Start Slow and Taper Off

Today's ride was a blast....from a furnace, that is. It was incredibly hot the entire day with temperatures reaching the mid-90's during the early afternoon and a steady wind which always seemed to be blowing directly in my face. The course was the same as last week starting in Carlsbad up to Oceanside over to Fallbrook area, back through Rancho Santa Fe to Encinitas and finally looping back to Carlsbad. Total distance was 74.5 miles with over 7 hours in the saddle.

We had a couple of new riders this week, a guest mentor and a rider from the ACE team. It's always an adjustment when you get new riders in the group as there needs to be a good level of confidence and familiarity between riders. The paces lines were a little choppy for the first part of the ride but stabilized.

Due to the weather, I was asked by our Mentor Jay to slow it down this week and really work as a team. On a day like today, you don't try and break any personal records, you just try and survive the trial by fire. The motto for the day was Start Slow and Taper Off. I took the advice to heart and didn't attack the hills in my normal fashion and tried to help out the other riders by letting them draft behind my bulky frame. Team sport, team sport, team sport. I have to keep reminding myself. I'm learning to embrace my team role.

Last week, a few of my teammates were appalled to discover that I haven't been wearing a base layer beneath by cycling jersey. A "technical" wicking base shirt draws sweat away from your skin allowing it to evaporate. So this week, I show up with a white long sleeve technical base shirt beneath my jersey and of course it turns out to be the hottest day of the year. It actually turned out to be ok. The white sleeves bounced a lot of heat off and I would ocassionally just pour water down the front and back of my shirt soaking the base layer which provided a really nice evaporative cooling effect as I was riding along.

Oh, did I mention it was hot? At our first rest stop, I had to take a brief break to wash the salt off my face and arms. Ewww. I drank 8 bottles of water over the 7-1/2 hour bike trip. It was so hot that two of the riders in our group were taken off the course as they were overheating and getting dangerously close to heat stroke. I heard similar reports from the other groups. Most of the route had no shade, particularly the stretch up Champagne blvd. Baking. At the end of the day I had some pretty funny looking tan lines. There was the normal bike short line and standard sock line but I hadn't reckoned on the fingerless bike glove tan. One rider in also had the funniest looking salt lines on their bike shorts and took a lot of ribbing.

Another big thanks to the Simon family who once again spent the entire day roasting in the sun to feed us peanut butter and honey sandwiches. This time they also came equipped with bags of ice, chilled blankets and a shady pop-up. Words cannot describe the gratitude I feel for them being there suffering through the sweltering heat to support us.

Not much more to add beside the fact that I threw a chain again on the downhill. Very inconvenient when you are doing 35 MPH down Del Dios Highway. There is definitely something wrong. I plan on taking the bike in to see what the shop can do for me.

Lastly, the total fundraising for our team as of today is over $78,000! Wow! We've got a few more weeks left so if any of you readers out would like to contribute, please click on the read DONATE link to the right.

Peace out