Karen writes: Lightning

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Its a beautiful day.   The dog is lying on the deck panting, the sea is turquoise (a bit bumpy), the sky is clear, its warm... oh its just a gorgeous Auckland summer day, and I'm not training.  What I am doing is researching that question which had me hot and bothered in the middle of a thunderstorm a couple of days ago.   Do the bicycle tyres protect in the event of lightening strike...it seems not.  In fact, reading has made me a bit nervous of going out in wet weather, all sorts of dire predictions including this one I would rather not have known, "sunshiny weather may not mean you are safe from lightning strike if you have ridden out of a stormy patch".   There are lots of suggestions, don't go out being the first one, separate if you are in a group, squat in a ditch, stay away from trees, find a solid building...and "ride really fast outa there".  One which would have been really helpful on friday was "stay out of water", yep, that works for me out the back of Takanini in the pouring rain.  I didn't know that there was something called a 'lightning safe position'.   This is a bit more than just squatting in a ditch, it includes "crouch on the ground with your weight on the balls of the feet, your feet together, your head lowered and ears covered. Some experts recommend placing your hands on your forehead and your elbows on your knees to create a path for lightning to travel to the ground through your extremities rather than through your core (heart)" (about.com).  Wonder how long you have to crouch in the rain in a paddock in that position?


See, you learn something every day.

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