JULY 8th TUESDAY RIDES

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I started my ride a bit too late this morning.
Did a quick 13 mile ride with some rolling hills, but didn't manage to get started until about 10am. By that time it was about 85 degrees and very sunny and humid.
I did fine until the last 3 miles or so, when I started getting really hot climbing in the sun. I began to feel a little strange and knew I better rest somewhere, and happily my favorite cafe was coming up about a 1/2 mile from home so I stopped in there and drank cold water in the air conditioning for a few minutes. Then I was ok and able to make it up the last really steep hill to home. I felt ok though overheated, but when my husband saw me he looked really alarmed and made me get right in the cool shower. I looked in the mirror and I was bright red all over- even my eyes were bloodshot despite my sunglasses.
I got a great long cool shower and felt much better. The red went away too, so it was not sunburn- just pre-heatstroke!
I feel fine now, and it was a nice ride actually. Goes to show you can't be too careful in the heat.

[mudmucker]

I did 30 miles today. I left about 10:45 so I was riding right in the heat of mid-day. I'm usually ok in heat, but the last couple of years on occasion it will bother me. It got to around 90 here I think, and I too started to wilt in the last few miles. I think it's time to avoid riding mid-day in real hot and humid weather.

I did errands today again. I live in a one-horse town, maybe 1650 people, and we don't have our own zip code and therefore no post office. I sold my Frog Speedplays so I headed north to the nearest post office in Baldwinville to mail them off. Happy peddlin' Gwenn !

I then needed some rust remover so I headed up to Winchendon to the hardware store. They didn't really have what I wanted, so I at least got some steel wool. Chuckle, so I rode 30 miles for a bit of steel wool. Saved a gallon of gas though!

[mimitabby]

wow you guys, be careful!
sounds like me last monday!

[sundial]

I started my ride a bit too late this morning. I did fine until the last 3 miles or so, when I started getting really hot climbing in the sun.I felt ok though overheated.....

That was my ride this morning too.

I got out on the road about 9 a.m. or so, which is actually early for me. I felt great and the miles just whizzed by as I passed through 3 little farming communities. At mile 25 I turned around to head back and boy, talk about a headwind. I sputtered along at a ridiculously slow pace and stopped at soda machine to get an ice cold Mountain Dew. Then I cycled some more to the next town, 10 miles away, for another cold drink. I had my Camelbak, but I felt that I had to have additional fluids because it was getting to be extremely humid and my heart rate was getting up there. So I drank an icy cold Diet Pepsi while sitting on a bench in the shade. Finally I headed out for the final 14 miles and about mile 7, I knew I was gonna need to stop again. Saw a crop duster take off and fly overhead and I secretly wished he would radio in that a poor cyclist is noodling along a little slow. As I was approaching the flying service wouldn't you know, just a mile from the parking lot my tire went KABOOM. So I walked almost a mile until I got into the parking lot to begin changing the tube. My tire was toast. Well, a farmer took pity on me and asked if I was having problems, and if so, can I fix the tire? I said I'd have to try the dollar bill trick but I wasn't sure it would hold until I got to the car. He offered me a ride. As we were loading, the crop duster that had just flown overhead had crashed. The engine quit and the pilot put it down safely and was able to walk away from the crash.

As he drove me to my car, he said his daughter is a triathlete and trains in Colorado. I found out he is a cousin to my neighbor and I felt fortunate to know friendly, helpful farmers. After I got to my car he unloaded the bike and I offered to buy him a Coke or to contribute to the gas fund, but being the gentleman he was, he declined.

As I was driving home a thunderstorm was moving in. I was headed down a road and just crested a hill and a HUGE tree had just fallen across the road, blocking both lanes. I slammed on the brakes and came to a stop just before kissing the tree. I quickly put the car in reverse and backed into a driveway before getting rear ended and called the sheriff's office to report the downed tree. Good thing too because it was a curvy blind spot and cars were whizzing by only to slam on the brakes.

