Hot 40

When I write about how much I hate the cold weather and love the hot weather, I mean what I say. Case in point today. Despite having no training in my legs and a back that is recovered from injury to about only 70% I went out there in the wind today with sunshine and 90 degrees and cranked out 40 miles!

I damn proud of this ride because I had a plan to just measure my effort on the way out in the hopes of being able to get some serious saddle time and miles in under these hot conditions I like so much.

I rode 12 miles out into a headwind, at times going no more than 8-9 mph. At one point going up a hill I dropped it into the small ring, saying to myself, "Heck, I paid for all the gears on this bike I might as well use them!".

I took a short break one hour into the adventure. I rode on with the thought that I could perhaps make it to "Rodgers Barn" this time. I had a Cliff Bar and a couple of gels in my jersey pocket for fuel. It was just a matter of would my body keep up with my brain?

There it was. Rodgers Barn as I call it. I guess I was just a few miles out from Freemont, Wisconsin.

Now, getting there was one thing.

I knew the real challenge would be getting back. It's 18 miles out to this barn.

I made one stop for a brief rest and simply took my time, enjoying the heat. I just feel like my body/muscles are more loose and I feel better in the heat. In fact, I never felt hot once despite it being 90 degrees. I suppose that wind helped. And I KNOW it helped on portions of the ride back, because now it was at my back instead of my face.

I was attacked several times by red winged blackbirds out in the middle of nowhere for no reason. They yak and yak away as they dive bomb my head. Then I can see their shadows behind me while they sort of think they are riding me out of town I guess. Mean little bastards. I hate 'em.

As I got back into the city I felt pretty good surprisingly. My thoughts turned to making this a 40-mile ride because that just sounds better than 30-something.

I took a short detour to visit my guys at Cranked Bike Studio in Neenah, where Ezra, who has become sort of like my personal bike guru, made a slight cleat adjustment on my left shoe for me. The experiment with fit continues. It felt more natural to me on the rest of the ride home.

Ezra offered me an adult beverage at the shop, which I turned down because I said I still had to make it home and I'm really tired. He said to me, "That's what you get when you're kickin' ass." To which I replied, "Yeah, and old."

One final hill to climb over a bridge to get home. I feared the old cramping knot would strike. And guess what? It did. Left leg. Wow, it renders you almost helpless. It's the inside big muscle that runs from your groin down the inside of your thigh that locks up on me.

I managed to limp through the climb, but needed to ride a lap around the neighborhood to top off to 40 miles. That tiny climb on my lap did me in. I actually had to stop due to the cramp shooting down my leg locking me up. A stretch and a couple of punches to the thigh and I managed to spin home in one piece.

40 miles in sun and 90 degree heat.

Yeah baby!

2021 OUTDOOR RIDES

RIDE ROUTE: Rodgers Barn

MILES: 40

AVE. SPEED: 12.3

WEATHER: Sunny and HOT, 90 degrees, Windy, 15-20 mph

TOTAL OUTDOOR MILES 2021 SEASON: 515