Dealing with the heat...poorly.

Monday, May 30, 2011

There was much to do for the day, but one inescapable task was the yard. It was more of a field than a yard. It seemed that the only time I could mow during the past 10 days it was raining. It was still soggy out front, but I couldn’t wait. I spent over two hours cutting, raking, edging, sweeping and other thankless work…all done in the heat of the late morning and early afternoon. Holly’s folks arrived early for a picnic…around 12:15…so I had to stop, shower and try to help getting the food ready. I was drenched and dirty from the work and had actually been experiencing some dry heaves…I was that parched (someone smarter would have gone in the house, lined up a glass under the spigot and gotten a glass of water).

I took the required shower and started the charcoal grill. It was about 95 degrees, though I think it was about 150 next to the grill. By the time I sat down to eat, I was feeling nauseous and decided to go lay down. I promptly fell asleep for an hour and by the time I got up, everyone was ready to go. I continued to feel crappy until late afternoon when suddenly I felt like nothing had ever happened.

“I’m feeling better and thinking of going for a ride,” I said to Holly. She looked at me like I was dopey since it was still smoking hot, but I’d made up my mind. It was almost six when I hopped on the bike, so at least the sun was lower in the sky.

John had called earlier to tell me he’d had the worst ride of his life. He’d gone out around noon. “I felt crappy the whole time. Do you think the heat had anything to do with it?” Even the Scarecrow…before meeting Oz and going through the brain implant and all…would not have asked such a dumb question, but I answered it with diplomacy. “Umm…duh…you rode when from noon until 2…could you have picked a worse time?” Yes…the heat had gotten to him as it will when you’re body is acclimatizing. We’ve had such a cool spring that no one has been able to adjust to the heat. It takes seven to ten days for the body to get used to it and until it does, performance suffers. The last thing you want to do is go out in the hottest part of the day and challenge it. You’ll lose every time.

I began tentatively, but as the ride progressed it became clear to me that I’d completely recovered from the heat illness I’d been experiencing earlier in the day. I began to attack the course John and I had ridden a week earlier…the hilly one through Waite Hill and Kirtland Hills…completing it in under two hours. I was pleasantly surprised not to experience any muscle cramping in my leg and starting to think the combination of magnesium and extra sodium is working in concert to keep me functioning normally.

Kim brought over her new boyfriend Johnny for me to meet. She’d told him I knew everything about camping and biking and texted me after they left that he’d said “he really does know everything.” Well…thanks Johnny and I’ll end with a famous quote from Casey Stengel. When asked his secret to successfully managing the Yankee stars of the late ‘50’s he replied “keep the guys who don’t like you away from the guys who haven’t made up their minds yet.”

Bike duration: 110 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned:  1650.