Well, the "old wives tale" that I am talking about is: stay out of the rain to prevent getting sick. Well after this past weekend's racing at sea otter classic, where torrential downpours and high wind soaked the entire women's field, I have made up my own mind on this matter.

I have trained and trained and trained in the rain...I live in vancouver so this is a given. I train in the rain and rarely get sick. However, under the circumstances of the past few weeks, where I pushed my body to the limits training for the world championships; I was involved in a crash badly bruising my ribs during this time, taking extra energy to heal; we then travelled to spain for the world championships- a highly stressful event; i took a few days vacation in spain; flew home for 4 days; got on the plane travelled all day to california for my first road race of the season; the next morning raced the rainy, windy, cold race. After the race cancellation, I got out of my wet clothing as fast as possible and warmed up, went for a shower and was rushed to the airport to fly home right away, flying until near midnight on 2 different 2hr flights. The next morning....BOOM...flu like symptoms, and i didnt' get out of my pj's for 3 days.

So, what I learned from this experience is: No, i don't think that exercising in the rain is a bad thing when your body is up to par to fight little critters that may be hanging around waiting to pounce on your immunce system. However, if you feel you may be run down, if you have been training heavily, or if you have been working alot, then I would think twice about exercising in the rain- it may be a good day to hit the gym or do some other form of cross training.