Quote Originally Posted by betagirl
Today I had the bright idea to try to outrun a thunderstorm. I got about 2 miles into my commute and pulled off at a gas station as the lighting flashed all around me. The rain started about a minute after I pulled off. So I got to hang out for about 15 minutes or so. The roads were nice and wet, so I got that familiar swamp a** from water spraying up my backside. My normal commuter has a fender, but the rear tire is flat. So that was groovy. After class, I rode up to Performance to get new tires, then home. 26.8 miles all together. Oh and a great headwind on the way home. Blah.
Yeah, what was that yesterday?

The 4th Wed of the month is "Street Cleaning Day", aka, "Large Revenue for the City Day" in the neighborhood where I work. So the options are:

1. Drive 3 miles (15 min) to work, drive around for 25 min, walk a mile from the parking place you finally find
OR
2. Ride the bike (18 min), lock it up in the basement of the clinic, go to work.

A no-brainer, right? Unless it's lightning, thundering, and hailing when I need to leave for work. Sigh. I knew I'd end up spending $$ on gas just trying to park, and then walk in the rain/hail anyways, so I dug out my yellow rain poncho and took off on the bike. Luckily didn't get myself killed with that big yellow plastic thing flapping all around me. "Who's a duck on wheels NOW?!", I thought. Am I right that the rubber in the wheels makes me safer riding a metal contraption with lightning flashing all around me?

Coming home it wasn't raining anymore, but quite a wind out of the west. Whopping total of 6.11 miles, the standard ride to work mileage.

Maybe I'll turn up some rain gear at Turin on the 8th.