ornoth_cycling | Teh Hawtness

Between a holiday and the proximate weekend, the Fourth of July is almost always focused on training. There’s usually a long Quad Cycles ride on offer on the Fourth, in addition to the normal weekend rides. The Pan-Mass Challenge is a month away, and there’s always one last century around the end of July to prepare for (although it historically was the CRW Climb to the Clouds, in recent years I’ve switched to the Mt. Washington Century).

This year had the added impetus of a weather change. It was nearly impossible to ride in June due to an unchanging threat of thunderstorms every day that resulted in it being the third wettest June in recorded history. The whole month, I was only able to do three bike commutes. But on July 3rd, things shifted into a new pattern, creating a five-day heat wave that featured blazing sun, oppressive humidity, and temperatures well into the 90s.

With such a conjunction of factors, it was time to put some miles down.

July third was our first brutally hot day. I commuted to work, then took advantage of the early release day to do one rep of Great Blue Hill’s ballbuster climb. Then I hoofed it home just in time to turn around and ride out to the Landry’s / Green Line Velo Wednesday evening group ride for the first time in two years. I toodled along in the “leisurely” group because I wanted to conserve energy, but somehow I wound up getting sucked into the “medium-fast” group halfway through, which provided a much harder workout than I wanted. Despite working that day, my tally came to 68 miles.

The Fourth of July I decided to ride easy with Bobby Mac and the Quaddies. Between the brutal heat and holiday, it was a very small group that broke into bits immediately. I decided to skip the usual stop at Ferns Country Store, and instead went straight to Kimball Farm for ice cream, then solo’ed my way home via Virginia Road and the Old Mass Ave hill. Second day of the heat wave: 56 miles.

Somewhere in there I managed to really mess up my neck. I often stretch and crack my neck at stops, and I suspect I pinched something. Hopefully that problem will magically disappear in a few more days. I also generated some saddle problems, but my efforts to alleviate those seem to have worked.

July fifth I worked as normal and bike commuted, but experimented with trying to keep my heart rate below 80 percent max. Ridiculously hot; 22 miles.

July six was an easy Saturday ride with Quad, and I did the same ice cream route I’d done on the Fourth, spending the early part of the ride dispensing tips to an eager first-time PMC rider. I took it easy, since I had plans for a long ride on Sunday, and the 80 percent rule really seemed to make a major difference in how destroyed (or not!) I felt at the end of the ride. Yes, it was brutally hot. Another 56 miles.

July seven, despite it being uhh brutally hot, I wanted to go long, so at 6:30am I set out on an old, flattish century route I found online that someone had done from Cambridge to Rockport and back, using a mix of familiar and unfamiliar roads.

The short version of that story is that my fourth century of 2013 racked up another 109 miles, bringing my 5-day total to 312 miles in 20 hours of actual pedaling (i.e. excluding stops).

It was the fifth official day of the heat wave, and my fifth consecutive day in the saddle: something that actually hadn’t happened in more than two years.

But there were plenty of other interesting details to share, like passing Sesame Street in Wakefield, getting stuck drafting a big old farm tractor for a couple miles in Essex, and watching a coyote and a jackrabbit (separate incidents) cross the road in front of me in Hamilton. I continued my trend of trying to keep my heart rate below 80 percent, even when The Authorities tempted me to sprint by placing three or four of those “Your current speed is…” radar displays along the route!

It was also interesting to observe how as a cyclist my opinion of a town is very strongly influenced by the condition of their roads. I can tell you that Beverly is just a cheap, penny-pinching dump, while nearby Lynnfield and Middleton are absolutely wonderful, caring communities!

Stepping back and summarizing the season’s bigger picture… PMC fundraising is going okay. There are a lot of people I haven’t heard from yet, but there’s always a flurry of activity when the ride happens. The big open question is how much my angel sponsor (and his employer) will give, as that will make or break my year.

We’re now a week and a half away from the Mt. Washington Century, which Paul and I will do. No hard training between now and then, except maybe some hill repeats. And two weeks after that is the Pan-Mass Challenge, where I should see Jay and Kelly who’ll be up from Florida. Hopefully I’ll have some video footage from both events!

So the high season is now under way, and thanks to the weather and this past week of riding, my ridonculous tan lines are all ready to go!