CYCLING IN HADES

Tom fixing Ed's flat tire before today's ride

Hot, hot, hot, brutally hot! Cycling in South Florida this time of year is liken to running a marathon in a sweltering inferno somewhere in the depths of Hades. Today’s bike ride was a perfect example of the remorselessness of our mid-summer climate.

Without a hint of exaggeration, the heat and humidity in these sub-tropics basically sucks the life right out of you. Having spent most of my life in these parts, I’m still not accustomed to the suffocating summertime weather.

My wife and I are looking forward to our upcoming vacation in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where we are hoping that a smidgen of relief awaits our arrival.

Someone remind me to pack our jackets – that is if I can find them.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/350222438

ESCORT RIDE ON ROAD-BIKE

To all of you, my valued readers, reading my posts regarding my escort rides are probably repetitive and boring. To me, riding alongside my wife while she does her training runs are priceless. These rides mean more to me than all the long-distance rides in my cycling archives.

During each one of these escort rides, I’m reminded of the strong bond that my wife and I enjoy – a rarity in a world where the media and masses seemingly promote separation and individuality.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1539921

WET MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE ON TRAILS AND SIDEWALKS

My goodness how fast the weather changes here in South Florida. According to the weather radar, I had a two to three hour window to ride the trails and sidewalks in my general area without too many concerns.

Well, after ducking into Einstein’s Bagel Shoppe once (for water and to stay dry) and then a shuttered office building when the rain really began coming down, I got the hint that stormy, wet weather with lightning was well upon us and wasn’t about to dissipate any time soon.

But all was well, because I managed to make it back to our truck at my wife’s work place before I became a cycling human sponge. After throwing the bike and helmet into the rear of the truck, I made a quick phone call to my wife assuring her that I had safely completed my shortened ride.

I then drove the four-miles to our home where our two kitty cats were waiting to be fed their mid-day snack. In fact, all three of us are enjoying a mid-day snack as I type.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1537259

HALF IMPERIAL CENTURY ROAD-BIKE RIDE

Two days ago, it was Ed’s 82^nd birthday. Ed is one of our road bikers. I was absent Wednesday during the cake celebration during their cycling break at Einstein’s Bagel Shoppe, so this morning we had a celebration of sorts by cycling half of Ed’s age, a 41-miler. It gets pretty bad whenever you can no longer bike the amount of miles that matches your age or blow out the amount of candles that matches your age.

Maybe I should remember the above comment two months from now when I turn 72 years of age, because I’m planning on riding 72 miles-with-smiles on our near my actual birth-date.

Because of the geographical location where everyone else’s ride ended this morning, or near noontime, I continued on for nine additional miles for a total of 50.22 miles.

This morning’s ride felt like a walk in the park. Quite honestly, I believe I could have done an Imperial Century with ease. But I would have had to do it alone, and that’s no fun.

Gee, I wonder if anyone will accompany me on my planned 72-miler.

 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/348579118

INTENSE GYM WORKOUT IN THE AFTERNOON

During this strength training session, I went from one resistance-machine to the next as quickly as I possibly could, doing the reps on each machine to the max. Doing reps to the max means doing them until my body trembles.

In all, I worked out on 15 different machines within a time frame of 34 minutes.  The rapidity and intensity of this workout clearly shows on the heart-rate monitor.  See HR in the link below: 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/348125071

RUNNING AND WALKING IN COUNTY PARK

Hot, Hot, Hot. My husband and I left the park just in time as the traffic from the summer campers started to pick up.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/347966363

ESCORTING WIFE IN COUNTY PARK ON MY ROAD-BIKE

Once again, I had the pleasure of riding alongside my wife while she did a training run/walk inside the county park.

I am just itching to do a long road-bike ride, but it's best that I wait another day until I'm fully recovered from yesterday morning's bilateral lower-back injections.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/347971858

MTB ESCORT RIDE

I rode behind and alongside my wife while she did a training run, handing her the water bottle whenever she would ask for it.

I had my handlebar-mounted Contour Video Camera rolling the entire time, but nothing out of the ordinary happened other than a red fire truck passing by on Flamingo Road with its siren blaring and red lights flashing.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1524790

SOLO ROADBIKE TRAIL RIDE

Two tropical birds that were not about to move

This morning's spur-of-the-moment road-bike ride began at 9:54 a.m., yet the average temperature still was an uncomfortable 89.4F.

After dropping off my wife at her work place, I started out on the Orange Drive bike trail heading east. My turn-a-round point was a half-empty McDonald’s parking lot at Griffin Road and US441 in Davie. Lots of road traffic in that area.

I hadn’t a clue where I was headed from there, but I did want to find a new bike trail in the area of Orange Drive and 75^th Avenue that I had noticed on Google Earth.

I found the bike-trail and promptly followed the yellow brick road to a western-styled Dairy Queen that would be perfect for one of our weekday rest stops. This particular DQ has a shaded outdoor patio with tables, which would be perfect for our feisty gang. I’m thinking that we could solve many of the world’s problems in the shade of that patio, all while eating ice-cream cones and sipping on smoothies.

From that area, I rode on many bike trails and wide sidewalks – all in the cities of Davie and Cooper City.

Only because my water bottle felt light and empty did I end today’s ride so early. Shame on me for not carrying two bottles. 

After riding my MTB the past few rides, today’s ride on my road-bike felt really easy. Aside from the heat and humidity, as well as my empty water bottle, this would have been a perfect day for a metric century or beyond.

 

http://app.strava.com/activities/68790516