There were several points in which I looked down at my bike computer and saw that my bike speed was at 17 mph. I was turning corners faster than normal, which was scary as hell, but the little kid in me screamed "WEEEEEEEE!". I got home out of breath and tired, like I just rode 30 miles or something! My mom was correct, intensity can matter just as much as anything else in a workout.

My average speed was at 11.1 by the time I got home. The only reason it wasn't higher was because of the school riding I did where I had to do lots of slow riding to avoid hitting fellow students on sidewalks. That was disappointing to see, but I'm sure my average speed on the bike path was at least 13 mph if not more.

So the moral of the story: intense rides can be just as fun as distance rides and you'd get just as much of a work out in a shorter amount of time if you just pick up the pace a bit.

Rain: Nature's Practical Joke

As expected, it did rain today.

This morning wasn't so bad for me, really. It was only lightly sprinkling outside, so everything was tolerable. I didn't get too wet, and I didn't get too cold since I had a sweatshirt on over my jersey. It was fun and perfect.

Fast forward to my afternoon ride home. I was already grumpy because I was once again riding nto a headwind. I sat there on the saddle of my bike, thinking and pondering. No, it's not going to rain. I've made it most of the way home and it's not going to rain.

All of a sudden, when I got to the last major bridge I'd have to ride under, it started pouring. We're not talking about having a light rain preceding the heavy rain. No, my friends, it was P-O-U-R-I-N-G pouring. It was like God grabbed a little flower watering can and decided to dump it on me in one simultaneous moment.

Instead of waiting it out under the bridge, I decided to brave out the rest of the journey home. Riding in rain and wind sucks, but I'd like to reiterate the fact that riding in both of these conditions sucks. It sucks a lot. It especially sucks on a pedestrian overpass bridge, where the winds are higher. I actually had to walk my bike because I was scared that my bike was going to fall over.

When came home my clothes were soaked like I had just gone for a romp in the swimming pool with my clothes on. So the moral of this story, friends, is this:

If you're a bike commuter and you can do this, wait out the torrential downpours under a bridge or something. Your clothing and sanity will that you for that =)