epic

Well, it was one of those days when a long ride throws just about everything (with, fortunately, the exception of getting up close and personal with the pavement) possible at you. At least it kept things interesting.

I was planning on doing my long ride on Saturday ... a day that ended up having 40+ mph wind gusts. Decided to move it to Sunday ... Sunday was't much better. So in the interest of riding in the "best weather" (ha!) this weekend, I ended up doing my long ride today.

It started out normal enough. The wind was blowing at 15-20 mph out of the south, the sun was up and the day was slightly unseasonably warm ... but not startlingly so. Before the temperature was to take a nose dive, we'd hit around 92 degrees I think. And it was humid.

It was around mile 35 when I saw SuperCoolThing #1. It was a prairie king snake, probably about 4 feet long (and nice and fat) stretched out on the side of the bike path. I had seen a TON of dead snakes on the road today, but seeing this huge beautiful live one totally made my day. King snakes are cool because, at least in my experience, they are relatively calm and non-aggressive (have I mentioned that I'm a total snake nerd?). Back when I worked at the ecological research station I would always play with the kingsnakes that the snake guys caught ... they were just so cool Today I was able to walk right up to it and check it out ... its skin was glistening in the sun and it just kinda slithered along on the side of the bike path. Very very cool. A dude (in a CSC jersey, surely celebrating Basso's victory yesterday in the Giro) rode up behind me and saw me standing over my bike leaning on my aero bars. He asked if I was ok and when I said "Yeah!" and pointed to the snake he just about fell off his bike. Pretty funny.

So then SuperCoolThing #2 happened when the boyfriend (who I met up with at mile 45) and I were riding south out into the country ... a beautiful coyote jumped into the road right in front of me! He was probably only 10 feet away - and definitely surprised me when I saw him! Good thing I wasn't going too fast (dam wind) or he (or I!) would have been toast.

At this point it started heating up and the humidity was on the rise. It was getting hot. I don't do very well in the heat so I was sort of dreading the 40 or so miles I had left. And then I noticed the clouds looming behind us. Big black billowy clouds that looked like they were about to burst at any minute. And burst they did! I have done a bit of riding in the rain, but never like this. Usually I only get stuck in little showers, but this was a full on downpour ... for 2.5 hours!!! I'm a little skittish on wet roads, but once I got settled in I did ok, and it was actually really fun. Of courese at this point the temperature dropped to around 70 and between that and the rain and the wind, the boyfriend and I were more than a bit chilly! I had fun splashing through the puddles. There was a good bit of thunder and lightening and I'm not at all sure that it was smart to be out there, but when you're 30 miles from home, you don't really have a choice but to keep going. It was about 10 miles from home, in the rain still, when I saw SuperCoolThing #3 ... a woodchuck!! I've never seen a woodchuck in the wild before! It was ridiculously cute.

Anyway, ended up getting in 92 miles or so which is a little less than I would have liked, but considering the rain, I'll take it. Legs felt great even at the end and I did a nice little run at the end. Next week my long ride is only 5 hours ... and it goes down down down from there!!! I'm finally starting to feel like I'm ready for my race ... and just in the nick of time!

And now i have to shift gears and get ready to start my internship tomorrow! woohoo!