Put a fork in me, I'm done!

I was planning on heading out at 6:30AM for a 3 hour ride but was informed by my children that their cheerleading camp performance was at 11:15AM. It was doable but I'm married to a night owl and getting her moving in the morning is tough, so I help out by getting the kids fed, watered, and supervise the teeth brushing while she showers and gets dressed. If everything goes as planned, they head out at 8:45AM for a 9:00AM camp. Not enough time for me to get my ride in.

The performance was over by 12:00 noon and on the way home, I checked the outside air temperature and it said 99F!!! My ride was not going to fun. I'd been hydrating all morning and added a little extra salt to my bottles and checked my weight and hydration on my scale before heading out. 157.2 lbs and a hydration level of 61.2% which is above where I normally am for this time of the day.

I headed out and decided to do the flat to rolling route to minimize fatigue from hills and immediately noticed a significant headwind. Nothing like a hot headwind to zap your energy. I felt sluggish after about 45 minutes into the ride and decided to pull over at a convenience store and get a cold bottle of water and something to eat. This did help and I made it a point to stop every 30 minutes thereafter just to get out of the sun.

I didn't quite make the goal of 3 hours but ended up with 2:30. My weight dropped to 154 and my hydration level actually increased to 62.4%. I checked accuweather.com when I got home and they showed the high for this afternoon to be 101F with 15 mph gusts. You've got to love the summer time in the South!