Riding into the Fireball

It’s taken me until Thursday to get the strength back to put together a blog entry about my ride this past weekend. 6,200 feet of climbing over 88 miles.

Okay. Long. But, okay.

Problem is, it was 116 degrees. In California!

I’m frankly not all that experienced in exercise of this intensity and especially not in these kinds of climactic conditions. I went through plenty of liters of water and at least 1,000 calories. I still don’t think that was enough.

What was so interesting to me about this experience was that I still had plenty of muscle power left on the last climb back over into Berkeley, but the heat exhaustion was intense.

I was so focused on the heat and getting through the ride, I failed to move around on the bike and probably ended up locking out my elbows and keeping my hands in one position for too long.

As a result, I ended the ride (and have gone through the week) with Ulnar Nerve Neuropathy. Losing strength in my pinky and ring finger has been disconcerting, but apparently not uncommon.

To keep up my training and avoid exacerbating the nerve, I might have to actually run tonight. Yech.