Stupid ride

It happens. Even though I've been riding for twenty years, I still do stupid rides. I don't know why. Yesterday was a prime example. My wife and daughter were in Las Vegas to see the Phantom of the Opera so I decided it would be the perfect weekend to do my monthly 200k brevet. In the summer I normally ride brevets at night to avoid the worst of the heat but I always have to deal with a strong headwind so yesterday I decided to start the ride at 6:00am. How hot can it get, I asked myself?

Q. How hot can it get?
A. How stupid are you?

Heading from San Bernardino to Newport Beach was great. It was cool and I had almost no headwind. I broke my personal best by covering the first 63 miles in 3:52 elapsed. I love the panini at the Corner Market and Deli in Newport Beach but when I tried to order there were some kids ordering half a dozen of them so it was obvious I would have to wait at least ten minutes before I could even place my order. No problem, I went next door to Newport Burgers where they have fantastic Ahi Tuna burgers but as I parked my bike in the bike rack a group of eight people snuck in front of me. Crap - another long wait. I decided to eat a Clif bar and started riding back - rookie mistake.

There's a Circle K about 17 miles up the bike path so I stopped there and grabbed a sandwich and one of the wonderful apple pies that comes in greaseproof paper. It was starting to warm up (about 80F) so I took my time and enjoyed it. Less than 50 miles to go. Twenty miles later is the first sustained climb of the ride up Palisades. I had to stop in the entrance way to some office buildings to cool down. The computer on my bike said 85F but it felt much hotter climbing in the sun. Hydration was becoming a problem, partly because the water in my bottles was so hot it was unpalatable.

At mile 110 there's a park with water and restrooms. I stopped there for another 15 minutes and lay down in a spot of shade that was still soaked from the sprinklers. I didn't care that it was covered in ants. I replaced my hot water with some from a drinking fountain that was merely tepid.

Five miles later I was riding on the flat at 10-12 mph with a tailwind, barely able to turn the pedals over. I stopped again under a bridge to try to lose some heat. I ate the last of my trailmix and drank more tepid water. It took another ten minutes before I felt I could ride again. The last seven miles were brutal. The highest temp my computer registered in the shade was 99F although I suspect it snuck up to 100F while I wasn't looking. Of course, there's no shade on the trail and my computer registered a high of 115F in the sun. Even pouring the warm water from my bottles over my head didn't seem to help much.

There were a couple of things that prevented me from suffering from heat stroke, a very serious condition. It was a dry heat (yes, it makes a difference) and there was enough of a breeze to evaporate my sweat efficiently. As long as I kept drinking I would probably be OK. Thank goodness there are a lot of drinking fountains along the route. I never even got a headache which is one of the first signs of dehydration. I didn't cramp, either, which is a big surprise.

A. Pretty stupid.