Last week my bike remained firmly parked in the shed. I had a serious dose of food poisoning on Monday night, the after effects of which lingered for pretty much the rest of the week.
So after a seven-day hiatus, I was itching to get back on the bike this morning. Despite the threat of rain I knew I’d have an attack of the guilts if I caught the tube.
I’m glad I braved it. It didn’t rain once, and the traffic was nice and manageable because it’s school holiday time and half of London’s gone in search of sun on the Continent.
The journey home was a different story though. When I left the office at 5.15pm it was raining pretty heavily. I (foolishly) didn’t have a rain jacket so had to cycle home in a rather inadequate t-shirt with a flouro waistcoat over the top.
It rained for the entire 6.5 miles. It was that kind of drizzly, gets-into-everything rain that you know isn’t going to stop any time soon.
By the time I got in the door I was soaked through to the skin, my hair ragged like rat tails and my shoes squeaking with water. But if I’m really honest, I enjoyed cycling through the rain: I love the cooling sensation on my skin and the sound of the water sloshing out of the puddles when I skid through them! I just wouldn’t want to do it every day. Oh, and it’s always better if it rains on the return journey when you know there’s a hot shower waiting at the other end.
Today’s roundtrip total distance: 12.48 miles | Ride time: 77min and 04sec | Average speed: 10.30mph | Top speed: 20.4mph
London Cycling Diary 
Heard on the radio this afternoon that there was flooding in the London area and that somewhere there had been as much rain in one day as that area usually gets in a month!
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Yeah, cycling in the rain is pretty good fun–but more so when you’re on the way home!
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Revrunner, the whole country is under water. What happened to summer??
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Summer is here in Virginia where I live and where we’ve had about 12-13″ less rain than usual. I think England must have gotten it all, plus some.
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