Hot Headwinds:

Today had been billed as an easy day being that we had only 87 miles to ride and 1100 feet of elevation. However the temperature started to climb almost as soon as we left the hotel. By 10:00 it was well over 85 and the moderate head wind which was predicted had turned into 20+. By 11:00 AM I had only made 47 miles. Not much for 4 hours of hard riding. Oh did I mention that the road was so rough and broken up that it was almost un-rideable. Every 30 feet there was a crack that had a 2" offset. However I found a Subway and went in for a sandwich. I thought I would take Tony Stewart's advice "fills you up without slowing you down" and I sure didn't need any slowing down. Twenty minutes later I am back in the saddle and with only 40 miles to go am going to be in the hotel by 3:30 Pm

That idea lasted for a total sum of 19 miles. Here I am crossing this wide open area and the wind is just howling into my face. Out on the hot pavement it is probably well over 95F. I carry three water bottles on my bike as I know that I perspire a lot and I have to keep drinking. But now the bottles are empty. Usually I can make 10 miles/bottle of water. Here I made just over 6 miles/bottle. I can see the perspiration dripping from the front of my helmet at the rate of a drop every 3 seconds. So I know I don't have long in the heat and hot wind. Fortunately the SAG wagon came up just then and the chose was fill up my bottles and grind it out for another 2+ hours or get into the nice air conditioned van, with soft seats and be in the hotel in 20 minutes. A hard decision which took less than blink of an eye to make. That right I got in the van.

Rest day tomorrow. I should go for a run as I haven't had a run for 9 days. Right now I don't think I could run to the wash room. However I will have the pictures of the week up for your viewing pleasure.

Today's picture is of a cow which is dressed up as a chef. I am not sure what the message is here. Maybe that you should eat more chicken. I can't imagine why he would be promoting eating beef. But what ever the message was it didn't work because the place was closed.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your great comments.

In a while crocodile!

Terry