I had a long bike ride scheduled for today. Saturday night I prepped the drink bottles and food we would need so it would be a few less things to take of when we woke up Sunday. We even discussed the route we would take. Basically we would do the "Tour de Riverhead" and add in a sub-route of the "Tour de William Floyd" to tack on some extra mileage. Ideally, we wanted to get out early and beat the heat.
Sunday morning arrives and I wake up somewhat early, around 7a. I'm not really much of a late sleeper. I go out into the kitchen to eat breakfast and wait for Wingman. Since I made him get up early Saturday, I figured I would be nice and let him sleep a little. I think a little turned into a lot longer. Around 9:30a he emerged from his slumber. He ate his breakfast and by 10:30a we were on the road. And boy was it hot. But I was in denial thinking to myself "We're riding, it's not like we're running. How bad can it be?" Um, it was bad. I paced myself so I wouldn't blow up early. We made our way down CR 24 and were treated to the site of ~14 Ferrari's, 4 Maserati's, and a few Porsche's and Mercedes roaring by. I was trying to do some quick math to figure the total $$ value that went by. I can't add that fast. Once they blew by us we continued on our way. I made sure at least every 15 minutes I was taking in fluids. On a day like today, it is easy to fall behind with the amount of water I was losing through sweat.
I had my 2nd suspicion that it might not be a good day to ride when we got to CR 51. My nemesis hill was coming up. I decided to take it easy and just spin my way up. No standing today. We were only ~45 minutes into a 3:45 ride so why blow it early. Wingman blew by me on the hill and I had to concede the polka dot jersey. I was no longer the King of the Mountain. He soundly beat me to the top.
We made our way down to CR 111 and started our trip north. I felt really good and was dead on with my fluid intake and nutrition. The only rough part about riding on CR 111 is dealing with the people driving back to the city. Once we got past the LIE it quieted down. The backroads are usually quiet and somewhat shaded. I made a quick stop to assess Wingman's fluid intake. We were 1 hour in and he should have one empty bottle. Not quite. I told him to drink up because we still had a long way to go.
At our usual stop on 25, we picked up some water and I tempted fate by getting a Hershey bar. Mmmmm, it tasted good and hoped it would not haunt me later. After the brief stop, I secretly debated bagging the ride and trying again Monday due to the heat, but like the idiot I am, we continued west.
There was another stop planned at the 7-11 in Middle Island/Rocky Point. Got some more water and even poured some over my head. It was nice and cold. Poor Wingman, at this point his jersey was completely unzipped and I am not sure how well he was doing in the heat. He said he was OK to go on.
At this point we were heading east again, but had our extra mileage to do on the William Floyd. My plan was to get to Brookhaven Lab and then turn around to head back to 25a and go home. I kept looking behind me to make sure Wingman was near and looked OK. I pulled onto a side street to wait in the shade. He pulled in and told me he was trying to send me messages via mental telepathy to pull in and turn around. Well, somehow I got the message. I shared my Cliff Shot Blocks with him and we discussed the way to get home. We'd just head back to 25 and go home. There was no argument from the Wingman. Overall, I felt good on the ride. My fluid and calorie intake were spot on. I felt like I nailed it. If it wasn't so hot, I would have felt much better.
We made it home safely, but very overheated. We rode for 3:30 instead of 3:45, so the ride wasn't very short. I could feel my core temp was a little high. Wingman went straight into the bedroom, turned on a fan and was flat on the floor in front of it. I told him to put some swimming clothes on and let's go to the LI Sound. At first he said he would just take a cold shower, but I convinced him the water temps are nice and cool. It wound up being the ultimate recovery tool. I think we spent ~20 minutes just hanging out in the water. Once we got home, we stayed indoors with the AC blasting and watched TV.
Note to self, next time, wake up the Wingman!!
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