Swimming

but not yet submerged. At least not all the way, keep reading to find out more!

This morning I really got going on planning the 4th of July Crit in downtown Northfield, which everyone should come to. It will be great fun, I talked with some businesses, some city officials, and many other people. Things are going well, I should be able to wrap up most of it tomorrow.

I took a break to go ride for an hour part way through so my phone would not explode. Yesterday I rode just under 3 hours and my legs had no gas at all the entire time. I had a nice big dinner last night and that made all the difference, I can say for sure I was simply not eating enough, the whole moving home and all through my eating out of whack. I'll have to be more careful. But anyways I only went an hour since I decided to ride with the Ski Hut group tonight, they usually go pretty hard and long.

At about 4 it started to rain, not hard, but more than sprinkle. By 5 (start time) it was pouring. I had decided to not wear my new rain jacket and go with the doper vest instead because it was warm at my house. Bad choice. By the time I got to Ski Hut 5 minutes after starting I was soaked. I had though the ride was going to go away from the lake, but nope, we went over the bridge to Wisconsin to ride the course for this weekend. On the way down the hill we got going pretty quick. The rain at 35 miles an hour felt like hail, not very pleasant. A lake wind picked up right then and I froze. My hands were numb and I was just plain cold. Don't forget it is still pouring! It was by far the coldest when we rode over the high bridge, cold but really cool. I had never ridden over the bridge before. It is quite tall.

Eventually we started heading away from the Lake and it got warmer and warmer. But the rain decided to pick up, somehow. It was the most rain I have ever seen come down well riding a bike. The roads were rivers, great fun. I now know what it is like to bike upstream, and it is hard. At one point there was a really close lightning strike, I wondered what would happen to carbon if it got hit. I figured it would explode, so after being electrocuted I would be filled with shrapnel, that would make for a good story if I survived!

After that lightning the rain let up, finally, and it got warmer. I even took off my arm warmers and vest. At one point on the south side of the course the pace picked up for a stop ahead sign. We were cruisin. A good 45 km/h, it felt good to put the gas down for a bit. And even better is that I was not getting tired. A good couple of miles later the sign came into view and I took off from the front. It was uncontested from there, why exactly I am not sure. But that was my chance to rip some legs off, I did not get long enough too, but it was still fun.

Then it was back towards the Lake into the cold. As we got into Duluth, the fog rolled in. The last 10 km or so I could not see more than 100 meters up the road. It was great. I rolled into my driveway at just under 4 hours. So I got a good 5 hours in today. And I feel great...

Tomorrow is more race planning, riding, and job searching.