Hot enough for 'ya?

Well, here we are in mid-September and the mercury persists in rising up into the 90 deg. range on a regular basis. While here in the sticky ol' South that's nothing unusual, this summer really seems to be wearing on me more than usual. June, July and August were all scorchers, and I can think of many days where it felt like working in a sauna. One 54 mile ride we did on a Sunday in July was in 97 deg. temperatures - justifiably dubbed the Dantes Inferno ride. I worked outside in the yard on another day clearing brush to open up the back fence for mending, and it was another high 90's torture fest. I drank 1 1/2 gallons of water and Gatorade that day and still lost 9lbs. I'd have hoped to see that heat finally start to break, but again, at Cyclocross practice this morning it was in the mid-80's at 8:30AM on its way to a 92 high by noon. Not exactly the weather you want for the kind of exertion put out in 'Cross practice. We did two 15 minute race-pace intervals and I quite literally could wring out my jersey by the end of it. Yuck... (the heat, not the jersey - or maybe both!) Last weekend had to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had, though. I drove down to Macon, GA for the Georgia Single Speed Mountain Bike Championships. I'd been looking forward to that race for months but I knew things were just not going to go as I'd hoped practically from the moment I pulled into the parking lot. It was 95 deg. and blazingly sunny. Even worse was when I realized I only had a couple of water bottles - my Camelback was left hanging on the cabinet at home. Oh well, forge ahead! After 15 minutes of being staged and roasting in the sun we finally got the gun, and I had a great start. I was slotted nicely into 5th place with a very strong group of riders and was holding on without much trouble at all. Once into the woods the heat started to take on epic proportions though. The trail was bone dry and dusty and there was not even a hint of a breeze. By the end of the first lap I was about 45 seconds off the pace and was wringing wet. One bottle was empty and the other half gone which did not bode well. By the halfway point in lap 2 I had actually stopped sweating, and that was the point where I decided that it just was not worth it. I bailed and rode back to the parking lot. I hate quitting a race, but it was that or risk heat exhaustion. Besides, it had stopped being fun and that's part of what I ride for. The heat just is not for me, even after living down here for 10 years. It just adds insult to injury that northern Georgia is still in an extreme drought. What little rain we get is mostly in the form of thunder and lightning storms that are not much fun to be out in. I still sometimes sit back and wonder "How did I ever wind up in GA?" If the Farmer's Almanac is to be believed this fall and winter are supposed to be cooler than normal and rainy. That the best weather news I've had all year!