A Hot One

"I am cruel thirsty

this hot weather.....

Nothing makes me so 

excessively peevish as 

hot weather."

Jonathan Swift 

The strange weather this year continues.  Suddenly it is July and it is hot.  The bouts of colder weather have not allowed my body to adapt, and I suffer.  This is particularly so because of the high dew point from all the rain and storm activity here recently.  Or in other words, it is humid.  It is the kind of humid that often, particularly during climbs when speed is lower, ones skin glows from sweat that the body has produced to try to cool you but that doesn't because it cannot evaporate.  It's the kind of ride that makes one dream of large, ice filled glasses of water and cool showers and air conditioning.  It's the kind of ride where your throat feels parched no matter how much you drink and the water, warmed by the weather, is as warm as drinking your own urine would be.  

But we are riding to lunch at Stream Cliff and it is only a bit over fifty miles one way.  So there will be a break in the middle.  But the initial climb out of Madison is a tough one and a long one.  My legs still are weak from yesterday's hot century.  And I suffer a bit before we reach the top.  I just don't recover as quickly as I used to, and it shows.  I always lag behind Jon on climbs regardless, but today is worse than usual.  At least there is another rider, Ken, closer to my own speed so I don't feel like such a drag.  

Lunch is, as always, delicious and not overly crowded.  I have become very fond of their blueberry salad.  It is nice to talk and relax and drink cold water before climbing on our bikes for the return trip.  How nice it would be, I think, to just take a nap now that my stomach is full and my need for conversation briefly sated.  

 

The return trip, though not as hilly, is even hotter.  By the time we reach Madison, I am more than ready to get off my bike, the bike that , yet again, is NOT allowing me to shift into the big ring.  It happens so often any more. Jon is kind and adjusts the limit screw.  I toy with the idea of suggesting a drink before heading home, but I am weary and don't.  Glad I rode, but the heat is making me tired and peevish, so home I go to luxuriate in a shower and as much ice cold water to drink as I can hold.  Tomorrow is, after all, another day.  And I am blessed to have a home to go to.