Even though I’ve changed out of my soggy clothes, gulped some glutamine, rolled out my legs, had lunch, lounged in the bath and am now wearing normal street clothes – I still feel wet. My skin is wrinkly and I just feel “not quite dry”.

Small trade-off I suppose for 3 plus hours in the rain today. Boy was it raining. During my ride the rain was steady, accentuated by the driving wind. At times I wasn’t sure if it was raining, snowing, hailing or all of the above. At least I was well-dressed for the ride. I wore my trusty MEC rain pants – these pants are often scorned by traditionalists… They are not tight and sleek. The are baggy with wonderful three-way zippers on the legs and taped seams. The water cannot penetrate these pants. Fashion takes a back seat to these wonder-pants. I wore shorts and leg warmers under these pants and was super comfy during my ride.

My toes and hands started to get really cold with about twenty minutes to go in the ride. Partly due to the dropping temperatures and to the fact that I was close to home – things I feel became less bearable the closer one is to the ultimate destination.

So the ride was pretty uneventful. Ride at an endurance pace for 60 minutes and then three 10 minute tempo intervals. In a three hour block. A great way to add some variety to a long ride and to get some good recovery into the legs.

I loaded up my iPod with lots of podcasts so I had something interesting to listen to. Really enjoy the NPR Fresh Air podcasts, though I don’t think that the host is a very good interviewer. She seems to stick to her list of questions and doesn’t really pay attention to what her guests are saying. She also fawns over her guests a bit. But all in all, her guests are intelligent and add a new perspective to my day.

We watched Running The Sahara last night. An excellent movie. I recommend this movie to any athlete. The three guys and support crew are amazing. Imagine running across the Sahara dessert? It certainly puts a 3 hour ride in the rain in perspective.

Alright, I’m out. Time to read my third newspaper of the day and then perhaps a nap.