This was a ride of will power. I had 3.5 hours on the calendar today and when I awoke and saw the weather it instantly became a game of mental gymnastics.

It was raining, and 38 degrees and it looked to be more of the same the rest of the day. So, I suited up, put on all my rain gear, got the rain bike down and left.

All of my usual riding pals bailed, so I was on my own.

It wasn't horrible, just naggingly uncomfortable. I was dressed well and the only problem I had was with my shoe covers. I grabbed the wrong ones - the ones that are not waterproof - and I paid for it. My feet were soaked within an hour.

The wind was the worst part - a steady 20 mph wind from the east - and so I decided to head straight north as far as a could and then straight south. Where I had to go east and west, I chose roads with tree coverage.

II ended up getting home 4 hours later, soaking wet, cold and hungry. I downed a recovery drink and got a hot shower and some hot soup and feel remarkably well.