Weathermen and Yardage

Yesterday, the plan was to ride to and from work. Wednesday night, a quick check of the weather indicated the "from" portion of that plan might pose a few problems. You know, minor things like hail. And tornadoes.

While little things like wind and rain won't deter me from a ride, solid rain and 80 mile an hour winds are another story. And the two co-workers in on the ride were more concerned than myself. After a final check of the forecast, we call off the ride.

On the way to work, it was beautiful. High 50s, little wind, no rain. That was expected as the forecast called for the conditions to deteriorate throughout the day. Around lunch, people started talking about how windy it was getting and that the storms were coming.

I checked the satellite maps and disagreed. Still, all the weather services were calling for severe weather going into the afternoon and evening.

On the ride home, I noted how nice it was. A bit windy, but actually quite nice. Even then, I held out hope for the forecasters. After all, were I on my bike, the ride would take much longer than in the car. By the time I got home, no rain. No hail. No tornadoes. But the forecasters were showing all the tracking maps and continued to issue severe weather alerts for our area.

Showtime for the kids. No bad weather. Snacktime. All clear. Bedtime. No flashes of lightning. No funnel clouds. Nothing. Clear skies. And a neighbor mowing his lawn. An odd thing to do were we in the middle of a tornado.

Darn weathermen. I knew I should have risked the ride.

On a lighter note, today was a swim workout. And a major milestone in swimming. While last year was far from a "massive" swim year, I completed about 169,200 yards. Today, I completed 169,600 yards for 2007. It seems Coach Mike's plan for increasing yardage has worked. In two weeks, we'll see how well beneficial the swim focus has been when I compete in my first race of the year, the High Cliff half-IM.

Now, get out there and train. The weatherman is probably wrong.