monday June 30th ride (whine)

[mimitabby]

Okay, it's just a commute. But it's 84 degrees out (wait, i'm not done yet!) and (gasp) 47% humidity.

I usually ride 4 miles back up my hill and get home all red and sweaty. I can accept that. But today I also had to go to the post office, which meant more climbing and more downhills too. For a grand total of 11 miles instead of 4.
By the time I got to the post office (at about 5 miles, I was just dripping. I could barely see because sweat was pouring into my eyes. The line (of course, my neighborhood being mostly minorities always has the worst service) was long and there i was fanning and dripping, feeling like an idiot.
I picked up my (small) parcel and continued on my merry way, through a park, taking it slow and easy, cruising down hills and struggling up them. It's not like it's high noon. And it's not like I don't ride these same stupid hills every single day!
Good grief, how do you people DO it?
It's hard to ride in the heat!! will i ever get over the puffing and red face and losing 3 gallons of fluid every time I ride 5 miles?
total for the day: 15 miles.

[Blueberry]

If you find an answer, please let me know:rolleyes::rolleyes:

We've been in the 90's with humidity well over 50% for weeks (at least so it seems). If get red and am pouring sweat just walking across the street. Kind of makes it hard to reasonably use your bike for errands when you show up looking like you just took a shower in sweat - ewwww:eek::eek:

We actually have driven some places we would have otherwise biked because I can't figure out how to show up decent looking after riding 10 miles in heat (e.g. to a dinner at someone's house). *sigh* Fall will be here soon.

CA - in sweltering - NC

[dex]

Good grief, how do you people DO it?
It's hard to ride in the heat!! will i ever get over the puffing and red face and losing 3 gallons of fluid every time I ride 5 miles?
total for the day: 15 miles.

I think it's even harder on us this year than usual in the PNW , because there wasn't really a ramp-up to the warmer weather. It's like someone flipped a switch and we went from cool gray early spring to sunny hot summer practically overnight, and no one is acclimated.

I can't even stand the thought of getting on my bike right now. Mostly because I don't want to have to climb the hill to get home at the end of my ride. (It's ok, y'all can call me a wimp. The heat has always just destroyed me.)

[Triskeliongirl]

Are you serious? I'll take 84 anyday! My commute ride home was 95 and felt like a steam bath, especially when I first went outside! Good news is that I was having a problem with my carradice bag clamp hitting the canti brakes on my touring bike, so I dropped her off at the machine shop on the way in. It meant having to walk to the other end of the campus to fetch her after work in the heat, but I was finally able to put my saddle in the right position and she felt so good to ride again!

[mimitabby]

yes, ma'am (hanging my head) I am serious. Isn't that pathetic?

[dachshund]

I can relate. We had a similar "on" switch with the hot weather in CA, when it shot up to 95 all of a sudden. I can't just go out and ride in that without any adjustment. It drives my heart rate up, and I end up with a headache if I'm not careful. I get really red in the face. I'd scare children. :eek:

From what others have said, drink a lot of water. I think it also helps to be hydrated well during the day and possibly the day before.

But adding hills with the hot weather... might be asking for too much.

[GLC1968]

yes, ma'am (hanging my head) I am serious. Isn't that pathetic?

Nah - it's ok. You are not alone!

DH and I joke about how everyone around us is moaning about the humidity. 50% humidity is not humid to us....at all. Try living in Florida in the summer where the humidity doesn't drop below 80% EVER. It's even sweltering in the middle of the night!!

I'm SOOO thankful that this odd PNW weather is happening while we are still somewhat adjusted to NC weather. It's not bothering us like it does everyone else. ;) If this happens again next year, I'll be complaining right along beside you, Mimi!

Oh, and no one rode at lunch today. Usually, half the bikes on the rack disappear at lunch time - but today - mine was the only one to leave for the hour.

[Triskeliongirl]

Hmmm compared to the 100s of last week 95 felt pretty good today....

YOU GUYS ARE JUST WIMPS!!! Once you start moving you don't notice it anymore. But, I do like to jump in my pool when I get home.

[mimitabby]

I did drink plenty of water, thanks! and yes, Trisk, i won't deny I am a wimp. And daschund, sorry, I can't avoid the hills. Seattle is a city built on 5 hills. :( and I live on one of them.
I'm cooled off now. and tomorrow I will ride again, likely with similar results!

[GLC1968]

Oh, and in case anyone thinks we are too wimpy here in the PNW - it did top 100 degrees on Saturday in Portland. So it's not all cold and rainy around here! ;)

[elk]

I'm with ya Mimi...We had a thunderstorm last night and I was thinking ahhh it'll wipe away all that humidity...so I went to take my big dog for a walk...

it was AWFUL...the sky was all green, the air was fetid and I felt like I was moving through soup....my dog agreed.

It puts me in THE foulest mood....and to top it off...we have MOSQUITOS!!! something we usually don't have to contend with so much.

I was about ready to scream...

I don't care what you Texans or FLoridians say....this is unbearable!!!! How can you stand it!!!

Cold and rainy is bliss compared to hot and rainy...ick!

[Zen]

it was AWFUL...the sky was all green, the air was fetid and I felt like I was moving through soup....my dog agreed.


I love it when it's like that...to walk outside at midnight and it's still warm?
to stand in the rain when it's 80-90 degrees out? Tropical bliss-ahhhhhhhh!

