It was another hot and humid morning, 78° when I woke up at 5:30. Thunderstorms are supposed to come through later, with more comfortable weather following in their wake. That’s good news of us for those doing Bear Brook, the Great Cranberry Island 50K, or the Vermont 100 this weekend.
Temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s in New Hampshire Saturday at the starting line for Bear Brook. It’ll still get hot as the day goes on – it is summer after all – but at least we won’t suffer horribly the whole way.
I’m doing Bear Brook as a training run but that doesn’t mean I want to go into the event tired. Starting today, I’m doing a semi-taper through the rest of the week.
I was planning on a leisurely 30 mile ride with the Charles River Wheelmen’s Wednesday Wheelers this morning, but the ride was canceled because of the threat of storms. So I went out and did a ride by myself. I chose a relatively easy route, riding to Waltham and then along the flat paths along the Charles River basin into Boston. I got a late start because the Wheelers ride wasn’t canceled until mid-morning. Usually the morning commuters drive all the rabbits into hiding, but there was still one nibbling by the side of the path in Watertown, unfazed by the hubbub. That made today another bunny day.
The day wasn’t so lucky for drivers on Soldiers Field Road. There was a state cop blocking inbound traffic at Cambridge St. where the Mass Pike feeds into the river roads. I found out why a little farther along when I saw a Bud Light truck backing out on the inbound side of the parkway. The truck was too tall to fit under the bridges at BU, so it had to stop, call the cops, wait while they cleared the road, and then do the roll of shame back to Cambridge St. At least the driver didn’t hit the bridge – that mess would take even longer to clean up. It was a good day to be on the bike.
I’ll continue the semi-taper with a 4 mile run at Casey’s tomorrow night, and then I’ll take a day off before heading to New Hampshire early Saturday morning for the race.
No rain yet. Let’s hope the storms do their thing!
(28.8 mi. bike; 148#)