riding into the heat of july

[north woods gal]

Now that is flat! Send some my way.

Not that hot, today - just low 80s - but the humidity was over 70 percent. Hard to even breathe. Once, again, headed back into the woods to get out of the sun, but I really do need to get some serious road bike work going. My monthly miles tally is way off with all the mountain biking, but, hey, I am having fun and that's what counts.

[Crankin]

Finished up our trip with a 16 mile ride that was the opposite direction of the 21 mile route we had done Friday, with a bit removed. Mostly flat, until the last 5 miles, which is a set of rollers.
Cleaned up in the powder room at the inn , as we had already checked out and drove straight home.
All in all, a good trip, and we were able to be flexible with the rides because of the heat. We did miss out on doing the one other traditional long 45 mile ride we usually do, but there's always the next time.
Our friends are moving to Amherst in 2 weeks, which is also in western MA, but not in the Berkshires. My older son went to school there, so we are very familiar with the area, but have only ridden there once. It's also very hilly, so we are looking forward to doing some riding in new places, as it's only a little over an hour from here.

[emily_in_nc]

We did a grocery ride this morning mostly on the Lake Wobegon Trail, just a short 17.3 mile round trip. The nicest part was that we had a decent tailwind on the way back with the groceries, plus it's ever so slightly downhill from Sauk Centre to Melrose, so we were flying!

Tomorrow we're riding east to St. Joseph and back, which will be over 50 miles, and uphill (slight) and into a headwind on the way back. Unfortunate, but it's our last day here, so it's now or never! We have a few stops planned as there's a good bakery on the way, a Little Free Library (I have a couple books to donate), and a DQ. We will not starve. Looks like a pretty day with a low of 58 in the am and high of 86, so we'll have a wide range. I doubt we'll get going before it hits 70, though.

[emily_in_nc]

Finished the Lake Wobegon Trail today -- a lovely day, though a bit windier than predicted. The entire way back we rode with a fully-loaded solo tourist who was going across the US east to west. He started in Mass. He was really strong, especially considering how much weight he was carrying on a heavy bike. He drafted behind us for 26 miles and was very interesting to talk to.

Ended up with 58.7 miles total, my longest ride of the year. Yay!

[Crankin]

Emily, was he from here? If so, do you happen to know his name?

[north woods gal]

Way cool, Emily, to meet such a biker. I've often dreamed of packing up and riding across the country on my bicycle, but have never really been in a position to do so. I'm retired, now, so I do have the time and I can still do it, physically (even have the bikes and most of the equipment to do it), but my hubby couldn't handle it and not sure how smart it would be to go that far riding solo. I get spooked enough as it is, just riding solo in my neck of the woods.

[ny biker]

I was talking to someone the other day about the cross-country solo bike tour that he did years ago. He had wanted to do it in college but couldn't afford it. So after he'd been working for a few years he got his boss to allow him to take a long vacation, 6 weeks I think, and cycled from east to west, camping along the way. Of course this was before smartphones and gps devices. He said he learned a lot about being independent.

I don't remember if I mentioned -- I took my bike to the shop on Friday night for a derailleur adjustment because the shifting was off, and they said the rear hub needed maintenance. I was planning to do a 50-mile charity ride on Sunday and they said I could probably do that okay, but I got the impression that the bike would not be rideable if it failed while I was out there.

I was going to do the charity ride (a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department) with a friend, but her plans changed so I rode it on my own. The start was about a 90-minute drive from my house. Due to the continuing heat wave I wanted to start early, so I woke up way before dawn in order to be on the road by 6:00, arriving around 7:30, ready to roll at 8:00. A couple of months ago I had worked out a way to short-cut the 100-mile route down to about 76 miles and had hoped to do that, but it turned out to be too hot for that. I also had a thought about adding a detour on some really nice roads to lengthen their 50-mile route a bit, but it was even too hot for that. In fact I was so worried about the heat that I figured out a way to shortcut their 50-mile route down to 35, just in case. But it didn't seem too hot when I reached the decision point for that, so I continued on the 50-mile route.

I was fine when I reached the first rest stop, about halfway through the ride. I was there for a while, chatting with a few other riders, then talking to the volunteer bike mechanic about the shop where he works. When I started to ride again it seemed to have gotten hotter. I had brought three water bottles with me -- two for drinking and one (a collapsible bottle) for pouring water on my head and back and on the sleeves of my Cool Wings. I had put one regular bottle and the collapsible one in the freezer overnight so I'd have cold water for as long as possible. And for a while I had the collapsible bottle on my back under my jersey to cool me down.

