I started Flat and had my fastest long ride...

I went for my 4 hour 15 minute long ride at 10:00 am, it was a little later than I wanted to go at but I didn't get to bed until 1:30 am and figured I needed the sleep.

Today was a hot one, by the time I was leaving the house it was already 30 C and with the humidex felt like 36 C, although there was a 20 kph wind which was gusting up to 39 kph that helped keep it a little cooler on the ride.

Before I got on my bike I realized my back tire was flat. In a strange way I was glad to see it, especially before leaving the house. The reason I was glad to see it was that I've never changed the Quintana Roo's tires and it requires a non traditional way to remove the rear tire, and it is not easy. I decided to time myself to see how long it would take me. I went slow and it took me 14 minutes. It turned out the leak was in the stem.

Afterwards, I realized that my tires are only rated for a maximum of 8.5 bars of pressure and I've been filling them to 9 bars, no wonder I blew the stem, it couldn't take the added pressure.

Today's ride was a fairly fast one even though it was hot and windy. I ended up averaging 30.6 kph over 132 km and it was not an easy ride, it was very hilly the entire way. As Lance Armstrong would say "I didn't phone this workout in". Many times I was as low as 17 kph and as high as 56 kph. The entire time my heart rate was in the 115 - 135 bpm range, except for going up a few "big ass" hills. Anyone I saw on the road in front of me I passed, except for one guy who I was chasing from a quarter mile behind for at least an hour, then he turned down a road I didn't want to ride on.

Along the way I found a Sydney Crosby hat lying in the middle of the road, picked it up and brought it home. When I got home I ended up loosing 9 lbs from the ride. For the entire ride my legs had sweat on them, which I don't ever recall happening before.

This was my best long ride ever, I feel much better than my last 4 hour ride, where I averaged 30.0 kph and was wickedly beat when I got home.

After stretching and showering, Alice and I went to Costco and picked up some nice steaks, then some beer and now I'm going to relax on the deck.