90 Degrees Makes All the Difference

In a couple of ways. For one, especially in combination with the humidity, it makes being outside right unpleasant. I heard on the radio this afternoon that it was 96 downtown. I had 92 degrees on the north side of my house at about 6:00 PM. I just wilt in those temps.

Morning workout: A bike ride.

Running, the last 9 months, has only caused discomfort and discouragement. So I'm riding a lot more. Heading into the wind was so discouraging. They'd said on the radio that the winds would be gusting 30 to 40 mph from the south, so I headed south first. For 18 miles. At the top of one hill I decided to see how fast I'd go if I just coasted (directly into the wind). 4.5 mph. Unreal. I absolutely could not wait to turn into a cross wind. Actually, the cross wind was scary. It blew the bike all over the place. Anyway, heading south there were all these long Paulson gravel trucks going by me. I think I counted 9 in total. At one point, there were 2 in a row and the first one was unnecessarily close to me. About 20 seconds later, a car pulled up next to me and the driver rolled down the passenger window. He was dressed in a suit, going to work I guess. He started talking but it was so hard to hear over all the wind noise. (Going about 18 mph into a 30-40 mph wind ... that's a lot of wind noise.) Finally I managed to hear him ask me if that truck had come too close. I said yes, it had. He said it seemed like he wasn't being very nice to me. I agreed. At the next intersection he turned around and headed back toward Roch. I thought that was very nice of him to check on me. I wonder if he called Paulson trucking ... ? Going east on the north side of the airport was terrible. The winds REALLY blow up there. It was nice to get to Simpson and turn 90 degrees back toward Rochester with a nice long downhill in front of me. By the time I got home I was toast. I just wanted to lay down on the floor and vegetate ... What a workout. 50.05 miles.

Bill Nevala sent me the following map of the TOTALLY new Rochesterfest Olympic distance bike course:

Here's the elevation chart:

I'm making cookies to bring to Chester Woods tomorrow. See you at the finish line. :-)

Toodles.