I finally made it home safe and sound and ate my turkey sammich. Attempted miles: 50
Actual miles: 43
Feeling lucky: priceless

[tulip]

Between work deadlines and trying to buy a house (inspection was today), there's no time for riding these days! Deadline is tomorrow, so after that...until the next deadline next week!

(but the new house is near awesome road riding routes--whoo hoo!)

[Tuckervill]

Geez Sundial! Your day was like a Mary Chapin Carpenter song! Go over the border and play the lotto!

My rides are usually so unremarkable that I don't have anything to say about them. But today, I decided to just go for about an hour, no matter how far I went (turned out to be about 11 miles). As I was coming through the downtown area (a very pleasant end to my route), I heard maybe a cyclist coming up behind me. He was still very far away when I looked back. (I stopped at the first stop sign on Broadway, after coming down the hill by the park and hitting the speed limit.)

So I'm between the two stop signs on the main drag there, and I look back and see him and I think it's someone I know. He's screaming up and when he finally gets there I said, "Oh, i thought you were someone else," and he said, "Hi, how ya doing..." as we were passing.

He's riding a fixie or single speed, with bullhorn handlebars, out of the saddle and he's got a messenger bag over his shoulder and he's just screaming by and then I realize that he had to have already blown through the first stop sign. (To his credit he is wearing a helmet.) As I approached the second stop sign, he blew through that one, too. So I had to call out, "You're giving me a bad name by blowing that stop sign!" He never slowed down or looked back.

Harumph. He's obviously not from 'round here. Probably doing something at the private Christian university for the summer. Fancies himself a NEW YORK CITY messenger or something?? Poseur. Can't wait to see him again.

Karen

[Tuckervill]

Don't you hate when you're editing and you're really not? Sorry for the duplicate, in case anyone noticed.

[SouthernBelle]

At least I'm not the only one to have trouble with the heat and humidity today. It was a very short after work ride. I'm waiting for motion-based to tell me what the temps and humidity were, but it was in the 90s and humid.

I stopped 3 times to lay down in the shade as I thought I was going to get sick. I finally pulled into a friend's house, walked right in to the frig, got a Gatorade, and sat in the kitchen floor and drank it. She was in the bathtub. Her BF came in and found me sitting there and got me another Gatorade. I drank that one too.

I just haven't been riding enough, plus it hasn't been hot enough, for me to be acclimated.

[makbike]

I joined the club for a 47 mile adventure this morning. A nice summer shower moved in just prior to the start of the ride and we were treated to a double rainbow. I took this as a good sign as I did the butterfly who rested on my cheek for a brief moment. However, it was apparent within the first few miles that it was going to prove to be a difficult day. My legs were dead and heavy. Climbing was a real challenge and I could never find my rhythm. I guess my back to back centuries took a lot out of me and today I paid for them. I simply did not feel good on my bike today - guess it happens to everyone at some point. I'm taking tomorrow off - the bikes will not come out of the garage. I'm hosting a ride on Thursday so I must ride. However, because I must swept the route I can ride at a leisurely pace. I'm treating myself to a massage Thursday evening and hopefully between the day of rest tomorrow and therapeutic benefits of the massage my legs will bounce back for RaIN on Saturday. As I said yesterday, Legs please don't fail me now!

[OakLeaf]

I'm waiting for motion-based to tell me what the temps and humidity were

You can go to the National Weather Service and get the three-day weather history. Enter your zip code or city, state, then scroll down to "Current Conditions" in the right hand center of the page, and click three-day history. That'll give you hourly conditions at the observation station. Humidity isn't included, but dewpoint is, and you can either use that or calculate the relative humidity from the dewpoint and temperature. They also list wind velocity, gusts and direction, precipitation and sky cover.

When you're 20 miles from the nearest observation station, it's only a rough estimate, but close enough for jazz

I'm not really acclimated either - the temps have been way too variable here. Hot for a few days, then chilly for another few.