Nelson, Greg, and I, along with 4 upright riders, rolled out of southwest Arlington at 6:30 this morning to ride the Peachy Keene 200k. Conditions were tough: a howling south wind, high humidity, and 96 degrees by this afternoon. Most of us aren't really acclimated to this kind of heat yet, it being mid-June.
 
The first leg of the ride wasn't too bad, even though it's mostly against a south wind. But there was cloud cover and the wind hadn't picked up nearly as much as it was going to. Plus, there are lots of tree lined roads on this leg of the ride. After the second control at Cleburne, the countryside becomes more open, and the wind had really picked up, so the ride got tougher. It was mostly a straight south wind though, so the stretches that go east on this part of the ride were a bit of a break from the wind.  
 
From the third control at Itasca, the ride goes east over Orphan hill and on to the next control at Maypearl. From there, it finally starts to turn north, so you get a tail wind. There were still some clouds around, but by this time the sun was out quite a bit, and the heat had become oppressive, so we slowed the pace a bit. Alvarado was a welcome cool-off at mile 101, then we tackled the final leg back to Arlington.
 
In spite of the conditions, I felt really good on the bike today. I pushed myself up many of the hills faster than usual, sprinted for city limit signs (though the only sprints I won were the ones where I used trickery), and even late in the ride, could sprint up a short hill without hurting. A couple of hours after finishing the ride, I still feel great. And then there was Orphan Hill.
 
The two 200k rides I do most often are Peachy Keene and Rio Vista Rumble. Both of these routes climb Orphan Hill, Peachy Keen at mile 67, and Rio Vista Rumble at mile 79. Orphan Hill is a couple hundred feet of climbing in three miles, so it is no great challenge for a strong climber, but it's long enough that it's always been tough for me. Because I ride it so often, I use it as a gage of my fitness. The further I can get up Orphan Hill without having to shift into the small chainring, the fitter I am. So, unless I'm feeling so puny that I'm only concerned about getting up the hill at all, I usually make a try at seeing how far I get in the middle chainring. Today, for the first time ever, I climbed Orphan Hill in the middle chainring.  It's a small accomplishment, to be sure, but I certainly had a smile on my face at the top of the hill.
 
I ended up with 124.2 miles, and we finished in 9:46 today. Thanks for joining me, Greg and Nelson. I had a great time!
 

Man what a great day.  I had a great time with you guys, as usual.  Other than some foot pain after some rougher sections of road, and the heat exhaustion at the end, I felt fine too.  I think I have hopefully figured out how not to kill myself early and leave some gas in the tank for the end.  When I came home I jumped in the pool gear and all and MAN was that good.  It was also nice to to get home and not to have to sit on the couch without a single ounce of energy to do anything.  
 
Gotta agree with Nelson - the beast is back and better than ever.  I'd be spinning up a hill and hear a whirring sound and then Bud was gone up that sucker.  I only beat him in a couple sprints because my bike was longer!  And Nelson was fine once we got his rear wheel all thw way in the dropouts.  A day like yesterday is a tough first 200k back - good Job man.
 
I still ain't doing the 400k though.