Thursday, June 30, 2005

The Day Ain't Over Till The Trainings Done

Had a good brick this afternoon. The weather cooperated quite well, 111* and 3% humidity. So I had that going for me, which is nice. It only felt like 102 degrees to be honest.

I trucked Lucille to the office today and planned for a ride around and through the campus of Arizona State University. Well I learned some things on this part of the brick.
1) Do not leave my helmet on the seat of my truck all day when its 140 degrees in the cab, it leaves a burn mark under my chin from the chinstrap.
2) Tempe buses park in the bike lane when off-loading passengers. Which means I had to sprint past them or get stuck sucking hot exhaust.
3) Breathing 111* air on a busy street with 3 fires polluting the air equals a dry hack.
I am trying a new bike/run brick routine. For the run portion I am running 1 minute for every mile I bike. So today with all the traffic, headwinds, lights and the nice big hill I took, I biked 12 miles in 50 minutes, averaging 15.62 mph. So I ran 12 minutes. I realized towards the end of my run that when I brick a long bike ride, I will be riding, say, 40 miles then running 40 minutes. I may need to rethink this, but for now its good training.
This is what the entire Phoenix Valley Of The Sun (VOTS) looks like thanks to a 200,000 acre fire 20 miles north of town, a 500 acre fire inside VOTS and another on the eastside of VOTS not far from my neck of the woods.

2 comments:

Wil said...

Man, this is a mess. You've got some guts if you're getting out there in all that.

Chris said...

111 degrees! You're an animal! I remember when I was in Vegas last year and it was 114. It's like you're walking around in an oven. I imagine that biking in that weather is like biking in a sauna with a hair dryer blowing in your face.

Coming from California, I understand how much nicer a "dry heat" is compared with the heat here in the midwest. But there gets to be a point where hot is just hot no matter what kind of hot it is!

You're far braver than I!