Yesterday's bike ride

So I decided to bike during the heat of the day, during a heat wave and go 34 miles.

It was like volunteering to send yourself to hell.

Ok it wasn't that bad, but it was grueling.

First of all I needed to be careful of the heat, so I did hose myself off before going. I also had water and gatorade before I went, plus brought plenty of cold water with me too.

For the first six miles or so, which had some shade, I thought to myself "man this is easy" "What's everyone complaining about"

Once I got onto Route 119 the sun got on me, and I had hills to go up. Hills slow me down and the heat and the heat coming off of the road bakes me. I started to feel the heat. I realized I had a long way to go, but that I should just push through.

I decided to go on a side street with some shade and pretty views of a stream to cool off for a second.

Then I got back on 119 and I thought to myself, man this really is sort of brutal, maybe I should turn around and not go quite so many miles. I could feel the heat starting to get to me But I decided to keep going even though by this time I could lick my lips and around my mouth and taste all of the salt in my sweat.

I turned off onto a road that leads to the Cathedral of the Pines and a large hill. Just past this was the half-way point and at this point I started thinking to msyelf "your freaking nuts. Why on earth are you doing this."

Getting up each hill after half-way felt like a mini accomplishment.

As I got off the side road and back on to 119 I started to realize that maybe I was running a little short on water. I actually wasn't but was getting concerned I was. I started to be conscious of not using too much water, which is difficult when cycling in extreme heat.

As I was on my final 10 miles I just remember focusing on pedaling. I usually can think when I cycle. I could write books with the thoughts on my bike. I've thought about comments and stuff I've written about while biking. Yesterday for those final miles I could do no thinking. All I did was taste my sweat, grit my teeth, feel the heat and thought about pedaling and pedaling and sitting in a tub of cold water.

As I got finished with my final climb I realized I was pretty much home and had this feeling of surviving and accomplishing something worth writing and talking about.

The funny thing though is that cycling in the heat probably doesn't come close to running or playing other sports in it because at least in cycling you have the wind from riding, even though on several occasions the head winds yesterday made me work even harder.

Anyway yesterday's cycling was a lot of fun in retrospect because of the sense of accomplishment that accompanied getting home. I don't get that feeling on normal rides.