Rain Nontraining

Dammit! I should be racing at the Tour Down Under right now, spanking the collective tails of the pro peloton, accepting accolades in Adelaide, et cetera, and at the conclusion of the race, I should spend a week wrestling with crocodiles – to improve my scant upper-body strength, of course. But I’ve been spending the week training in Los Angeles instead, which has been brutal indeed, since LA is experiencing its biggest weeklong rain event since Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered California in 1542. My way of dealing with the rain: watch the Food Network and ride the trainer. This may sound like a pussy’s way out of a manly, ride-in-the-rain world, but you wouldn’t believe the wonderful new recipe ideas I’ve gotten this week, not to mention various really smart ways to decorate the table before plating dinner for my guests because you know what? Cooking for other people is all about improving life for your friends, or at least that’s what the cooking-show ladies have been saying all week, and why not believe them? I’m sitting for a couple of hours indoors, on a trainer, in Southern California, hiding from the rain when the temperature is 55 degrees; it doesn’t take much to imagine a better life under these circumstances. Probably this very second, as the legend goes, there are people out motorpacing in Northern Wisconsin, in a windchill of 25 degrees below zero, and I guess when we hit the first cobbled stretch at the Tour of Flanders in April, those people are going to drop me. That’s cool with me, I guess: I’m setting my sights on races farther along in the calendar.

On the cross-training front, however, everything’s right on track. My new neighborhood is famous for its incredibly steep streets and for its amazingly long staircases that rise up and over the sharp hills. The dog and I have been taking forced daily, hourlong forced marches in the rain, and while I have found the 20 flights of stairs near Earl Street to be rather painful taking them two at a time, the dog has said to me, “Them stairs ain’t nothing the way you’re runnin em.” She’s right. I have to pick it up.

Anyway, the weather’s clearing tomorrow, and I’m riding outside. Thinking about dusting off the road bike and seeing what life is like on 23 cc tires: I’ve forgotten.

I’m thinking about lamb chops with a rosemary lemon sauce, too.

Happy riding.