No rain, lots of motorcycles

Today was of course my long ride day. I've been doing them almost every Saturday throughout the spring and summer for about the last 5 years now, so I'm pretty used to it. I also have a strange obsession with starting really early in the morning. Basically, if there is daylight, I want to be out in it. This can get pretty darn early considering today is the second-longest day of the year. In the past I've hit the road as early as 4:40am. This time though I gave myself a bit of a break by not getting up until 4:30 and heading out just after 5. It was already light enough to ride (for me, anyway) when I got up, but I was ok with starting a little "late". I am never excited about being up at early to ride, but once I get out there I really do enjoy it. I also realized as I brushed my teeth through a groggy haze that I don't really have a whole lot of long rides left. Actually, as far as actual, real long rides, it might just be one. And that one will take place next weekend with a group of the QT2 teammates on our training weekend, and I'm pretty sure nobody else is planning on starting at 5am. So this might mark the end of the getting up at dawn to do my long ride. At least until August, if all goes according to plan... But there's something just so nice about riding down a quiet road while the sun comes up. I might see a fishing boat or two on the lake because they seem to be the only ones who get up earlier than I do on a Saturday, but mostly it's just me and the occasional wild animal. Although there have been moose and even black bear sightings in the past, the most exciting one today was a turkey and a baby chick turkey.

So after some oatmeal - blessed pre-workout carbs, never thought I'd actually look forward to oatmeal - and a banana I was off. The first amazing thing about this morning is that it wasn't raining. The other was that it actually looked like it was clear. Apparently this was a bit of a lull between these "systems" the weather guys keep talking about that won't seem to go away. Very quickly I found myself riding through a nice, thick fog for a good hour or so. I couldn't wear my sunglasses because they fog wouldn't clear. And why is it that the sweat always likes to form a direct trail from my forehead straight to my mouth? Let's just say that it is not tasty.

The fog cleared and I got some sun for a while, but about halfway through the clouds moved in and never relented. Because of course it is going to rain again tomorrow. And the day after that. Oh, and the next day too... and yep, the next 5 or 6 days after that... But I did make it about 90 minutes before I passed my first motorcycle, and after that, it was pretty constant. It's not the worst thing in the world, but when you're used to riding on these roads with quiet and almost no traffic, well, you can see which way I'd prefer it. Plus thinking about trying to sleep tonight with the constant sound of motorcycle engines out the window. Oh well, it all ends tomorrow.

I rode up to the base of Waterville Valley ski area and saw that there is actually still one small patch of snow left. Yep, tomorrow is the first day of summer and there is still snow there. But to be fair, it was probably about 40 feet deep in the middle of winter, presumably a huge mound that served as a snowboard jump. After my ride and another discouraging transition run I went and stood in the lake for about 10 minutes to try and use it as sort of an ice bath. But even with this constant cool weather it probably wasn't nearly as effective as a real ice bath might have been. Still felt nice though.

So now just one more tough day in the first of two overload weeks in the training. I wouldn't be dreading it if it weren't for the fact that the rain is due to return, and the fact that it involves two runs and a ride in the middle, which means I have to somehow muster up the motivation to head out in the bad weather three times. I was just thinking today how the hardest part of almost any workout tends to be just making yourself start it. Once I start, I'm fine and probably at least 80% of the time I actually enjoy it. I'd bump that to 90%, but with all of this rain lately the percentages go down. Oh, and having to put on wet shoes for that second run. Blech.