We’re having a heat wave here in the Pacific NorthWest. Normal summer temps are in the 70’s to 80’s. Yesterday and today are in the 90’s.
My work brought me down to Olympia, WA yesterday. I have been wanting to check out the Capitol State Forest so I packed my MUni for a post-work ride.
The ride started off nice, over the first 1/3 mile the shade of the woods and a general drop to a creek was nice and cool. Very encouraging.
The next 2/3 mile was predominantly up hill with about 1/2 walking (partly because of grade and partly to conserve engergy because of the heat). Once away from the stream the heat was stifling. After about a mile I made it to the trail head of a 2-mile loop. I was so hot I turned around and headed back to the car rather than committing to an additional 3 miles.
There was just no cooling down, even after soaking the top of my head in the stream on the way back. The only real relief was air conditioning.
On the drive home the weater report said it was 98 F in Olympia.
well, it got to about 105 a few days ago… I wasn’t MUniing, but I was street riding. It never gets too hot, as long as you can ride your uni into a creek.
Yes, yes I am
Seriously, I haven’t reached my limit yet… the closest I have to it is when the sweat starts dribbling onto my glasses… that annoys me… It helps that I wear a camelback, but it’s too small… I’ve gone through it 3 times in an hour, and that’s a lot of water!
The downside is an hour after I stop riding, at which point I have to visit the bathroom every 20 minutes…
We put in a 4 hour Muni today (Sat. 25th) up in Santa Barbara and because Eric (Mango) and Jake had to drive up here (LA) from San Diego, we didn’t meet up with the SB crew (Matt and Ayal) till noon. The first hour on the trail was blazing. Sweat was cascading off Mango’s melon like he had a fire hose hidden in his helmet (black). Luckily the lower part of the trail went into partial shade or we might have perished.
hahahahaha!!! you’re funny! let me put it this way, i live about an hour inland from the central coast, and this year we’ve been lucky, cuz its been hangin around those nice cool temperatures, like 100*. it’s usually about 10 to 15 degrees hotter. have fun with your “heat wave.”
Lol… Americans. Sometimes. You call 90 (32 celsius) hot? That’d be average temperature for us in summer. I’d call 104 hot (40 celsius). You should all come to Australia in summer time for a ride.
Let’s hope this isn’t foreshadowing a wimp-out during our ride tomorrow. It would be unfortunate if your daughters have to carry you back in from the far side of Yellow Lake. Just in case, I’ll be sure to bring my digicam along for full documentation.
no kidding, this is terrible…i havent touched my uni in 2 weeks. with all that armour on its just to hot and i know better than to ride without.
i’m posting this from the Oregon coast. im on the yearly family camping trip. even here (close to Newport) on the beach its still above 85 F. any temp over 80 is to hot for me to muni. im going to be hating it at the Cali muni week-end if its as hot as i hear it can get there in Tohoe. hopfully we can bring some clouds with us.
Lest I be labeled as a Heat Weanie for the rest of my life I went on a 15+ mile, 2 1/2 hour ride in 90+ F above Christina Lake in BC last summer (Pics) on a Schwinn MUni, 140 cranx and 24x2.5 tire. The only time I could feel a sweat was at the rest stops, the rest of the time the sweat was going straight to vapor. This was downhill on a railroad grade. I was riding with two bicyclists.
Add up hills, leg armour, amost triple digit temps, riding solo, and an unfamiliar trail and it was TOO HOT TO MUNI.
Those of you acclimated to warmer climes: Add 20 degrees F to your summer average and see if that’s hot.
Heat is definitely a relative thing. When it hits 90F and 90%+ humidity it is hot. The water just runs off you. I would love to ride in 90F in Phoenix with 30-40% humidity. It makes the temps seem a lot hotter when it is humid. In the Army they actually use a wet bulb index to determine when it is too hot to train. Here in the South, with the humidity and heat people drop out all the time. When you sweat and the air is so saturated that it doesn’t evaporate, you don’t get the benefit of the cooling effect sweating should provide.
Actually I love it when it’s cooler. I’m prolly the only Australian that goes shorts and t-shirt when we go to England. All I’m saying is you guys gotta quit complaining, your 90 degrees days are prolly average or less than average for us in summer time Although I really hate it when it’s hot in Australia, I still go for rides it’s just… really really hot.
I was riding in 90 degree heat with humidity the other day, my heart was racing, I thought I was gonna pass out. I stopped after only a half-hour, but still had a headache for hours afterwards. Just not worth it for me.