The second stop was for water and ice only, no food. It was 10 miles after the first stop and 15 miles from the end. It seemed like more than 10 miles to get there -- the sun was starting to feel pretty hot and there was not much shade. There were plenty of trees in every direction but very few were anywhere near the road. But I knew it would be this way, hence the third bottle and ice. I stayed at the second stop for a while, too, chatting with the same riders that I saw at the first one plus one other man. We had an interesting conversation. It turned out that one of them got engaged to his wife at a restaurant in my hometown. While I was there I saw someone from my bike club riding past.

Once I got going again it was very hot. Since there were long stretches without shade, I had decided in advance to be proactive and stop several times when I did find a shady tree just to cool down for a few minutes and pour water on me. This seemed to help. I didn't feel great when I finished but was much better than I normally would be after spending so much time in the sun with temps in the high 90s.

At the end I saw the fellow club member who had passed me at the water stop. He had done the full century. He sat with me while I ate, and after a while we were joined by a couple of other club members. I was glad to see them, since I didn't think there would be anyone that I knew on the ride. The post-ride lunch was in the air-conditioned fire station, so we all had a chance to cool down before the long drive home.

I dropped my bike off at the LBS for the hub maintenance yesterday. I'm not sure how long it will take so I might be off the bike until the weekend.

[north woods gal]

High 90s is serious heat, NY, but sounds like you played it right. Like the alternate routes as a backup plan.

Speaking of backups, do have another bike you can ride in the meantime? If you were closer, be glad to lend you one of mine.

[ny biker]

Well thanks! I have a mountain bike but there are some fit issues with it (handlebars and pedals) that I haven't had a chance to address. And also I'm having a flare up of the chronic hives so a day or two of rest probably isn't a bad thing. Not to mention that we might have thunderstorms the next few days that would prevent a bike ride even if it wasn't in the shop. So if I end up able to ride that's fine, but if not that's fine too.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, was he from here? If so, do you happen to know his name?

Crankin, his name is Brent, and I didn't ask which city in Mass. he was from. Sorry! Super nice guy, though.

[Crankin]

I do know a Brent who could do this, but since I just saw him, it's not the same person...

[Sky King]

We did another laundry ride yesterday. Finally, finally a day with nearly no wind. Temp in the 70s! Doesn't get much better. Just a nice little 20-miler round trip and two clean loads of laundry to show for it. Today is cleaning and yoga -- I've ridden quite a few days in a row, so it is time for a day off!

Transport not sport Sunday we had many errands to run and we wanted to ride our bicycles. We managed to buy new sheets at JC Penny's in the local mall, visit a friend at an assisted living, treat ourselves to lunch, do our grocery shopping and visit the fruit and veggie stand. A round robin day that included 26 miles of bike riding.

[Crankin]

I could not bring myself to do a 40 mile club ride in the heat today. The ride itself is local and nothing hard, has the usual short, steep climbs around here. I think my 4 days of riding in 90+ heat last week gave me a bad attitude. So, I went to the gym and did my second power lifting class of the week. Enough weights until next week, so I think I will skip circuit training tomorrow early AM, and do a 5 AM ride, which is the time it's decently cool. We are supposed to have rain starting tomorrow night, through Friday, and hopefully, this front will be blown out. I am now behind in miles, which sucks, since I was ahead in June. Oh well.

[ny biker]

Over these past few weeks I've been able to ride in the heat thanks to some hard lessons that I've learned in the past about avoiding dehydration, getting enough salt, taking breaks to cool down. But on two different days I rode more miles than I wanted, more than I knew I should have, because I was with people who wanted to do longer rides and are not as affected by the heat as I am. I've paid the price after each ride with heat rash followed by several days of hives -- an autoimmune flare-up. From now on I will really have to stick to my own plan and do shorter rides in this type of weather, regardless of what others want to do. Hopefully there will be situations where I can just take a short cut and then wait for others to catch up so I don't end up having to ride alone.

Anyway now that I've learned the lesson, the current heat wave is almost over. It will still be hot but should not be as bad.

The weird thing is that even with all the planning and strategizing and getting up early to deal with riding in the hot sun, I still have this feeling in the back of my mind that the cold weather will be back any day now, with tights and booties and extra layers and unrelenting cold feet. It's not true, we'll have a couple more months before it starts to get cold again, but I can't shake the feeling that summer will be gone in a heartbeat and winter cold is imminent. Maybe I need to get out of the air conditioning more...

[Crankin]

I am like you, NY, in that riding in the heat produces an autoimmune flare up. During my trip, it affected my GI symptoms. In retrospect, I have had this every summer, which is why I start out so motivated, usually die out around now, and get my mojo back in September. I also have built up my ability to tolerate riding in the heat (I never could have done this last trip ten years ago), and when I first started riding, I would have been at the gym, in spin class.
Yes, it will still be in the 80s this weekend, but not humid, so that is more normal. DH is helping our friends move to Amherst on Saturday (well, the male half is starting his job Monday, so he is going ahead), so I will either ride with my friend, his wife, or do a club ride.