I came back from Vegas with a cold. It developed Sunday night, and got worse as the week progressed. It is still lingering, but blog posts about head colds aren’t very interesting, so I’m not going to dwell on it.
What’s important is that Coach Bobby tells me that I can ride through a head cold, but not through a chest cold. This one has been exclusively in the head, so no problem there.
The problem has been the weather. Last week I dealt with the extreme heat of the desert. This week has been the complete opposite – the tropical rainforest that has been the southeast. It rained just about every day when I was gone, and has rained at some point every day since. The timing has not been convenient for riding, with most storms taking place in the late afternoon or evening. As I write this on my lunch break, it is clear outside during the daytime, with an 80% chance of rain later. It looks like I’ll be making alternate plans, or more likely, spending another evening on the couch.
My plans this weekend were for some serious riding in the North Georgia Mountains, meeting up with Jim from Fit Recovery. Again, weather has intervened, this time in the form of a tropical storm. That was Chantal, which was threatening to hit Florida, the Carolinas, and Georgia this weekend. That was enough for me to cancel my plans. Last night it weakened into a tropical wave. That’s good, because the last thing we need is heavy rain, but I understand there still could be some leftover rain threatening Georgia. It is still smart to play it safe and ride further north.
With short notice, the choice was between Hot Doggett and Lake Norman Excursion near Charlotte. I went with the latter because it seems to have a slightly better weather forecast and is a little easier. Coming off a cold, a mountain century might be too much. A relatively flat century may be just what I need to reinvigorate my fitness. Plus it’s a new ride to me, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s a little closer and wouldn’t require an overnight stay.
Sorry Jim that our plans didn’t work out. Hopefully we’ll have better luck another time.
SteepClimbs.com 
July 11th, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Aaron, I know it’s not the funnest thing to do, but you could ride the trainer instead of sitting on the couch. Or, you could ride in the rain – like a pro.
July 11th, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Ha! I should have known you’d come at me with rule #5. I’ve ridden in my share of the rain, but we’ve been dealing with torrential downpours that nobody wants to ride through. The trainer is hibernating for the summer. I’ll probably end up at the gym tonight.
July 11th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
+1 for not riding in this slop we call weather in the SE lately. My Tri in Chattanooga this weekend became a Dua because the TN river is oveflowing
July 14th, 2013 at 9:00 am
I know another tri that was cancelled because of the water level on the open swim. Hopefully this weather cycle will end soon, not just for riding, but to contain flooding. I saw some crazy sights up in the hills, including a giant sinkhole caused by rain.