4th ride since back on bike. sweet
 

Just did my 4th ride since my 2 month vacation courtesy of my broken clavicle. Knocked off 40+ miles. Pretty sore legs but not bad for just four rides, eh? First ride back on my bike was 32mi. That was a big surprise. My summer riding season is starting depressingly late but better late than never is pretty meaningful here!

Congrats. I know how good it feels to be back up after a forced layoff. My summer season is off to a slow start, too, and I'm still having trouble getting it going. Hopefully, that will change next week. Smooth roads! :)

40 miles thats great I'm glad you recovered so quickly

Charlie

Well I hope you get some time on that Madone. I would think Louisiana and the south in general would be hot and humid and difficult to ride in during summer months. I too was expecting trouble getting back to my bike but it's not been nearly as bad as I had expected. In fact I'm astounded at being able to knock off 40mi on my 4th ride and 32mi on my very first ride. Fine by me. Good luck getting back to it.

We have two seasons here. Hot and Humid and Oh My God. lol

Like most Alaskans, I can deal with cold but honestly don't know if I'd be a cyclist if I lived in the south. In truth, I've never been on a bike when the temps were over 85F. I think I rode one time when it was 83 or so. We had some seriously hot temps a few weeks ago when my wife would get up early and go for a ride while it was still tolerable. I recall the heat of summer in Wisconsin where it would get over 90F. I can hardly imagine going out in high humidity in temps over 90F. How hot does it get where you are? What kind of temps do you ride in and when do you say it's too hot? What strategies do you have to deal with the heat?

We've actually had an unusually mild summer so far this year. We haven't gotten much past 97 or 98 and, that, only a handful of times. July and August typically bring three digit temps and humidity in the mid 80% -90's. I've ridden in 107 but, trust me, it just absolutely sucks. I don't see how the Arizona folks deal with their heat even without the humidity.

These days, I typically try to get started between 4 and 5am. The humidity then is already about 75-85%, but the heat is much more tolerable.

Our biggest threat here is Heat Stroke. Because of the humidity, there's no evaporative effect from sweating. You just keep dripping and dripping until there's nothing left. Hydration and electrolytes are CRUCIAL. During the days that I actually used to regularly ride during the "heat", I would regularly drop about 7 pounds of water in a two hour ride every time I'd go out. I finally realized how stupid, not to mention dangerous, that was so I've altered my schedule. Still, some days, you're just stuck in the heat.

I LOVE cold weather. But I'm not sure I could handle yours. lol

wow. that's some serious heat. I'd wonder if 105 desert dry heat wouldn't be better but no matter what, those are high temps. Today I was thinking how crazy hot it was...but it was only 77 :). I chuckled a bit. 7lb in two hours???? Holy moly!

I sweat a LOT. I'm half Sicilian, I even sweat in the shower, lol. I'm a big believer in Endurolytes during the summer months. Hydration is a constant struggle for me during the hot months even when I'm not particularly active. But, like I said, I'm on the road in the early morning hours now for the most part. I'm not ancient quite yet, but I'm old enough that I've had to make some adjustments.

77 sounds pretty nice. We had a streak in late June for about two weeks that our morning lows were in the 60's. It was unbelievable. This time of year, those days are golden. :)

I've found that as I've lost weight (down from 285 to 205) I am sweating less. Makes sense. I don't bother with food of any kind on rides up to an hour or so. If I go past that I am sure to bring water and a snack or Hammer supplement in my water.

I'm the same way with the food. I carry Hammer Gels with me and, if I know I'll be out more than a couple of hours, I'll take something solid to eat. The Endurolytes are more for muscle cramping as a result of dumping sodium. I know a lot of people don't like them, but they work pretty well for me. And I always keep a big jar of Pickle Juice handy in the fridge for when I get home.

Awesome job on your weight loss. I have got to get serious with me diet. I'm sitting right around 280 now, Would love to get down to 220-230. Discipline. lol

My go-to phrase now is that exercise can't help, diet can't help. Neither do any good unless you have both. That was certainly the case for me. No attempt at any diet did any good for me at all, but when I worked on eating better (not dieting, just eating more carefully and limiting fatty food) and threw in regular strong exercise I got results. In my mind, to my experience, it really is a lot of work to lose weight. It's not fast and it's not easy and frankly if I was still working long hours coming home tired after work, I'm not sure I could have done it so I don't begrudge anyone's lack of success. It took retirement and a lot of work in my case.

Exactly. People always ask me why I'm not "one of those skinny little biker guys". I always tell them because you don't exercise yourself thin. My philosophy has always been a little twisted. One of the reasons that I ride is that it allows me to eat pretty much what I want without gaining weight or having my glucose go haywire. I won't lose weight, but I don't gain. But I'm at a point where I'm ready to start dropping a few weight classes so it's time to get serious about the diet as well.