I'm no longer in the mood

I was gonna title this post "Today will suck balls"... but whatever.

As I sit here and stare out the window at the falling rain I have already realized that this entire day will get no better for me until 5:30pm. I clicked over to weather.com and the forecast calls for rain all day, and the temperature now (35°) is pretty much the temperature I'm gonna be seeing (actually feeling) all day. I'll be getting on my bike at 7:30am, and by the time I get to work everything except my core will be wet, and it will probably stay that way all day.

I'm not necessarily bitching. This is what I get paid to do on a Monday through Friday basis, and it's what I've been doing for the last thirteen or so years. This is also the reason that I will bail on the Pisgah 36 if I'm faced with similar weather on the weekend of February the 20th. I get PAID to go out in these conditions and expose myself to what will be at the end of the day a bit of a painful experience. I've got decent gear, but by the time I get home I will only be dry from my shoulders down to a place slightly below my waist, and perhaps dry down to an area between my elbows and my wrists. The novelty of trying to take of my shoes with throbbing, soaked fingers to expose my aching feet wore off over a decade ago, and spending the fifteen minutes after I walk back into my house after a wet day hanging my gear all over my bike room is an activity I have learned to do without thought or will. It is purely an intuitive act that has been placed under the jurisdiction of my autonomic nervous system, and it just happens as soon as the shoes come off my feet.

I will be a fair weather competitor of the Pisgah 36. I get to ride in the Pisgah National Forest whenever I want (and when The Pie issues a kitchen pass). I don't need to go slogging around at 4:00am in a freezing rain to get my kicks. Sure, I'll feel like a pussy if I bail, but I've quit races for much more pansy like reasons than freezing rain and less than fun trail conditions. I've got plenty to look forward to the rest of the year... lotsa early season stuff like the Six Hours of Warrior Creek, PMBAR, and the Trans Sylvania Epic Stage race, so I have no reason to start hating myself this early in the year. There will be plenty of self loathing in my future. I just need to be patient.

In suck-ass conclusion...

If anybody knows of any place within three hours of Charlotte where I can get some riding done this weekend please let me know. I'm gonna go nuts if I don't get outta the house, and I might even break out my *gasp* road bike. Please don't let it come to this. Save me Jeremiah Bisquick, and stop by my house on your way down interstate 77 en route to the promised land.