Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I may need to go to work in order to get a day off

I was out noodling around this morning when I came across this on Hampden Avenue in Saint Paul.I apologize to anyone who thinks I am over obsessing with this ash borer thing but I DO have two ash trees in my yard. The survey location is within about a block of the infestation zone ground zero. The tree looks a little sickly to me but apparently it is still healthy, at least, healthy for purposes of participating in the survey. I think that fairly obviously if you remove a foot or so wide segment of bark (I believe it is called "girdling") that the tree is going to die. I don't know all of the politics of what is going on but it seems possible that this brave soldier is surrendering its life in hopes of saving all of the others. That's Medal of Honor category heroism.

It's hot here today. I think that by 5pm it is going to be quite obviously too hot for bicycling. If I went to work I would be off the street until 5pm and would seem to be eligible for a day off from riding. Instead I rode at 8am. It was OK, I guess, but it was already hot and by the time I finished it was TOO hot.

This is the 10am youth tennis class at Langford Park.I had a lengthy stop at Langford. They have water there and I was out. I ate a banana and spent a long time mustering the energy and, perhaps more importantly, hardening my will for the remaining 5.5 miles I had to ride to get myself home. It was TOO hot and I was knackered. Eventually I started for home and, sure enough, the benefit of riding out into the wind kicked in as scheduled. The benefit was particularly pronounced on the last 2 miles when I hit a downhill tailwind section. I rode fast, I felt strong.

2 comments:

gfr said...

I read somewhere that you can acclimate to the heat, but not to cold. I have found the reverse to be true.

You may have to ride earlier. Sunrise here is 6:04. I suppose in theory I could start a ride about then. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that for a bike ride, though.

Retired Professor said...

I just checked your radar, and unless you've already taken a ride today, it looks like the bicycle weather gods are going to comply with your wish for a day off.