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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Toasted

Heat and humidity today. Pushed the pace, 62 miles of gravel. Kept an eye on my rear view mirror so somebody wouldn't sneak up on my and pass me, me and my ego. There is no delusions of grandeur here, anybody competitive I could only keep up if they were dragging behind them a cement block. But for the rest of us fat old guys, bring it on.......LoL.


At about 35 miles I put my foot down, to take care of nature calling and my right calve cramped up on me. Like all enduro summer bikers would know that was a 'heat cramp' I was short of minerals and fluids. It's been hot, and I've been pushin it. I worked the cramp out the best I could, and drank more water. Yesterday I packed some V8 tomato juice to help replenish salts and minerals. I wished I had done so today. The last two days I drank at least 25 lbs of water while riding.

This kind of weather and bike riding has to be really respected.

Lance Andre after finishing 2nd place at this year's Dirty Kanza 200 never made it to the podium, he was in the emergency room being put on three IVs to stay alive. That race was a heat from hell ordeal.

Saw this young deer skipping down the trail, she could run like the wind. Probably laughing at us humans. I could amost hear her thinking. Do you wanna race. You humans, think your all that. You made a big fuss about running a sub 4 minute mile. I ran a sub 3 minute when I was 6 weeks old. Yeap, my mama told me to run when one of you, pointed that Fire Stick at me.






















The wind was a pounding head wind on the way out, but when your riding a "out and back" route you get that energy back on the return trip. It's like those toy airplanes with the rubber band driven propeller, you wind up on the way out and fly on the way back. I was going 20mph on gravel with a heart rate of 110, so I know the wind was doing the most work.


My modified shoes worked good. Good support with the cooling of a bicycle sandal. Now with a evil grin, I say to the rest of my biking shoes. "Who's next?"























Side notes and other things:


Melissa, my 29 year old daughter starts her new job tomorrow, in Minn Mn for Ecolab. She started working at Flint Hill right after graduating from Iowa State with a chemical engineering degree. So she wanted to try something different, don't blame her, she's a brilliant young chemE
I want her to invent calorie free beer and pizza with no loss in taste. In college she did intern for Proctor and Gamble and was working in the lab with that zero calorie fat, that never did pan out. The problem after eating it, you'd get the diarheeeeeeeee, and at the risk of being too graphic here the toilet looked like the Gulf Oil Spill. :-)

Yesterday while going through the small town of Durango I was flagged down by two ladies, and one said "you look like a experienced bicyclist, can you look at her brakes" Hmmm I wonder was it my cycling gloves or the spandex that put me in the experienced category? Well her brake cables were out of their clips, her front tire was just held in place by gravity. So out comes my multi tool and repairs were made and off we went in our separate directions.




Well we had our memorial service for mom last Monday. Before we started my brother Mark came to me and said did anybody tell mom's side of the family. We looked around and no one was there from mom's side. I asked my sister Dawn if she called anybody and I could see the blood drain from her face. To make a long story short, because of the state we were in, and dad being in a bit of shock, everyone thought some else took care of this.

Well Dawn called them all the next day, they were sweet and understanding, and tomorrow we do the 2nd memorial service for mama.

Hope your weekend was fun.
Dave

4 comments:

Harry Legge's Cycling Blog said...

You may want to consider starting a cycling damsel in distress service.

Sounds like you've been riding good and hard. Great work, Man.

Dan O said...

I'm always amazed at the mileage you put in - especially in the heat and gravel.

KungFooSausage said...

911...theres been a shoe massacre! Multiple stab wounds.

Actually it almost does seem a crime to do that to very expensive cycling shoes. I suspect however that you are leading a bordello of illicit shoe reproduction because you have so many pairs.

Steph said...

that little deer looks exactly Bambi!

and- awesome modified-shoes.
haha!!