Hello heat, glad to meet you

Getting ramped up for the Harvest moon 70.3 Triathlon my rides and runs have been getting longer. Anne is also getting ready for the Copper Triangle a huge mountain ride on August 6th and she takes the lead on training right now. She is riding with Nancy, Margaret and others that are getting ready like Julie and Beth. The core group of girls that are working together are Nancy and Margaret and the three of them have done so well getting ready for this years event. I think that they will have a great event and I am excited to see Anne's mileage increase on the bike.
Jackson was going to a be at a sleepover and I was going to pick him up after my early ride in the morning until Anne came downstairs and said "we have a problem". She was looking at the invite and realized that the party was going to be done at 9 and so I was not going to get the 4 hour ride that I had on my schedule. I waffled a bit about a shorter ride, blowing it off because of an oversight. But no, I jumped up...really I did I was very proud of how I was able to spring into action and headed up the stairs taking them by two's like a real cool guy. I told Anne that I was going to go now and get it done so everyone can be happy with the weekend training and kids. She looked at me like I was crazy but it only lasted for a minute until I was headed up to the bedroom to change again taking the stairs two by two. I smiled as I hit the top and thought to myself that I was a good start to my warm up and it was going to be the coolest part of the day. I stepped outside after getting everything ready and realized what 95 degrees in Colorado feels like at 12 noon.
My goal for the ride was to finish and do so in a very controlled effort during the entire ride. I live about 8 miles from the start of the Harvest Moon and so I decided that today was a good time to ride the course for the first time. Anne came outside with me to pump up my tires and asked 3 times if I was OK and made sure that my phone was on. She said she would keep her phone close and would come and get me if I needed. You see I have had heat issues in the past and they did not turn out well.
The first hour was great, I was eating, drinking and doing what I felt would allow for a good ride. I had to add extra miles on the bike portion of the race route to get my 4 hours done and so I went past the 3rd turn that was the one that took us back to transition. This bike course has about 3 main roads that you ride so you can work the rollers and hills and flat and false down hills ect. I stayed about 5-8 BPM higher than I wanted to and kept dropping my effort to keep me in a good way. I hit a gas station and filled up with another 60oz of water and Gatorade and headed back to the race course. The last 2 hours were crazy hot. I have never felt the heat this bad on a ride and so I worked hard to keep my HR down because I was dropping sweat a lot more that I normally do. The last turn was back on a road that I was familiar with and was also the sign that I was about 45 minutes from home. The bad part of that was I was out of liquid and was heating up and putting myself in the tank. I slowed down and took the next 5 miles very easy and turned into the 7/11 just as I was about done. I slowly got off my bike, walked to the bathroom and put cool water all over my face and back. I grabbed more ice water and took a second to get somewhat composed before I took on the last 25 minutes home. I had burned up in several ways and took the rest of the time to think about how to be better next time.
Home never looked so good and I was able to catch Anne as she was taking Jackson to the party and the kids to the mall for items they have been saving up for. I cooled down and it took me about 45 minutes before I was able to come back from crazy land. I jumped on the scale and over the 4 hour ride I took on 140oz of liquid and still lost over 5 pounds. I will work on trying to figure out how to allow my body to take on more liquid, calories and stuff to keep me rolling in the heat. This was a good experience to realize that I have to keep hydrated to keep going. I have to keep my effort low enough to allow my body to accept the H2o and calories because today I went past that point and it hurt way to much. I am glad for the training and lessons that I learn and will keep it up. Hopefully we don't see 95 degrees on the bike/run course on race day, but if we do I know what I need to do to make it a success.
Good luck with your ride tomorrow Anne.
Stay hydrated.

Love you,

T