Rainy Saturday

What are you favorite things to do on a rainy Saturday? Do you sleep in and listen to the rain? Drink coffee and read the morning paper? Play games with your kids and post silly pictures of them on Facebook. Read a book or magazine while lying around in your pajamas. Or maybe you like to run on the treadmill or maybe do some strength training. Running out in the rain is always an option too. I have to admit, all of these things sound like a pretty good way to spend a rainy Saturday, but for me, I could not think of too much that is better than what I did this morning.

This morning, I participated in a Pro K Racing team workout. The general plan was to meet at a nearby church and then bike 30 miles to Lake Anna and then swim 1+ miles in the lake to practice open water swimming. As Saturday approached, it seemed like rain could be in the forecast. Karen, our coach, said that if it was raining, we would still meet at the church but then drive to Lake Anna and swim in the rain.

When I awoke on Saturday, it was not raining. But one glance of the radar showed it was on its way. I was not sure what to do. I inspected various weather websites and tried to calculate the speed of the storm. In the end, I decided I could beat the rain to the meeting point. From there, if we drove to the lake, at least I would have gotten in some riding.

It is about 9+ miles from my house to the meeting spot. When I left out of my driveway at about 7:40 AM, it was dry. It was a peaceful morning and there were not many people out and about yet. I started out slow so I could warm up and not tax my system right out of the gate. After about 10 minutes, I started to pick up the pace. It felt good to be out on the bike early in the morning. Riding solo can be kind of peaceful especially when there is not much traffic. And there was not.

I arrived at the meeting spot about 8:15 and to my surprise, everyone was arriving and getting their bikes ready. Some had rain gear so I knew that we were going to give it a go. It was determined and explicitly stated that, YES, we were going to get wet. It was warm enough that the rain would not be too big a deal. It would require extra caution on the road and we would have to me especially mindful of each other. But at least we would not be cold. To me, cold rain is never fun.

When we took off out of the parking lot there were about 6 to 8 of us towards the front of the pack. After a few minutes of riding, I noticed that coach Karen and one other Pro K rider were riding off the front. There was a small gap that had developed between them and the pack I was in. I decided to kick it up a notch and close the gap. It was fun. I had not rode with a group of people that I knew in so long. I could tell the day was going to be fun.

As the rain started to fall, there was a shout from the back of our pack. We were going a little too fast and there were one or two people falling off the back. To me, "falling of the back" is a cycling term that seems slightly nicer than the other term you often here. It was this other term that was uttered. "Someone is getting dropped." We stopped to regroup and once we had everyone together again, we started out on the road again. The rain started picking up and it was at this point in the ride when Karen said that she was going to fall to the back of the pack to ride with the slower people and she asked me to lead.

This was not exactly what I had in mind. The pack I was riding with included several very strong men and women. We are talking about multiple Ironman finishers. I felt like there was pressure on my rear wheel so I did all I could to put the hammer down. Looking at my heart rate data afterwards, I can see exactly when I was given the task of leading the ride. My HR climbed into zone 5 at about 160 beats per minute. I was able to hold on for a while. I attribute being able to hold on for as long as I did to the good people at Richmond Cycling Corporation who have elevated my cycling ability to a new high. At one point during the ride, I heard one woman say, "Here's a hill, let's see what you got Rosen." Of course that put the pressure on even more. I was giving it my all, breathing hard, heart racing, and doing my best.

After a while, someone came up and took the lead and I was able to slide back into the draft. While riding in the draft, I felt like I could ride all day. It felt so good to be riding with a team. There is something special about it and it is hard to explain. I would never have been able to go as fast I did when riding behind the men and women who I rode with today. Not only did I get the physical draft, I got the mental and emotional lift from riding with these exceptional people. Plus it was raining, so there was that added level of adventure.

As we continued to ride, we increased the gab between the lead pack and the slightly slower group behind us. In fact, for me, this was a hammerfest. I was able to hang but I was definitely pushing it. For the rest of the riders, I think they felt pretty darn comfortable while I was slightly out of my comfort zone. But then again, that is what made the ride so great. It was like when I was kid and always played soccer with my older brothers and their friends. The immersion automatically makes one improve. At least in my book.

At some point, one of our guys got a flat and we all stopped while he fixed his flat. Some people took the opportunity to use the facility that is the great outdoors. I took the opportunity to suck down some Hammer Gel and water. After about 10 minutes or so, the other riders caught up to us. We had put a pretty good gap on them but now they had caught up. They decided to keep going while we waited for our guy to finish fixing his flat.

When we got mobile again, my legs felt like they had stiffened up a bit. It would have been nice to ease back into the ride but my fellow teammates had other ideas. Hammer Down! And we were off. My legs complained a little but my heart rate did not spike quite as high. Before you knew it, we had caught up to the other group and passed them. We were in the lead again. And while it was not a race, it was fun to chase, close the gap, draft, fall of the back and climb back to the front, etc, etc.

After about 30 miles of fairly hard riding (for me), we arrived at the lake. Melissa was driving our car as a team support car and followed the riders to the lake. She also had the wetsuits and our other gear. We changed into our wetsuits, donned our swim caps and goggles and waded into the lake. The water was great. It was still raining but the water temperature was actually higher than it is at the pool where we swim.

After a brief float in the water, I started the swim. The water was calm and we all went out at our own pace. There were several kayakers out on the water to support us which was really nice. Swimming in open water is probably my biggest weakness at this point. There are no lane lines and more importantly for me, there is no wall every 25 meters. In the pool, I get the one second break at the 25 meter turn around and the kick off the wall. No walls in the lake. I find that after a while, I am very out of breath and have to take a little break. I continue to kick like a frog and crawl my way forward a bit when I take these breathers so I am making forward progress but it is pretty slow progress and other swimmers pull away from me at this point. I had several breaks along the swim. It was quite peaceful and quiet out there. When I did stop swimming and my breathing slowed down a bit, it seemed so calm and relaxing. Just floating in the lake with the light rain coming down all around me, it was nice.

I am not sure how long it took me to swim the mile. It was pretty long relatively speaking I think. What fun though. I got my first wet suit swim in before my upcoming triathlon in the same lake I will be racing in. This is going to help me immensely. I got to practice sighting and I got to swim a bit with Melissa and watch her swim. She has better form than me for sure. Both the ride and the swim were really great and I can't thank Karen enough for putting the whole training event together.