What a ride!

Today I finished up my supply work on the base. No major problems to report. When I got home I had to call the tax centre to discuss one of my students with his manager (who was also one of my students who happened to be in the same class). I actually thought the conversation was going to be about the progress report I had written for him; this particular student had some serious attitude and effort issues and I made them quite clear in his evaluation. However, as it turned out, she wanted to discuss the negative comments he had made about me on his course critique. Basically, she wanted to apologize for his remarks, especially since she was in the same class and saw that his comments didn't make any sense. She had a meeting with him and as it turns out, they were the result of his bitterness about my refusal to move him to a different group. I discussed the myriad of reasons why I made that decision, which she completely understood and agreed with. The conversation was much less stressful than I was anticipating, even though it was in French. It was funny because normally I would speak with her in English, but now it was my turn to communicate in my second language.
Tonight was my regularly-scheduled Tuesday Gazelles ride. While we were getting ourselves organized, the rain clouds started to roll in. We were originally going to go out to Bec Scie and back, but the group leader decided to head down Talbot instead so we would be closer to our cars in case the weather got too bad. Sure enough, we got a few kilometres out and the rain began. By the time we got to Ch. du Boulevard, we were all completely soaked and one girl had to dump the water out of her shoes. When we left Costco, I was in a 28 km/h group with 7 other ladies. At the depanneur, 4 of them decided to head straight back and the rest of us went up Rang St-Pierre. It was a challenging ride and I had difficulty keeping up. With the rain, I was so soaked and I could barely see out of my glasses, plus at one point we were riding at 36-38 km/h. I just couldn't do it. Thankfully, I was saved by a red light, which gave me a chance to recover. One of the ladies suggested I work on upping my cadence so that I don't get as tired. Right now, I average about 60-75 rpm, but she suggested I aim for more like 80-100 so that the bulk of the work is absorbed by my legs rather than my cardiovascular system. I'll definitely keep this in mind on my next ride. I was pretty thankful when we reached the Costco parking lot. We only covered 22km but I was glad to be done. I was a mess when I got home, completely covered with mud and chain grease. Straight to the shower for me!