Serious Carnage

Wow, this Saturday's TNT "Livermore" ride was brutal. The temperatures started high and climbed to 104 on Palomares Canyon.

Our 80 mile ride promised to be a challenge from the start due to the high temps. Still, I started strongly and was feeling good except for continuing ride shorts issues (I have to resolve these soon). All the way up the Altamount Pass I felt strong; however, after SAG 2 my body started to take a turn. For some reason, I just didn't feel good on the bike anymore and I was definitely not alone. Coach Cliff also was suffering with horrible quad cramps which ultimately led to his SAGging in after a post- SAG2 flat.

As we approached Palomares I could no longer control my heart rate. As I waited for one of our team riders to arrive I thought I would be alright. Ok, so I was wrong, as I rode up Palomares I could still not control my heart rate even after three 10-15 minute stops. No matter what I tried, the bpm would not go below 115 and would skyrocket with 10-15 seconds of beginning an effort up the climb.

Finally, I decided to SAG up this portion of the route and found many others had gone the same route. With an initial stop at Joe Yamin's parents SAG4 (a marvel of a stop - awesome). I SAGged up the Dublin Grade and rode the rest of the way in with my SAG mates Jeff and John. We were quite the motley bunch.

It took that night and all of the next day to hydrate back to some level of normalcy. I am very thankful for air conditioning and even more so for my fantastic Team Rawhide friends. I am pretty sure conditions can't get much more brutal than they were because I hydrated like crazy and still had a high-speed, ok low-speed, come apart. In any case, I live to fight again and Tahoe is just around the corner.

Go Team!

Today's photos show Ira motoring up the Altamount Pass and the other shows the windmills on top.