Wind, Rain and Benadryl

It’s been a dreary couple of days here in B’more, though there’s hope of some improvement later today.  I’ve been taking Benadryl the past couple of nights at bedtime, to help with a lingering post-nasal drip that tends to wake me up at night if I don’t drug it into submission.  The Benadryl helps me get a good night’s sleep, but unfortunately it makes me incredibly draggy in the morning.  That, combined with drizzle and thick fog, led me to skip riding yesterday.  I regretted it later, of course, but it was probably the right call.

This morning, it was raining again, but visibility was better, so I rode.  It turned out to be one of my toughest rides of the year.  I’m not sure if it was the Benadryl after-effects, the 20mph headwind, or both, but I was really laboring to get up the hills during the second half of the ride.  Hopefully my rides will improve with the weather for the second half of the week.

The good news is, the clip-on fenders I ordered for my road bike arrived on Friday, one day after I ordered them.  I hope to try them out soon.  I’ll post a write-up on them after I’ve taken them for a few bad-weather rides.  I’m interested to see how they compare to full fenders.  I tried full fenders with the road bike for a while, but the bike just doesn’t have enough clearance for them, particularly under the brakes.  They worked, but it took an hour of fiddling to get them adjusted correctly, and even then they would still occasionally rub the tires.  The clip-ons shouldn’t have that problem.