[7rider]

As the guys on the LBS's ride like to say whenever they hear whining..
WAH, WAH, WAHHHHH!!!!
As you know, mimitabby, I was in Seattle last week. With a bunch of folks from Maryland, Florida, and Louisiana. We know humidity. You don't have humidity. We didn't want to leave! ;)
I invite you to join me on one of our famous "95/95" rides. That's 95 degrees, 95 percent humidity.
Today's ride home was a 80/80 ride. In the rain. Oh joy and rapture! :p;):rolleyes:

eta: See??? Zen knows....

[mimitabby]

As the guys on the LBS's ride like to say whenever they hear whining..
WAH, WAH, WAHHHHH!!!!
As you know, mimitabby, I was in Seattle last week. With a bunch of folks from Maryland, Florida, and Louisiana. We know humidity. You don't have humidity. We didn't want to leave! ;)
I invite you to join me on one of our famous "95/95" rides. That's 95 degrees, 95 percent humidity.
Today's ride home was a 80/80 ride. In the rain. Oh joy and rapture! :p;):rolleyes:

eta: See??? Zen knows....

7, THAT's what I want to know. How come you can do that?
how come I can't????

[DDH]

I try to do my riding as early in the morning as I can, and it's already in the
80's by 8 and the humidity is usually up there pretty good in the summer months. I just looked and it's 8:30 and the temp is 85 and humitidty is 38%.

I get the heat headaches real easy and usually have one by the time I get home from every ride if I don't get out there early enough. I do the same thing if I mow the lawn. I can't seem to get away with doing anything in this heat without getting a headache.

I guess it's all what you get used to, but some extremes are hard to get use to.

I just know I have to quit letting everything get in my way. If it's not the heat, it's the wind. I have to make myself get out there.

[7rider]

7, THAT's what I want to know. How come you can do that?
how come I can't????

Actually....I have no idea. I hate the stuff. I'm a delicate flower. I wilt. :rolleyes:
Actually, it comes down to acclimatization (after 5 summers in MD, I'm ALMOST getting used to it...but maybe not), pacing, LOTS of liquid, and an adequate warm up. And a single minded focus on a cool shower and central air conditioning at the end of it!

[bmccasland]

How do we do it???

Ideally, a bottle of water, a bottle of electrolyte solution, another bottle of water for your head. And if you keep moving, the evaporative cooling works, somewhat.

That said, I whined recently about having trouble with heat exhaustion.... :rolleyes:

I think I could easily handle humidity somewhere around 50% and a balmy 85 degrees! That would be terrific riding weather.

Just don't give me cold, nooooooo
I like x-country skiing, but biking in the cold drizzly weather, noooooo

[dex]

Actually....I have no idea. I hate the stuff. I'm a delicate flower. I wilt. :rolleyes:
Actually, it comes down to acclimization...

+1
The first few couple of summers after I moved out to Seattle from Tennessee, I couldn't understand what people were complaining about on the "hot" days. I absolutely remember thinking it was pleasant, gorgeous even. Now that I've been here for eight years? Nope. Uh-uh. Don't like it one bit.

When you rarely have to deal with heat and humidity, then even a little tiny bit of either or both gets really uncomfortable really fast. *shrug*

[Susan126]

Same here dex, and it is called acclimation. When we moved to the Seattle area in 1997 from Philadelphia (my husband worked for the helicoptor division of Boeing back east and got a transfer to Boeing here in this area in 97) we left Philly in July with daily temperatures of 103 degrees and 98% humidity. And at night it did cool off, down to a chilling 77 degrees! Our first summer here it was in the mid to upper 80s. People were telling us how hot it was while Joe, the kids, and I wore jeans, sweat shirts, and jackets. And complained about how cold it was!

Now 11 years later we are used to the Seattle climate and when I go home to see my parents in Pittsburgh I die! Pittsburgh has white summer skies from the high humidity.

Oh mimi, I rode on Saturday and Sunday, our hottest two days this week, not in the morning but mid day on both days. 30 miles on Saturday and then 40 on Sunday. I guess I still have some residual back east conditioning or I was just delirious from the heat.

:confused:

Sue

[KnottedYet]

rode my 2 1/2 hour commute home in the heat today. Wearing my *work* clothes. (bad plan!) The ride home involves going up and down 3 of the 5 hills of Seattle.

Just picked up my bra (which I took off along with everything else as soon as I got home) and it is SOAKED with sweat. Ewwwww....

[JLMitchell]

I don't think there's an answer. I think you get better at riding in that type of weather (acclimation), but there's just no way to stop the sweating, especially in the summer going up and down hills. I sweat on command, basically, so I just bear it. If you can, maybe take a few minutes to squirt your face with cold water and dry it lightly so it cools you as it dries?

I agree with the southerners: 84° with 40-something % humidity sounds wonderful! It rained on the Saturday morning ride, but it was still about 88° and we loved it.

[elk]

well..I'll try not to be a weenie...but i'll defend my right to whine....:D
it's one of my hobbies....I love lettin' loose.....

[SouthernBelle]

47% humidity?! I'd kill to be able to ride in that in the summer. I just rode to work in 65% and really don't consider that bad.

What's the humidity in N.O.? Now they have some killer temps with humidity.

JL, where in TN are you?
Andrea is in Memphis and I'm in Lebanon.

[JLMitchell]

Hi! I live in Eads, but a month ago I started riding with rec groups in Memphis.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The weather was fine this morning. Husband and I did a nice 24 mile ride after breakfast. :)

[SouthernBelle]

Ah, you are close to Andrea then. I'm a long way away.