HOT!

2019 Outdoor Season: Ride #24

The Route: Lake Laps

The Miles: 16.0

The Time: 1:05

The Ave. Speed: 14.6/15.2 mph

The Weather:

Hot, 88 degrees under sun, WINDY

Wind 15-20 mph

Season Total Miles: 498.0

Hottest ride of the season thus far today, at 88 degrees with bright sunshine.

This is the kind of day that you can feel the heat coming up off the pavement and onto your face. It's a good feeling in my opinion.

I watched a bit of the Tour de France this morning to set the mood again, and was in a hurry to get out into the heat. The plan was to increase my average speed on a shorter ride.

The wind was insane today. I had it in the face all the way out on both of the two laps I did along the lake.

Lap 1--holding 17 mph into the wind in the heat, fueled by the inspiration of the Tour de France and my love of hot days like this.

Lap 2--holding 16 mph and getting gassed in a hurry.

Knowing the two laps would be it, I checked my computer at the end of the laps. Average speed was 15.2. Pretty good in these conditions.

That dropped to 14.6 average speed for the entire ride. I did a couple of neighborhood crit laps easy to finish things off.

There is nothing like the feeling of the cold water from your bottle that you squeezed out onto your neck as it runs down your back.

Ahhhhhhhh.

Between the heat and the fact that I had just ridden 30 miles less than 24 hours earlier, I was gassed in a hurry today.

But I had made my effort on speed. And I had soaked up some hot summer sun as planned. All is good. Now to finish watching today's stage over a little lunch that will feature a big bowl of red seedless grapes, another summer tradition.