Another one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time"

I hadn't had a lot of riding time lately with all the other stuff going on so I had planned a longer ride for today. I just wanted to make sure to get out the door fairly early to beat the heat as much as possible. Even though I had just finished getting over being ill on Friday I figured a long ride would be fine; I seemed to handle Thursday's ride without any problems.

I wanted to do a ride similar to one that I used to do that took in most of the trails in my immediate area. This time I decided to go with my SS and changed the gearing to a little harder than I used in the race last week since there would be some road sections and the trails were dry.

I left about 8:00 this morning and hit the first few trails but within about an hour and a half I began to feel really light headed and had to stop to catch my breath. I almost turned around to head home but instead decided to just back off some and see what developed. The pattern seemed to continue for most of the ride, especially as the day heated up. About every 1.5 hours of so I would end up at one of the trailheads and stop to pour some water over my head and let the cobwebs clear. At Bloomer I sat and watched the Velodrome races for a while.

I was still pedaling OK but the heart rate was higher than normal, I think due to the heat. I was glad when I finally made it home after over 5.5 hours of actual riding and was able to recover in the air conditioning. I didn't seem to suffer any lingering effects as far as I can tell but I'm glad I had decided not to race this weekend.

For the record I managed to ride all or part of 11 different trails. The Polly Ann, Orion Oaks, LOHS, Bald Mountain South, Bald Mountain North, Addison Oaks, Stony Creek, Macomb Orchard Trail, Clinton River Trail, Bloomer, and the Paint Creek Trail. I don't think I was ever much farther than nine or ten miles from the house as the crow flies.

I think I will do the ride again but later this fall when the temperatures are cooler. And when the cider mills are open :-)