Hot Weekend Riding

I'm still here and still riding, even though I've gotten lazy and haven't blogged in a while. Saturday I rode with a fast 8 man group leaving from Blythewood, riding what has become the standard loop around Fairfield County. We had a bit of a scare about 10 minutes into the ride on Hwy 21, when a pickup truck loaded with cardboard boxes and assorted loose pieces of cardboard passed us, then while still on the other side of the yellow line, a large box flew out and landed on the road. Another truck pulling a large trailer began to pass us just as the box was flying out of the truck. Thankfully the driver stayed left and ran directly into the box, and we proceeded unharmed. What kind of idiot drives down the highway at 55+ mph with a bunch of loose cardboard piled up in their pickup?

After that scare the ride was great except for the building heat. I tried to hold back some early on and I forced myself to drink 2 full bottles before the one store stop. At the stop I drank at least 20 ounces of gatorade and water, and refilled the two bottles. It still wasn't enough. I struggled in the last hour of the ride. Instead of kicking up the pace like I usually do, I was resigned to just sitting in and trying to get home. LL, James, & Kevin had other ideas, so that last few miles was a bitch.

The IF of .74 doesn't really reflect how hard it is to ride 4 hours in South Carolina in August. Sunday I went out by myself and rode a nice steady pace for 2 hours...about the same average power(199w), but only .64 IF, and I finished before it got super hot.