Kentucky Windage For Plucky Cyclists

The plan called for an hour ride today. An inch and a half of (much needed) rain falling in the last 24 hours had me sure that I'd be pedaling inside in front of a movie. I was secretly relieved at the idea of still being "stuck" on the trainer. As far as real cycling goes, I didn't quite have my poop in a group yet. I haven't learned my way around Chapel Hill much less scoped any bike routes; I'm nervous about falling off my bike even when there aren't cars; I have no idea where my helmet, gloves, and glasses are, etc, etc. Rain meant reprieve from figuring all of that out. But I blew it. If I'd gotten right up to train instead of lazing about finishing my book, I'd have had that inside ride. Good luck, bad luck, who knows: the weather was sunny, warm, and beautiful by the time I got around to my workout. Drat. Hard to pass that up, no matter how much of a nervous nellie I am. Donna (of course) was all about riding outside. (She is in her element on the bike and moving herself through space is her favorite activity ever. If she has to be still, it makes her slightly crazy.)

An hour and a half into our one hour ride, we had only twenty minutes of cycling to our credit. Thirty-five mile an hour winds with much higher intermittent gusts had thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into things. Cars were getting blown sideways, the trees and traffic lights were snapping around, and more than once I thought I might soon become a bit of spandex-clad road flotsam skittering along with the plastic bags. No matter which way we turned we couldn't get out of the wind or the traffic enough to feel remotely safe. Finally we called John to come get us. (The wind was so bad that as the two of them loaded Donna's bike up onto the rack - it was sucked up and slammed down on her head. Had she not still been wearing her helmet, we would have had to rush her to UNC for an emergency pedalectomy. I give thanks to the gods of the high tech bean bonnet for her intact skull!)

I was more than ready to give up and resort to the trainer. To be perfectly honest, I was ready to go home, take a hot shower, and pretend the trainer didn't work either. Being or feeling unsafe trips about every trigger I've got. It can take me a while to reset. Donna is made of sterner stuff - especially about biking. It's her strength and she wanted to make it work. She got creative and started naming even more ways around our issues of wind, traffic, cold, getting stranded, and navigating on the fly. She suggested dropping John off at home and porting ourselves over to the American Tobacco Trail in Durham. There are no cars allowed; it's a trail we know from having run it numerous times - no new navigation required; and it's protected by tall trees along most of it's length. PERFECT! It was amazing how much that helped my motivation turn around. I realized I did want to do this ride. The doing wasn't nearly as overwhelming as figuring out a safe way was. We hied ourselves hither to Durham and had a great ride. It was still windy and the temperature dropped ten degrees or more during our hour out and back - but we did it! Safely. When we could have "justified" not biking. Yay us!

Another pebble to add to the confidence jar.
Peace.