Out Havin' Fun in the Warm La Sun

Friendly Friday

We've settled in to the summer pattern now, both meteorologically and otherwise. The pre-dawn temperature is around 80°F, the rides start fast and often ends less fast as riders start to wilt with the rising sun, and the kit needs to hang out to dry afterward so it doesn't develop its own ecosystem before it gets to the wash. On the plus side, there aren't any early tropical storms in the forecast, the a/c in the car continues to limp along, and the government hasn't quite descended into complete anarchy yet.

Wednesday's WeMoRi seemed like a pretty fast one, at least to me. I think it was more due to the steadiness of the speed than its magnitude since the average speed was just about 25 mph but my average heart rate was more like 143. Granted, a HR of 143 is basically the drinking coffee at the cafe rate for the young kids who routinely hit the low 200s in the middle of the group. Anyway, it was a solid, if routine, week for me leading into the weekend.

Friendly Friday had a nice big group, and of course got fast here and there, but was otherwise typical.

Saturday's Giro Ride had a reasonable enough turnout, bolstered after the turnaround by one or to who joined in out of the earlier SaMoRi group. It felt like a good workout for me. The night before I dug out one of my lightly insulated CamelBak water bottles, filled it with water and a little Skratch, and stuck it in the freezer, so it was frozen solid when I headed out for Starbucks around 6:15 am. I didn't reach for it again until we turned onto Chef Highway, and was a little surprised that it was still largely frozen. Nonetheless, the ice cold water was quite a luxury for the rest of the ride. A few of us stopped at the store on Harrison afterward, and I was quite surprised to find there was still some ice in there. So that night I repeated the process in preparation for the 60+ mile ride we had planned out of Bay St. Louis.

The Sunday BSL ride was starting at 6:30 am, which meant I'd have to leave the house by 5:15. Knowing I'd still be half asleep, I got everything ready ahead of time so I'd just need to top up the front tire (latex tube), throw the bag and bike in the car, and hit the road. At the last minute I remembered to grab a cold Coke for the drive, which was mainly just the substitute caffeine delivery system for the coffee I didn't have time for. I was almost to Bay St. Louis when I realized I'd left that water bottle in the freezer. Fortunately I did have one full water bottle already on the bike, and I knew we'd make a store stop along the way, so no worries really, but I knew I'd miss the ice cold water later in the ride. Turnout for the ride was a little lower than I'd expected, but I think we had around eight on hand when we rolled out. I was kind of surprised how cool it felt for the first couple of hours. Evan and Jason were taking longer and slightly faster pulls, while the rest of us were spending a bit less time on the front. We still averaged almost 21 mph for the 66 miles, which was about par for the course and mostly within Zone 2 range. when we stopped at a store about 30 miles into the ride, I hadn't even touched my single water bottle. I bought a bottle of something resembling Gatorade and drank it all before we resumed, more out of precaution than necessity. I wasn't really suffering at all for the temperature, and finished the ride around 10:30 with a bit of water still in my water bottle. However, the minute we stopped at the cars, which were parked in the sun, the heat and sun seemed to hit me like a brick! I probably should have hung around a bit to socialize, but instead jumped in the car pretty quickly and fired up the a/c for the drive home with the water bottle in one cup holder and the leftover Coke in the other. That all put me at 320 miles for the week which is a bit on the high side for me.

So on Monday I figured I should do what I could to make my Mellow Monday ride as mellow as possible to allow for a bit of recovery. Of course things got fast along Lakeshore Drive as usual, so I did my best to stay in the draft with the heart rate down in the 120s except for the occasional effort to close gaps or respond to surges. The weather forecast for the next ten days is basically showing lows of 78, highs of 90, and isolated thunderstorms. Typical summer weather pattern.

Meanwhile, up in Milwaukee, Masters and Juniors Road Championships, somehow part of the Tour of America's Dairyland this year, are going on through Wednesday. In the criteriums on Saturday, Bostick won the 70-74 race with Tom Bain finishing 5th, while Debbie Milne picked up yet another stars and stripes jersey in her 55-59 race. If those age groups seem old, I'll just note that there was one rider in the 95-99 age group, and two in the 90-94s. Fred Schmid had to settle for 2nd this year. I guess he was still tired from his attempt at the Unbound gravel race earlier in the month, also being 93 years old.