People in SoCal need to grow some chest hair...

I don't mean to rag on my new home of Southern California, but people out here really need to grow some chest hair...except for the ladies...that'd be disgusting. Here's my problem...

As I headed out for my typical 90-minute morning ride this morning, I noticed a little bit of drizzle coming down. Back in my former Midwestern hometown (shout out to River Forest, Ill.), this kind of drizzle may have passed unnoticed, but in SoCal, it's treated like the Apocalypse. I decided I would actually toss on a pair of half-finger gloves, to keep my hands from sliding off the bars, but other than that my morning plans went completely unchanged. I rolled through UCSD's campus and noticed it was eerily quiet, even for a college at 6 a.m. You'd think a few nerds would be scurrying to the library at that hour.

I coasted down the mile-and-a-half-long hill at Torrey Pines State Reserve and then turned around to begin the first of five hill repeats. I performed my first climb in complete solitude, which any San Diego cyclist can attest to as being a rare occurrence. San Diego is one of the riding capitals of the world and Torrey Pines is where just about every North County athlete logs their hills repeats.

After another 30 minutes of having the hill completely to myself, I caught up with another athlete "suffering" through the "rain".

"This is terrible," the solemn-faced rider remarked.

I silenced the Fall Out Boy that was blasting through my iPod, so I could hear him more clearly.

"It could be worse," I replied as I was reminded of why I hate riding with other people.

"It's days like this that make me want to move to the desert," he said and lowered his face as though the drizzle was stinging his skin.

Yes, that's the solution, I thought. Move to the desert because six inches of rain per year is just too much to take.

That was the only other rider I came across all morning. The scores of triathletes and cyclist who usually line the coast from La Jolla to Oceanside must've been hammering away on their trainers or using the drizzle as an excuse to cancel a workout. Come on SoCal -- grow some chest hair.