July 21: Just did a 1:30 hr hike with Pepper today at the Happy Days trail and up on the bike and hike, this to stay the hell in the shade today. Didn’t feel like going out in that inferno on the bike, so it was hike instead. And even that was pretty dang hot. Add all these gnats to the mix and it was ugly at times. Swarms of gnats would try to get in any orifice they could land in, nose, eyes, ears, mouth. Damn they’re just about as bad as in Canada!
Legs felt a bit tired today, so laying off the bike for a day was probably a good deal. Did a resistance workout again, with today’s exercises covering arms and upper back. Time to start adding weight. Felling good with my wimpy 15 pounders on the arms stuff. Doing a single arm T-bar exercise for the upper back. All is feeling good with the resistance.
July 22: This crazy hot stretch of weather has caused me to change my rides from late morning to early morning. Ever since my early morning IM swim training back in the mid-90’s I’ve hated early morning workouts. Just cannot get my body and mind ready at 6 AM anymore to train. Part of that has been my low back just being stiff as hell first thing in the AM. And over the past 16 or so odd years since racing, well I eliminated all those morning workouts that I freaking hated doing, and only did because I had to train. Racing was a bit of a different story back then with respect to the morning stuff, but training…training was totally different.
Yet with the forecast temps for today, especially the heat factor stuff being predicted in the 100’s, I just could not do the ride later in the day. So I was on the bike at like 6:50 AM today doing a WU down to the bike and hike. Then as soon as I got on the trail I ramped it up to the upper end of my training zone and rode at or just above my high end for one hour. Felt pretty good most of the rep but I was just sweating like a faucet the whole time. Wore a headband and took along a washcloth to continually wipe my face, arms and hands down. I have a little course now that will give me almost exactly 1 hour of high Z3 cruise tempo. There are a few places where I flip it, but by and large I can just keep it steady state the whole time.
Once done I was just wiped out. I mean that humidity just sucked the life out of me, and no matter how easy I soft pedaled the 40 min back home, it was hard to get my HR way back down as I usually do. Now it wasn’t in the low end of my training zone at all, but it was only about 10bpm lower than that low end, and that’s unusual when you’re noodling at 10 mph! Drank a full bottle of electrolyte and a full bottle of water on the way back home. My gear was just soaked and I’d only ridden like 1:45 hours.
Ate some brekkie, drank another 2 quarts of water, showered then just lay down for an hour. I mean I was torched for a bit. Was able to finally get up and work at the desk, but wow, did that beat the tar out of me! No resistance today, going to give the old heart some R & R due to the extreme heat.