This morning, I was in a rush from the get-go, so I was kind of stressed and in a foul mood. Fortunately, the weather cleared up as soon as I hit the freeway. Then, about a mile from the starting location, it started raining again. So we started in the rain.
I got assigned to a pretty fast group. I was the only first-timer in it. This was probably a good thing because I never got going fast or hard enough to really warm up, and would’ve been colder if I were in a slower group. But it didn’t do much for my paceline skills. I was pretty much at my mental limit trying to remember everything I’m supposed to do. And since this was the first time I’d ever ridden in a paceline, that’s not good.
FYI: a paceline is a group of riders who ride single-file and work together as a team. The rider in the front blocks the wind for the other riders. When he/she gets tired or has been in the lead long enough, he/she shouts “rotate,” slides to the left of the paceline and drops to the back of the line. There are other things you need to do like call out obstacles, give hand signals for slowing and stopping, and maintain your spacing, but it all takes experience. It also takes trust because you’re supposed to ride just 2-5 feet behind the rider in front of you.
After a slow start to go over all of the instructions, we hit our stride—15-22 MPH according to my bike computer. Things went well, but the rain continued to come down pretty heavy, so our head coach called the ride. A few of us wanted to keep going and so we went out for another lap. It was good practice for me, plus I really wanted to get a good workout and one 7.5-mile lap wasn’t enough.
The sun decided to join us and we laughed about how the ride got called too early. But cold is cold and the sunshine wasn’t strong enough to warm me. I got soaked right away and now was starting to get really cold. So we just did the one extra lap and packed up.
While I was getting everything in my car, I started to REALLY get cold. I guess I underestimated how low my body temperature was. Even with the car heater going full blast, I was still shivering. Of course, I still had my wet bike clothes on and what does good bike gear do? Wick moisture away from your body where it can evaporate. So, the heater just accelerated that, which is why I wasn’t getting any warmer. I was 2/3 of the way home before I finally started to warm up. The first thing I did when I got home (after stowing my stuff) was take a 30-minute hot shower. Man did that feel good!
It’s probably going to rain tomorrow, but I’ve already washed my stuff in case we still do our hill repeats. Hopefully it will dry in time.
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