Deluge!

 I never expected to call a 40k ride epic, but this was EPIC!

Planned to head out for a low cadence, high lactic acid 70k sufferfest to really rip my legs up some more after last night's ride. The first 10k were warmup and took a short respite at one of the many local church picnic shelters due to a brief heavy down pour. This should have been a clue but I was feeling cocky becuase I got maybe one drop of rain on me. I could read the weather and I was certain it was going to clear.

After the warmup, I headed for a 65 rpm cadence and really kept the pressure on the legs. It was a nasty, quad burning, leg searing agonyfest. You know, fun. Just what I wanted. My legs were screaming and I just just ignored them. "You shall do MY bidding!", I mentally commanded.

Hey. Was the sky getting darker?

Just before I finished 20k the skies opened and came down so hard I could barely see a few meters in front of me. I had to stop and turn on the blinky back and front light to make sure cars could see me in the dusk-like conditions (@ 4pm). I had incorrectly decided to wear the sunglass lenses instead of my clear lenses, so I was riding in dusk conditions with dark sunglasses that i could not take off since I was wearing contact lenses. If any significant amount of water got into my eye, my contacts start to float and potentially pop out (not a good thing if you have difficulty seeing the big E on an eye chart and are 20k from home in a raging deluge). I'm also betting the lenses, while technically hydrophobic, were not tested under conditions like these. It was next to impossible to get a clear view of the road just a few feet ahead on me. The drops of rain that adhered to the lense created a kaleidoscopic of light as cars drove by in each direction.

The rain was coming down so hard when a drop hit my teeth it actually hurt. That's hard rain my friends. Hard rain.

After a few minutes it cleared up and I actually considered going the full 70k again but decided against it. Very fortunate. It began to sprinkle, then rain, then downpour then deluge again. I think I went the last 10+k in a deluge so heavy cars were pulling over to the side on the road. I got so wet that when I got inside and dried off I was still wet. Yep. That's wet. W. E. T. wet.

That was one crazy-ass bike ride!