Wet wet wet

I checked the forecast this morning the old fashioned way - I wandered out into the backyard in a pair of shorts and barefoot and decided that it was cool enough to required the wearing of a thermal shirt under my normal fluro cycling top.

Just as well.

I hate wearing the thermo thing as I am usually too hot after about 10 minutes on the bike, and I can never be bothered to stop to take it off. It's fine for the first few streets, but once the legs have been going around and around for a bit, and the blood has started moving, all it does is produce more sweat.

It is a necessary evil. I usually don't need it in the afternoons as it is warm enough on the ride home, so I just stuff into one of the stretchy pockets on the back of my shirt.

As I was leaving our dungeon today (no view of the outside world), I bumped into a bloke coming who was soaked from top to bottom. He made some comment about it pissing down. I decided it would be a good idea to take the thermal thing out of my pocket and put it on.

And a good thing it was too. Our office empties out into a laneway between two fairly tall buildings, so it is sheltered from the wind, but the rain still comes down. And it was pouring down - the laneway has not been resurfaced since Curtin was around, so the pot holes looked like swimming pools and the lane was absolutely awash from kerb to kerb. Some women were trying to cross the lane without getting their feet wet, and it was a total waste of time. Imagine trying to walk across a swimming pool without getting wet.

It was raining so hard, my teeth were chattering within a few minutes. The problem with the location of the office is that my first few minutes of the ride home are spent in traffic with no option to duck and weave and get anywhere. I just have to suck it up. That meant standing at red traffic lights, waiting for them to change, whilst the rain just bucketed down. There are times when cycling is not for wimps, and that was one of them. I could feel the rain running down my arms and dribbling off my wrists in streams.

It didn't take long to warm up, but warming up means steam. By the time I got to Lilyfield road, the rain had stopped and I had started steaming, which meant my glasses fogged up and I couldn't see a thing. I had to take them off and just put up with rain in the eyes.

Taking the glasses off was wierd, as the nature of the lens makes it look like I am riding at a lower position than I actually am, so I almost got vertigo when I took them off - I felt like I was suddenly riding a penny-farthing. Wierd.

One of the worst things about riding on a day like today is the shoe squelch. If you go through a reasonably deep puddle at speed (deeper than a few inches), water just jets out from the front wheel and hits you around the ankle of your forward foot. That water collects in the sock, and it all runs down into the shoe. At that point, the only option is to ride through another deep puddle with the other foot forward, as one squelchy shoe feels really off.

The only odd thing about such a ride is how filthy I get - all sorts of muck runs off the road in the rain, and I end up with sand and mud splashed up my calves almost to my knees. The bike looks like I have been doing some serious off road mountain biking - the only time it needs a wash paradoxically is after a heavy rain.

Thankfully it was still around 20 degrees when I left work, with an apparent air temp of around 17. It would be miserable to have to do that in winter when the temp is around 15. Ugh. Must remember to buy spray jacket.

Also must remember to search the wardrobe for the leggings. I know that they are the gayest thing, but better to be thought a fag than to freeze like an idiot.