September’s Soggy Sayonara

Statistically unimpressive, but better than nothing!

I followed last Saturday’s cyclocross race with a Sunday road ride here in the Philadelphia suburbs, then lost the next five days to the shockingly widespread effects of Hurricane Helene. Things aren’t as bad here as they are in Georgia and the Carolinas, but we have had at least some rain every day since Monday. I found just enough time for a walk on each day that I couldn’t ride, so I haven’t been completely idle. I had to complete some of those walks at night on days that offered no breaks while the sun was allegedly up. There is some chance of rain tomorrow, Monday, and on Tuesday as October begins. I didn’t expect Wisconsin would have better weather during this time of year, but I didn’t predict Helene. And, as you should expect, I have been pretty miserable this week.

Next weekend looks beautiful, so I still hope to do another cyclocross race here. A long layoff is poor preparation for a race. Those five lost days were my longest layoff since April 1-6. I forced myself to ride today in conditions that were less than ideal. There was a constant mist, but at least there was no rain during my ride. The roads were wet and fallen leaves made for many sketchy corners. I rode for almost 1.5 hours and saw exactly zero other cyclists. It wasn’t much of a ride, but it was far better than another rest day. I need to test myself a little more in the days to come, then decide by Thursday’s pre-registration deadline whether I’m racing on Saturday.