Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 32

August 30
I was on a business trip Thursday and Friday, and Saturday was Movie Night at the Engels', so I was rarin' and ready to go when Sunday rolled around. Since it had been 4 days since my last ride and the triathlon itself will not be taking place at my customary riding hour of 9:30 pm, I decided to take advantage of our Lazy Sunday and go for a ride during daylight hours.

So after everyone was up and about and had some time to drink a cup of coffee, I hit the road. At this point it was already around 10:30 and we've been in the throes of a mini heat wave lately, so I was pressing my luck by getting such a late start. Oh, and did I mention the Station Fire that had started to move toward us? I could smell the smoke when I walked out of the house, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity for a daytime ride.

It turns out jumping on your bike on an empty stomach (well, I had coffee in there) in late August with a brush fire blowing toward you isn't the most enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning. I think I actually got confused by the ability to see my surroundings so well, and I took a wrong turn that cut my ride down by 2+ miles. I still ended up going a little over 15 miles, but I certainly wasn't setting the world -- wait for it -- on fire with my 4:23 pace. That's a little misleading though, because my pace for miles 1-14 was about 4:07. Once again it was Hells-borough Parkway that did me in, ruining my overall pace by bitch-slapping me with a split of 8:22 (ouch).


But in my defense, here's what I saw when I loaded The Weather Channel app on my (Apple) iPhone a few minutes after I got back home:

So it was hot. Really hot. Really flippin' hot. At least now I know why the streets were deserted when I was out sweating my ass off!