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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Hi my name is Dave, I was thinking of starting up a blog so bear with me please.
I am 58 years old, work more then full time, engaged to a good woman, who puts up without complaint to me spending most my spare time, money, thoughts, and planning on bicycling riding. So with that I will proceed.

This past weekend I rode two gravel metric centuries back to back. Was hot and grueling. Metric #1 I was able to keep a hard crank going, drank lots of water, and finished strong.
Metric #2 another hot day, was dragging, but kept forcing myself to keep the pace moving. Stopped and rested three times for 15 minutes each, something I rarely do, but was needed. Even took off my shoes and socks to cool down, and almost fell asleep here or maybe I did, I'm not sure. My blood felt like lead paste to get things pumping again.

I had to take two days off the bike due to a small medical procedure I had done to my knee on Monday morning, a shot of lube, synvisc to be exact. Maybe I was supposed to take off the bike a few more days, but I forgot my doctor's orders.

Tonight after work the weather forecast had flash flood warnings out. It was really super humid out, but I was anxious to get some ride time in, and didn't see anything significant on the weather radar. That sure changed in a hurry. I seemed to have good energy, was riding hard and sweating profusely with the high humidity. The rain started. I could taste my sweat as rain washed my face, my eyes burned, I realized how much salt you lose by sweating. Then downpours, and then lightening and thunder all around me.

What happened next I will never ever forget. I started feeling an electrical charge building up across my soaking wet back. I thought I am going to get struck by lightening, I might get toasted right here. I thought stay on bike, I wasn't sure why, but felt that would be the safest place to be. The next instance a loud crack and lightening bolt went off all around me. So I'm thinking I need to pedal straight home as fast as I can and get off the street before I am zapped. Then it was one lightening bolt after another, 12 inches of water in the street. I started feeling the tingling again, and then BAMM!!!!!!! another lightening strike seemed to be all around.
 me.

That does it. I pulled into a unloading area at an old folks home, called my lady, begged for a ride, and she obliged.
I'm thinking of maybe packing lights tomorrow on my after work ride so I can ride after dark, to make up for the shortened trip tonight. Told ya, seems I spend most my spare time pedaling these days.

9 comments:

tainterturtles said...

Holy cow...glad you are ok. Thanks to your lovely lady for picking you up in unpleasant conditions.

dawn marie giegerich said...

Got kicked out of the pool and driving home when I saw you. Some silly report about lightning . . .

Clive Chapman said...

It seems I'm not the only one who forget the Docs orders. Well done on keeping at it!

TrevorW�� said...

Wow....sounds pretty scary. Glad you got a pick up from your good lady..Probably a good decision to halt your ride.

-Trevor

Dan O said...

Aw come on... lightning bolts, pouring rain, 12 inches of water. Don't be such a baby...

:)

Harry Legge's Cycling Blog said...

Tough as nails, man. Tough as nails.

we;shcyclist said...

Hi there MrDaveyGie,
Yet another great post, we don't get the extremes of weather that you do, over here in Wales, but I can relate to the thunder and bolts of lightning. Like you I thought it best to stay on the bike, reckoning that if rubber boots work so would rubber tyres. Well I thought that was logical.
Keep pedalling and posting. Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Be careful out there! I was standing beside my dad on the beach when he got struck. He's fine and no, we're not millionaires:)

Marla

Steph said...

I saw on the news, all the destruction that rain caused up there. Hope it didn't ruin any of your riding spots!