I took most of the month of June off from riding. It seemed like an excellent idea at the time, until my asthma started to flare up. I had no idea I still had asthma or that it could come back and ruin my life until a few months ago...plus I was turning into a huge tub of lard. When I was a kid I was prescribed cough medicine laced with codeine and alcohol to treat my breathing problems...doctors did things differently back then.

I have spent most of the month of July riding. About 200 miles a week. I'm breathing just fine. I'm in semi-decent shape. No codeine required.

Saturday was my off day, so I spent most of the day watching cartoons and the local car dealer program that runs from noon to one p.m. Dragonball Z Kai is currently broadcast in repeats on channel 11.1, but I missed a few episodes. Frieza transformed into something frightening and horrible...and his power level made it to one million. There's really nowhere else to go from here. Worlds will be destroyed.

I went for a ride fairly late in the afternoon. It was around one hundred degrees when I started, but, for whatever reason, I was feeling really motivated. At the halfway point I was swinging around a 21 mph average for a 70 mile ride...solo. After 50 miles, reality crushed down upon me like a shattering blow from the reptilian claw of Lord Frieza. I tried as hard as I could to maintain a 20 mph average, but I couldn't do it. I ended up with a 19.5 mph average for the ride.

I was pretty pleased with my effort for the ride.

On Tuesday, I rode up to Spanish Lake after work for a total of around sixty miles. It was a much less eventful than the previous ride. I never really tried that hard and ended up averaging around 18 mph. I discovered a filling station on an acropolis above highway 270 that was selling two Powerades for two bucks. I chose two bottles of White Cherry for my twenty mile ride home. I enjoyed one, and saved one for later.

Which brings us into the present. I was planning another lengthy ride for Wednesday since it was my day off. I was lying around the house and attempting to store up some energy when BVD called me. I swear I have not ridden with this guy since my last blog post. We decided that we would meet up somewhere in the vicinity of the McKinley Bridge.

I was averaging 19 mph when I met up with BVD. After latching onto the train, my average promptly dropped to around 16 mph. We rode over to Forest Park to check out what was going on over there. In one hundred degree heat, it wasn't much. Only the dumbest women were brave enough to jog and exercise around the park in skimpy clothing on such a hot day. Normally, I find stupid women really attractive, but not on this day.

It was a slow and painful ride, considering the heat and intensity of the sun. I wound up riding 80 miles in five hours for an average speed of 16 mph. I was mildly sunburned, probably because I don't usually start my rides so early in the day. I limped home the last 25 miles after parting ways with BVD at the Glen Carbon Casey's. It hurt a lot, but I was riding home to seven beers, a partially eaten tub of potato salad, and a couple of slices of pizza in my fridge. Yum!