Heat 2 - Me 0
I’ve been bitching here about winter, cold weather, rain, etc. for months now and we finally get some hot weather here and what do I do? I melt on a couple of workouts in the heat and hide inside where there is air conditioning for the rest of the day. Nothing pleases me, I suppose!
I was going to do a long ride of four hours on Saturday. My neighbor and I pushed off at 8:30 am and we rode straight into some 20 MPH winds (gusting to 30) - not the most pleasant way to start a Saturday long ride. The winds were relentless and brutal on the way out, and while it was nice having a good tailwind all the way back it started to heat up. I swear it felt like it was over 90 out, but I think it was only in the low 80s. I dropped my neighbor off at three hours (he had already run 13 miles before we started riding) and went on my way to do the last hour solo. But by then, the winds had just mentally crushed me and with the heat kicking up, I tucked my tail between my legs and called the ride rolling into my driveway with just 3:30 of riding time. Bleh.
I took Sunday off and went out for a run yesterday. For whatever dumb reason, I started my run at high noon and this time, temperatures were actually in the 90s this time. Despite being slathered with sunblock, I swear I could smell my own flesh frying in the sun. My HRs slowly kept creeping upwards and go to the point where I was pushing 165 beats just shuffling my feet. As reference, my HR averaged 165 for my run portions of the duathlon and I wasn’t going anywhere near as fast. So yeah. I ended up running for about 40 minutes, and then ran/walk the rest of the way home. I have this thing about not liking to run with a fuel belt and carry water with me. But either someone is going to have to setup aid stations for me every mile for my training runs or I’m going to have to suck it up and learn to like it. Or die, I guess. I don’t see any other options.
So… the weather got the better of me not once, but twice. Pretty much, it was a miserable weekend of workouts. But I guess it reinforced the idea that I really don’t want to be carrying around any extra fat come race day. “Ten pound lipid blanket? No thanks. I’ll do without.” I have no idea how I managed Wisconsin last year. I think it was about as hot and as windy as it was this weekend? I really hope is cooler this year.
OK, enough whining. So yeah… I have this whole wedding thing coming up here in a couple of days. Man, that went by quickly! It was something that was way far away and all of the sudden, it’s right around the corner! So, sorry if I haven’t been checking in or around as much as I’d like to be. It’s been a wee bit busy here, especially this past week. Hopefully, next week my life will resume some sort of normality. Until then, I’ll try and throw up some pre-wedding and wedding pictures when I get a chance. :)
Just four more days as a bachelor…