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Based on the comment string above, my weekend writeup seems to fit right in as a reply. I had planned on the Mineral Wells 400k this past weekend, but at the last second, switched to the 600k. I wanted to ride both days but knew it was unlikely I would ride Sunday after doing a 400k on Saturday, especially in this kind of heat. Unlike last September, when I last did this ride, this was not a perfect weekend for a long ride. HEAT was the big issue. We didn't have that much bad chip seal and the wind wasn't very strong, but when it got hot, whatever wind we had, felt like someone had left the hair dryer on, right in our faces! I used my cooling vest more efficiently this entire weekend, thanks to pre-ride advice on that subject. I followed the "best practice" suggested and enjoyed many more hours of cooling than previous attempts had netted. As a result, I probably had the least trouble with the heat this weekend. But, we took long breaks wherever we could, topping off bottles and camelbaks with ice, at every opportunity. I never would have attempted a ride this long in this kind of summer heat without the aid of the cooling vest and electrolyte replacement I've come to depend on. I doubt that the absence of one or the other would have been good enough as we experienced sun temperature up to 116° on Saturday and shade temp of 108°. It was a little cooler on Sunday, with temp topping out at 107° in the shade. No reason to go into details of the ride - we did ride straight thru, only to take advantage of all night cooler temps. That did not help us avoid full daylight heat on day 2 - just meant we didn't have to do as many miles in the full heat! Total miles was 374 and climbing of just over 12000 ft. The average was pretty slow, at 15.2 for the entire ride, but given the conditions, not really that bad!
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