hot fun

I left work a little early and went home to spend a little time with four dogs. In addition to my golden retriever, brittany spaniel, and yorkie, Button, I'm taking care of Button's sister Aggie. She's very sweet and cute and loves to play and snuggle with her brother. Her Mom, Karla is in Los Angeles this week, and my wife, Beth is with her until Monday, so I have my hands full on the dog front, but it's fun. I borrowed this picture from Karla.

After they had some play time in the yard I managed to get in a nice, brisk 25 miles in bright sunlight that had temperatures in the low 90's, with a heat index near 100 degrees. I followed a road out of town further than I usually do to see if it would lead me to one of my usual loops. It did, kind of. Rough pavement, gravel and a hill would have had me turning around if I had been on my Trek, but I have that at the shop for a check-up prior to my Colorado trip, so I was on my Surly and just kept riding.

I'll need to tweak this route a little, or only ride it on weekends, because the traffic in the last few miles was more than I really like to ride in. But several miles prior were on great roads that weren't as busy. I even road briskly through several roundabouts, which had me feeling very Tour de France-ey. I ended feeling strong, no ill-effects from my tumble earlier in the week. I'm struggling to get in as many miles and long rides as I would like in preparation for CRMBT, but if I can get several more rides like today's and squeeze in a couple long ones, I'll be fine.                                                                                                                                          

I really like the way the route for this year's tour lays out. Very scenic, but not too hard 71 miles on the first day, followed by a high altitude 50 miles the next day. By the third day I hope to have my legs fully under me for the high point of the tour, literally. I'm hoping against hope that the weather cooperates, and I can add Mt Evans to my cycling resume, and have some stories, and pictures to show for it.