Forty degrees hotter

Look, yall, I try not to rub it in about the weather here. Nobody wants to hear my first-world Pacific coast weather problems. But I do live where it's about 60 degrees 24/7, and I did just get home (58F) from Almaden Quicksilver (96F) and let me tell you buddy it totally sucked.

Here is my Strava:


Long rides, for me, are a microcosm of all the emotions. In four hours, I ran through feeling proud, smug, bored, elated, resigned, despairing, and back to triumphant. The tl;dr version:

It was so hot. I drank all my water. I didn't electrolyte Dixie enough and she ran out of go-juice at 16 miles, so I got off and walked the last two miles in. I let her graze, and she wasn't in any distress, and when we finally got back to the trailer she dove into her mash and drank a couple gallons of water and pulsed right down. I got blisters on the bottoms of both my heels and a heatstroke-headache.



Before the last two miles, it was quite a bit of fun. Dixie was a perfect angel to meet a random kid in the parking lot. She plugged on up the hills and trotted/gaited the flats and the downhills. Bikes and hikers and dogs didn't phase her, but she had to stop and stare HARD at a kid with a butterfly net. I had him wave it around and she eventually decided it was ok.

I have got to get my shit together and ride with people. I do great on solo 10 mile rides, and I do ok on 15 mile rides, but 20 miles all alone is just so hard mentally. And it's not like I don't have any choice - I have at least four endurance people I could email and meet up with! I just didn't get around to talking to them this week and then last night I was like "must go ride 20 miles tomorrow." Ugh.

I took a bunch of little videos on my phone but splicing them together and uploading them is WAY MORE EFFORT than I can put forth tonight. Here's some conformation shots of my incredibly ripped horse. I think I'd be happy if she was a little fatter, actually. Thoughts/feelings?

That face. <3 that horse.
 

Shameful dirty.


Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt. It's so muscular and veiny. Wait, that's not how it goes at all...


I just hope Gold Country has troughs every five miles for me to stick my head in. I do ok if I can stick my head in a trough.

UnSummer

Ok, look, I know it's technically spring. I'm cool with that, really I am, but the thing is, there's early spring and late spring, and late spring is supposed to feel more like summer. There's a progression that happens, where between January and June the temperature goes up.

Except not in Reno, not in 2011. It's still windy and 50s and sporadically snowing. And it's totally harshing my vibe. It's not like I really want to be back home, where it's like a sauna - humid and 90s. I'm just saying I'd like some warmer days and no more damn snow.

Dixie agrees.

Dixie is mad about the Memorial Day weekend snowstorm from Funder on Vimeo.

Anyway. G came home for the holiday weekend, and that was cool. I'm getting ready for NASTR this weekend, and that's equally cool. My tomato plants died over the weekend, which is not so cool. I swapped out some light fixtures in the house and my house looks way cooler than before. I am woefully uninspired to blog; I blame PMS and this ridiculous weather. No guesses when I'll get my mojo back, but I'll definitely take lots of pictures at NASTR for yall :)