Day 11

 Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Today that meant getting my long ride in miday. Normally one would prefer to rise early & get it done prior to the heat of the day. But life doesn't always care about one's "training" schedule. So, @ noon, with the blazing ball of fire on our backs, temp 100 degrees, humidity 80%, J. S. & I headed out on our TT bikes for a 3.5 hour ride. I tried to drop my core temp before the ride by drinking lots of fluid, forgoing coffee today for a frozen strawberry lemonade from McD's pre-ride.
 We were ok for a while. One of my favorite roads that I have a love/hate relationship with is Cohuttabeaverdale road. I love it one minute & hate it the next. No shade, black ribbon through chicken farm country. It kicked my butt today. @ the 2 hr mark I pulled up under a tree for shade on the verge of heat stroke. Nauseated, crosseyed & spent, yet 1 1/3 hrs left to go. Not used to spending this long on my Uberhund bars, the muscles in my neck & back were rebelling. To make matters worse, I had no Endurolytes.
But, there were clouds on the horizon, so we rode towards them in hopes of finding cooler temps & before long we were riding headlong into a storm. I said a little thank you prayer. Even though I was already broken from the heat, the relief of the storm gave me just enough of a break to finish our ride. J.S. was in the same boat. We were suffering!
Once back to the car we quickly changed for our transition run. Ooops! I forgot my running shoes! Oh well, I ran in flip flops.
Whew! We did it!