#330daysofbiking Day 92: dear weather, you win

me & my Hincapie sunflower jersey (reaching for camera from Mason, little did I know...)

... and the real thing; bright orange-red sunflower

Five o’clock (pm) and the mercury is reading 97’F.  In the shade.  Good grief.

It was warm this morning, but I figured if we got out early enough, we could beat the worst of it.  The boys and I were in the mood for a road ride, so Mason, Dillon and I headed out for a long-ish (~40 mi) road ride.  We drank plenty beforehand, and took extra bottles along.  Not so bad as we headed out.  Boys were feeling pretty peppy (and maybe a bit competitive?), and decided they wanted to do the climb on Mahan Gap – a several mile long slog, with a 10% grade in the half-mile near the top.  I’ll do it in the cooler weather, but knowing my heat-tolerance limits, I decided to take the alternate less “climb-y” route, and meet them on the other side.

Mason & Dillon ... still cool and energetic

As the sun rose higher, the mercury started climbing.  Too quickly.  The boys and I re-connected after their climb and stopped to refill water bottles, and take a few minutes in the shade and debating the route we would take back home.  Opted for the slightly longer, but gently rolling route, figuring we’d take it nice and easy in the intensifying heat.

stopping to refill the water bottles

... just too hot outside

Made it home, cooled off … and later headed into town (by car) on a few errands and a trip to the bike shop.  Just miserable to be out there, regardless.  Mason and I ended up with headaches, despite all efforts to rehydrate, etc.  We’ve all had enough heat for one day.

Thinking that while the temperatures are so stifling, we’ll need to come up with alternate strategies for longer rides … much, much earlier, or even into the evening with lights.  Or hauling the bikes up to northern Canada…. 😉  Or just sitting inside the dark, cool house, watching the Tour and imagining we are actually out riding (LOL).