Friday, July 22, 2016

The Ride.

By the time I got out the door for my ride it was 8:50.  Later than I wanted but I was waiting for the roads to dry up some from the overnight rain.  Turns out this was for not as I would ride into some rain.  My first leg was up to Little Falls.  While it was humid it wasn't too hot as the sun was blocked by the clouds.  Next up was Long Prairie and my first refuel stop.  I was sweating pretty good at this point!  From Long Prairie I made my way up to Clarissa where I actually stopped again (about an hour away) as I wasn't too sure on my next stop.  I was really trying to be diligent about drinking and eating as it's not always easy when it's hot and sticky out.  So far I was doing a good job.

Eventually I made my way down to Osakis, my third stop and guessing about mile 110-120.  It was now pretty hot (sunny) and still humid.  I took some extra time here to get fluids and food into me.  I was feeling really good still.  I was bit shocked at how good I did feel.  I didn't want to take the trail so I took a road next to the trail to West Union and headed south.  About 5 miles down I hit road construction that forced me to turn back and take a turn I passed a couple miles back.  I was starting to feel the effects to the heat.  My water/gatorade mix was no longer tasting good.  I was starting to get the nauseous feeling from too much sun and heat.  I planned to work my way over to the trail and take that in as there are towns every 6-7 miles.  I jumped on the trail in Sauk Centre.  At Freeport I stopped, dumped out my gatorade water, found a shady spot and slammed cold water, and waited a bit.  I wasn't getting much better so I figured I needed to push on.  
Up to about mile 140 I was feeling great and had an average over 20 mph.  Slowly that was changing!  I stopped again in Avon to get cold water and dump out the now warm water.  From Avon to home seemed like and eternity.  I remembered a motto from Kid of Salsa Cycles to just stay constant, keep moving...so I did, albeit slowly!

I made it home, finally, with over 9 hours and 179 miles at a 19.8 average.  Thank God for AC!  I laid on the floor for a good 10 minutes before I did anything else.
I overshot the distance (shooting for 160) some as I was feeling good and thought why not.  I'm glad I did the ride however.  I learned a lot about myself and riding in the heat.  A good reminder of what can happen and what I can and can't do.  Gravel Worlds is coming up in August and usually provides us with similar weather.

I thought about getting up early this morning for a 1-2 hour spin but I struggled to fall asleep.  At 11:00 I shut the alarm off.  Sleep won out once again!

Happy Weekend.

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