Sometimes we cyclists go at it hammer and tongs, as the saying goes. We hear of the hammerfest, right?

I\’ve tackled mileage hammer and tongs from the word Go. I always enjoyed watching the miles rack up; and I don\’t call them junk miles. I ride for the fun of it, even though I\’ll never be as fast as this Pleasure Train!

During my long ride yesterday, the sun was going at me hammer and tongs. It didn\’t get quite as hot as predicted; but it was still very hot. Between water and Nuun, I estimate that I took in about two gallons of fluid! Towards the end, neither beverage was helping me much. I don\’t know whether that means I was approaching a dangerous level of overheating; or whether I needed cold fluid.

At some point I began to get a little headachy. Again, I may have been getting overheated; and I might also have needed a little caffeine. The relentless sun beating down on me didn\’t help; but on the way home I ran into some overcast here and there. It\’s amazing what a difference that made!

I wore my old sun sleeves; and they helped, too. Sun sleeves feel hot when you first put them on; but after you get moving and they pick up some perspiration, your arms feel cooler. You can even splash water on the sun sleeves, which is what I did. I was surprised at how soon the sleeves dried. Several hours after I got back home, I found that the relative humidity was only 56%; and for us, that\’s less humid than usual. No wonder those sleeves got dry so fast!

Mid-afternoon the T-storms began to fire up. I\’m glad they didn\’t start hammer and tongs while I was riding!