Quote Originally Posted by Owlie View Post
(he said "My son graduated last year and managed to find a job somewhere with worse winters than Cleveland!").
Made me lol here! Oh, that's great!

After spending most of yesterday inside catching up on some work, I stuffed my backpack in a pannier (a feat in itself, believe me), threw a pair of old baggy shorts and a high-vis vest into the other pannier, put the bike on the rack, and drove to my usual trail. Rode it to a bakery/cafe place (similar to Panera), pulled on the baggy shorts, got dinner, and sat there doing some work. Chatted some, too, with a very outgoing, interesting guy who was also doing work. (He was obviously bored with what he was doing!)

After sunset, I loaded back up and headed home, but went around the lake three times (small lake) just to get in a few more miles. Got back to my car at 9:50 PM, which is a little later than I usually like to be out riding, but okay.

Just 15 miles, 5.5 there, 9.5 back, but it was good to fit it in, and I may do the same today.

So I parted with mentioning that they needed to hydrate more, and pulled off. They each had small, capped, Gatorade bottles in one cage, and nothing in the other; only about an inch of liquid was missing, and they had ridden at least 11 miles by that point, and neither had taken even a sip in that entire time. Temperature was in the 90's.
Hmmm... I regularly go 11-15 miles without drinking. My maintenance rides are in the 14-16 mile range (okay, sometimes 8-14 mile range <g>), and I usually don't drink anything until the end of them. (And I drink just water; Gatorade is completely unappealing to me.) I do often drink before I get on the bike, though.

What affects me more than just plain heat/humidity is whether the sun is actually beating down on me. Riding in the 90s in shade is okay; in the sun... not so much!