If there is ever a circumstance where my body will demonstrate its increased age, it surely occurs during times of physical stress.
I'm clearly getting too old for this heat
As a young lad, I recall working to the extremes of temperatures or fatigue. Be it working out in the hot sun at the golf course during my late teens or installing my Grandpa’s dock by myself in 40 degree water at the tender age of 14. A young man’s body seems to be able to take all sorts of abuse and readily bounce-back with nary an impact. But age is a cruel phenomena we all face and I find I can no longer push my body so hard without a consequence
Tuesday’s ride was ugly as far as my body was concerned. The temperatures were hanging right around 90 degrees with a very high level of humidity in the air. It was the type of atmosphere that you could choose to either breath-in or chew, as the air was rather thick. The actual temperature is usually not the biggest concern for how I feel about a ride. Instead, the humidity is the killer as it prevents my body from cooling quickly due to evaporation. I will ride wet from head-to-toe in humid weather, but feel no real signs of relief as the natural evaporative cooling does not take place. It really stresses my body and sets up for an internal rebellion of biblical proportions after about an hour’s worth of effort.
But, for a host of reasons after work on Tuesday, I needed a ride on the bike. Even though it sucks riding when it’s that hot and muggy, sometimes you just have to overcome the obstacle and just turn the pedals.
My body had enough around mile 25 and started a revolt against me
The Tuesday ride wasn’t terribly eventful and covered over 33 miles along the usual roads. But, with the temperatures at 90 degrees and the thick air, my body officially started to shut down at about mile 25. It was right around that point that I ran out of water (a stupid mistake on my part) and thought I could just “tough it out” for the remainder of the ride, versus try to stop somewhere to refill. I was paying the price for several weeks early when I removed my 2nd water bottle cage because “I never use it”. I really could have used it on Tuesday and paid the price – hard.
The whole week continued to be humid and a return to the pedals on Friday wasn’t much different. Although not in the 90s, the temps were still in the 80s and the humidity was there to match. For Friday, the focus of the ride was to beat a terrible storm that was rolling its way into the west metro area. I knew that had about an hour to ride before getting nailed, so the whole ride was gaged on hitting this mark and pulling into my driveway before the ugly stuff moved in.
And ugly, it was. It started to sprinkle with about 4 miles left of the ride, providing a lot of natural motivation to turn the cranks just a little harder. If you look at the Garmin profile for the ride, you will notice that I have a few ending stretches where I stay above 22 mph for major sections – independent of some hills. This was a storm not to be played with and I did not want to be caught out in it.
After an overhaul to the full drivetrain, I am still battling an illusive squeak. It might be a chain that has nearly 3000 miles on it, but I'm still not sure.
Shortly after pulling into the drive, the sky opened up and the rain came down harder than I may have ever seen it in my lifetime. This was accompanied with dime-sized hail that littered the yard and shredded many of the leaves on the neighbor’s maple tree. My timing was perfect – but would be best classified as “lucky”.
The one Event Of Note™ for the ride came in the form of a near-death experience. Normally, this would involve a story where a car pulls out in front of me and nearly takes me out. But this time, it wasn’t my life that was in the most jeopardy. Instead, it was a young woman driving a very nice white Toyota SUV.
Although I made it home safely, again, it wasn't for a lack of Mother Nature or cell-phone using SUV drivers trying to prevent it
I was coming through the final stretch of neighborhood streets leading home and saw the SUV approach an intersection from my right side where I was about to enter with the intent of passing through. In this intersection, I had the full right-of-way, as the SUV had a stop-sign. No surprise, but the SUV didn’t even attempt to stop and turned right in front of me – forcing me to hit the brakes hard to prevent running right into the side of her vehicle.
Although that should have been bad enough, what the SUV driver also didn’t realize that – at the exact same time – a semi truck hauling new cars was coming from the opposite direction as me and was ALSO entering the intersection from the other direction. The semi truck was on a direct collision course with the SUV but fortunately saw the error in the women’s driving, slammed on his brakes and stopped in the middle of the intersection.
All the while, the SUV driver passed me with hardly a look of concern. Why? Because she was on her GODDAMN CELLPHONE!!!!!
Save for two OTHER vehicles (me and the truck driver) paying attention and taking evasive actions – she would no longer be with us.
As I passed the truck driver we both looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief and disgust.
As I’ve said in previous posts – I’m not going to be killed by the driver who knows that I am on the road. Instead, I am going to be taken out by the idiot who doesn’t realize I am even there. In Friday’s case – the SUV driver was at much higher risk of dying than me, but it seems like it will only be a matter of time before I get taken out.
Please – for the sake of others – don’t engage with your cell phone while driving in your car. I don’t care if you kill yourself. But, chances are good you might take out someone else in the process. God forbid, it would be a cyclist.
