Grueling Ride

First off, I'm still feeling way off, so I hope this all comes out being reasonably readable!

Today, I went for my weekly long ride around 7am this morning. Temps were supposed to reach the mid to high 80s and be sunny most the day with some thunderstorms later in the afternoon. The last sentence turned out to have about 50% accuracy. Yes, I did get hammered by some big thunderstorms (two of them), but no, the temperature was actually closer to 95-100F with high humidity. Cheers. 6L of water and 7.5 hours later, I crawled in to my apartment. I dumped the bike against the wall, leaned against the same wall so I didnt fall down while I took off my shoes. I stripped down naked leaving the clothes scatttered about on the floor to deal with later and plopped down in front of the air conditioner, closed my eyes, and tried not to puke all over the sofa. I was numb feeling, my head was spinning, and my stomach was not feeling like wolfing down the typical large quantities of food after such a ride. Breathe deep. After about 30 minutes of this I decided to be brave and crawl for some fruit juice. 15 minutes after this I started feeling slightly recovered. Time for a beer! Wait, better guzzle down some water first. Ok, now, time for the 90 minute IPA.

What the hell happened? Well, hammering at 85% of my heart rate for 7.5 hours in the heat I guess did a number on me. I suspect the Hammer Perpetuem turned a bit rank due to the excessive exposure to sun and heat. The four climbs, which I'll mention in a minute in more detail, certainly didn't help anything. I was dumping sweat all over my bike as I pumped my way up the hills. At least I felt great for most the ride. The last 10 miles were pretty awful though.

Roughly 131 miles with four five mile climbs gaining a little over 2000ft eleveation each time. Right there, that's 20 miles with over 8,000ft of elevation gain. That leaves ~111 miles more to consider and those miles were definitely not flat! The altimeter tells me I climbed over 12,000ft today. I feel it. Korean food, here I come!

The Gore Xenon bibs performed phenomenally well and exceeded my expectations. They are clearly superior to any short I've used to date. They better be for nearly $200. They felt far more comfortable than the hammer and performance bibs, basically like a second skin, and they also felt cooler throughout the day. They kick butt! If anyone needs my address for shipping of size M Xenon bibs in black, just email me!:)