The rulz for today's bike

Local thunderstorms were forecast for the Calgary area.  Local can mean horror show weather in one place, with nice sunshine just a mile away. Or less. The plan called for a warm up, 4x10 hard with cadence above 90 rpm. I really wanted to do it outdoors. I got through the entire winter without running on a treadmill once, and I'd really like to not get back on the trainer till after IMC.

At work, in the baking heat because the air conditioning isn't working, I made up the rulz for tonight's ride, so I'd know when to quit, if I had to. It's so hot in the office they brought in those industrial fans they use after floods.

• Go if it's raining. (I need to learn to ride in the rain.)
• Obey the traffic lights regardless of hard easy cycle. (It's rush hour and I'm not suicidal.) (There are three lights to go straight through, and two uncontrolled left turns.)
• Sprint the bit of Anderson Road between 24th St and Woodpark Blvd, regardless of the hard easy cycle. (Not much shoulder and lots of traffic.)
• Stop if there is hail or nearby lightning. (With any luck the first strike won't be *really* nearby.)
• Stay fairly close to home so I can bail if I need to, so ride the 37 St, Anderson, through the neighbourhood loop of 9.25 K. (Thunderstorms here can be very violent with 100 Kph wind gusts and grape sized hail being common.)

What I forgot to wear was my glasses with the lanyard. This keeps them nice and snug. My regular glasses slide down just a bit. Not enough to notice most of the time, but when you're peering out beneath your eyebrows, every mm you have to lift your head counts. Plus I was scrunching my nose to keep the glasses up. Not a good look, and not good for the neck and shoulder muscles.

The ride ended up being a 20 min warm up, 2x10 hard, with 5 minutes easy between. Just as I was about to start the 3rd hard, the wind started getting crazy gusty blowing dust everywhere. It's hard to ride when you have your eyes squinched shut. I headed into the neighbourhood roads to get some shelter from the wind and see if it would pass. Turning one corner I was nearly blown over. I bailed out at just under the hour mark.

Lots of stretching and core after, nearly 45 minutes worth. Plank was till too painful. Front and side each.

Oh, and in the good news department I got my paper back from Mount Royal University,  and I passed! So now I'm a certified Business Analyst. I guess the next thing is join the IIBA and work on further credentials. My paper was to investigate the potential of creating an iPhone app for triathletes to replace bike computer, heart rate monitor, GPS device, and run pedometer. Plus do all the spiffy calcs with such data, or upload it to an internet service.