Educating The Ignorant

Aloha Friday ocean swim this morning... Was windy today so the water was a good bit choppier than it's been the last 2 weeks. I didn't really realize it until mid-way through the swim, but we also had a significant head current all the way out... Took us 27min to get to the buoy when normally it's like 22-23. Got back in 21min though so what goes around comes around. :) There's a swim race tomorrow morning- sort of in the same area we swim. I've done it before but am not doing it tomorrow. I think it's going to be challenging out there for those who opt into that one! It's not a triathlon though so they won't cancel the swim.

Got all my work done today in a pretty timely fashion, even with a few phone calls thrown in! Headed out for one of my 'As You Feel' rides in the afternoon... I felt like a ton of bricks so rode about as slow/easy as I ever have and called it a recovery ride. I was about a mile from home cutting through a neighborhood when a big truck nearly side-swiped me. Sometimes I handle that ok but I am PMSing right now so today I did not- totally flipped the guy off then passed him back b/c he had to slow for a stop sign. I got through that intersection before he did but he made the same left turn, passed me (again too close) and I threw my arm up at him like Dude what is your problem?? At that he stopped his car in the middle of the road, window down was shouting at me ASSHOLE ASSHOLE ASSHOLE, which I found odd b/c isn't that term normally reserved for men? I rode up right next to his window though and then he was shouting that I should get out of the f'ing road and get on the sidewalk... I tried to tell him that I have every right to the road that he does but he couldn't hear me above his own incessant repeating of ASSHOLE! Eventually the confrontation ended and he drove ahead, only to get stopped at a stoplight where I rode up behind him and promptly took a picture of his license plate.

To be honest, at that point I was shaking and that was easily the highest my heart rate went all day. I got home and immediately showered and then went straight to the police station where I relayed the story and showed them the picture of the plate. The officer was cool- he ran the plate and said yep the guy lives here in town and that they would have an officer go "council" him. Not sure if that will make any difference or not, but my thought after this confrontation was that this ignorant fuck doesn't even know that cyclists are allowed to ride on the roads and that seems like something he should know.

Back out to ride again tomorrow, I think. It's supposed to be rainy in the morning which doesn't really excite me, but the traffic on Saturday afternoons might be worse than the rain in the morning... 19mph winds forecasted all day as well. (The funny thing is that they're calling Sunday the 'windy' day. Apparently round here 19mph doesn't qualify as windy.) So my choice for riding this weekend is a) Saturday morning with wind and rain; b) Saturday afternoon with wind and traffic; or c) Sunday morning with (likely) rain and even more wind (but likely the least amount of traffic!). Hmmmmm. Decisions decisions... #triathleteproblems