Long, hard ride...

Sunday, July 14, 2013
Our church service was scheduled to be outside on a sultry Sunday morning and I was going to have none of it.  I don’t mind sweating in my workout clothes, but hate to have to sweat through dress pants and shirt and to sit in a puddle of water. 

I changed into my riding outfit and headed for the bike at 8:30 a.m. hoping to beat some of the heat though I knew I’d be up against it at the end of the ride, which I figured to be somewhere around noon.  I filled my bottles with water and Gatorade, loaded them in their holders and reached for my tires to check the pressure.  Only there wasn’t any in the back tire.

That’s right…always the back tire.  I’d been feeling a bump with each revolution on my previous ride, an indicator that the tube had a bulge and could be ready to break.  One option is to ignore it and hope it will go away.  It went away alright and now I needed to change it before riding.  It took ten minutes and during that time, I completely sweated through my riding jersey.  This concerned me.  I was down a pound and I hadn’t rolled down the driveway yet.  There was no way I’d be able to replace the water I’d be losing with what I could drink during the ride.  Since I wanted to go 50+ miles, it would be difficult to keep from overheating and/or cramping.  I decided I’d take my Pekin Road course because there is a church on the route where I can fill my water bottles.

I started conservatively thinking I would need to save my legs for final miles in 90-degree heat.  It would turn out to be a fortuitous call.  I rode due east for 90 minutes before stopping to fill my water bottle and then continued on well into Amish country in Middlefield.  I was feeling good and elected to make it a 60+ mile ride, hoping I wouldn’t regret the decision later.

And I really never did.  I hit 50 miles in good form and slowed some over the last hour, but ended up at 65 miles in a little less than 4 hours.  The good news was that I made it without cramping and reasonably intact.  My biggest concern with Tour Ohio is being in the saddle for 7-8 hours per day and how my body will react.  Things like saddle sores and rashes concern me, as does dehydration and general fatigue.  I can drink and rest, but the rashes can be an annoying killer of fun.

Once home, I began the process of trying to replace 10 pounds of fluids.  I started with a large smoothie, but found that I was exhausted just walking around the house and ended up napping for an hour.  It would take me until after dinner to start feeling like myself again…heat and humidity WILL take their toll.  It was a good experience overall though, and I’m beginning to actually feel confident in my conditioning.

Bike duration:  Three hours and 50 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  3220.