39 miles in really gross humidity and moderate heat. I hate riding in weather like this, and since it's been so cool this summer, I feel less acclimated. We didn't go out until close to 2 PM, after watching the Tour. So, the decision was to do a very slow hill ride. Our first climb started at about 4.5 miles and even though i was going 6-8 mph, I felt like cr@p. Finally warmed up after that, but i was ready to pack it in and do just 20 miles when DH convinced me to go to Harvard and Bolton. Most of this route is shady, so that helped. I actually got into a good rhythm on the longest climb, but when I got to the top, I had already finished my bottle of Acclerade and stopped to put some Nuun in my second bottle, which was plain water. Also poured some of my DH's water down my jersey.
After a nice downhill section, my DH slowed a lot and we made a left to go over a highway bridge. For some reason, my chain slipped, and as I was putting it into the big ring to get it back, I heard someone whip by me and snarl "on your left." I was about to call him a bad word, when I realized it was our cycling friends! They weren't sure it was us, since we were going so slowly. We stopped and chatted for a bit and then we went on. When we turned toward Concord, it started thundering and I pondered taking a shorter route that involved yet another climb, but we went on, after I had to stop and loosen my shoes and get another Gatorade at a gas station in Acton. The thunder held off until we were pretty close to home and I was happy to finish, but happy I did the ride.