It's hot in Africa

Tonight I ride. It's hot here. Furiously hot. El Nino hot. We normally have a warm to hot summer,
but this has just been ridiculous. Today the temps are predicted to rise to a scorching 35° Celsius.

I rode on Friday after work. Just a short hour long blast up and down the mountain in Tokai forest.
Climbed for about forty minutes in the early evening heat, sweating like a rapist. I couldn't muster
up the energy to get as high up as I usually would. After forty minutes of geriatric pace climbing
and cursing the Michelin 2.5's I opted for the bale out and picked one of the single tracks back
down the mountain. Had a blast coming down. There is a kind of relaxed, floaty feeling that one gets
in hot weather. Probably not good for concentration. Luckily I ride this trail often so there were
no surprises and no mishaps. The trail down is really twisty and routey. Huge amounts of fun.

Saturday dawned with all sorts of promises of afternoon rides. My wife works Saturday mornings and
I look after our little 9 month old daughter. Usually we do some sort of walk somewhere or other.
Georgie, the dog, and little Faith on my back. This weekend was just too hot. Couldn't do it
Sunday either.

Today I'm starting to get that slightly edgy feeling that comes from missing fun-time bicycling
opportunities. That's why, no matter how hot, tonight I will ride.

 

"Mark" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Tonight I ride. It's hot here. Furiously hot. El Nino hot. We normally have a warm to hot summer,
> but this has just been ridiculous. Today the temps are predicted to rise to a scorching 35°
> Celsius.
>
> I rode on Friday after work. Just a short hour long blast up and down the mountain in Tokai
> forest. Climbed for about forty minutes in the early evening heat, sweating like a rapist. I
> couldn't muster up the energy to get as high up as I usually would.
After
> forty minutes of geriatric pace climbing and cursing the Michelin 2.5's I opted for the bale out
> and picked one of the single tracks back down the mountain. Had a blast coming down. There is a
> kind of relaxed, floaty feeling that
one
> gets in hot weather. Probably not good for concentration. Luckily I ride this trail often so there
> were no surprises and no mishaps. The trail down is really twisty and routey. Huge amounts of fun.
>
> Saturday dawned with all sorts of promises of afternoon rides. My wife
works
> Saturday mornings and I look after our little 9 month old daughter.
Usually
> we do some sort of walk somewhere or other. Georgie, the dog, and little Faith on my back. This
> weekend was just too hot. Couldn't do it Sunday either.
>
> Today I'm starting to get that slightly edgy feeling that comes from
missing
> fun-time bicycling opportunities. That's why, no matter how hot, tonight I will ride.
>
>

Happy to swap. Below 10.C here most of the time at the moment. But not cold enough at night to
freeze and get the ol' fresh morning run in. Oh, and it's raining, oh wait, no started again...

Guess which country...

 

35 degrees C? Bah! It's been over 40 degrees C here for the last 4 days. Hottest it's been in March for 5 years. What a time to pick to get into XC/dirtjumping and also to move house!

(Perth, Western Australia)