The heat and humidity continued to top 90 degrees and 90% as John pulled into the driveway and began unloading his bike. He’s still in the recovery phase, but was looking for a ride of 25-30 miles at a decent pace. Since I’d ridden four hours on Sunday and then crushed my Waite Hill course pr on Monday, I wasn’t too sure how my legs would be feeling on a third straight day of hard riding in the heat.
We
were both dripping before we mounted, but the breeze created by moving
helped. I thought I’d take him on an
abbreviated Waite Hill course, which suited him fine. He hung right with me and said he felt
strong, so we decided to make it 30 miles.
Three miles later, he was wondering about that decision.
“I’m
so used to riding flat around my house that this is killing me,” he said as we
rode east on Eagle Road. The entire
course in rolling with a couple of reasonably hard climbs. I tend to go easy up the longer ones and
blast through the smaller hills. It’s
part of a strategy I’m using to make sure I’ll last all day long on Tour
Ohio. John was taking the same approach,
but his lack of hill training took a toll.
“These
hills and the heat are killing me, man,” he said after huffing up an incline on
Mulberry. I downshifted into an easier
gear and decided it would be better to slow down and not kill him. Besides, all I’m really looking for at this
point is time in the saddle. I continued
to climb hard to help my conditioning, but was more than happy to back off once
I crested any rise. We finished in a
little under two hours, having covered 30 miles at a little over 16 mph. The dunk in the neighbor’s pool and the
smoothie that followed were refreshing and I am continually encouraged with how
easily I am riding.
Bike duration: One hour and 53 minutes.
Training Heart
Rate: 120 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 1500.
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