Summer Treats

You could eat your fill of wild berries at New Fane right now.

Here at the end of the 29th week of 2015, I finally can say that I have gone an entire week without needing thermal clothing! Thursday offered the potential pitfall in what otherwise was a week of properly warm summer weather: in West Bend we had a 5-hour window in which the temperature topped 70 degrees. I did a 2-hour lunchtime ride, knowing that an already limp excuse for a July afternoon was about to turn into an ugly day for October.

But let’s forget about Thursday evening, because Friday was pretty close to perfect for me. I rode 50 solo miles at an average of 19 mph in 86-degree splendor. Anyone who thinks my yearning for heat is some kind of affectation would have been convinced of my sincerity on that day, and when I arrived home I still had not finished my second bottle of sports drink.

On Saturday we fell considerably short of the extreme heat index numbers promised by the weather forecasters. Reaching a high of 81 degrees—that’s 1 degree colder than average for July 18—we were warm but not dangerously warm. I knocked out a 2-hour road ride and raced home anticipating a thunderstorm. But the clouds moved away and West Bend stayed dry. With the extra time that I might have spent on the bike, I mowed the lawn. Getting that chore out of the way is going to free up time for a longer ride on Monday, which is typically a rest day.

I’m counting today as my rest day. I did two laps on the mountain bike at New Fane but only the second one counts for training purposes. The first lap was punctuated with frequent stops to cut back vegetation that was encroaching on the trail. I like wild berries at least as much as the next person, but not when running into their thorns leaves me looking like I just lost a fight with a cat. Speaking of losing …

I still have no good news to report about my job search, so I have taken next weekend’s WORS Cup off my calendar. That’s the way it goes with job searches: the news is bad until it’s good. There really isn’t any middle ground.