I’m driving up to Wisconsin to let Tucker run around in Bromont’s old favorite stomping grounds, the Northwoods around Cable.  That isn’t the only reason, but it is a good one.

I’m also getting a tooth fixed that has been bugging me for the past month.  Bad teeth and health go hand and hand.

Tucker and Hawkeye are super buddies, so maybe Hawkeye will show him around.

I thought it was great how many suggestions I got yesterday why I was riding badly and how to fix them.  Anywhere from you’re getting too old to race and should just hang it up to you just need some coaching to figure out how to go fast.  Someone has to be right and then then rest wrong.  I’ve had pretty good “luck” throughout my sporting life preserving during slumps.  I can’t see why this one would be any different than the others.

It is a little different because I put it out the publicly, I guess.

The weather in Kansas was going to be extremely hot.  I was a bit hesitant to leave because sometimes riding super slow, in the heat of the day, during hot spells, snaps me back into form.  I’m not sure why that is, but it has worked in the past.

Tucker has no idea where he’s going to end up.  I hope he is pleasantly surprised.

Tucker was looking for anything to cool off on the walk before we left. He found a mud puddle.  He obviously got a bath.

I’ve been back in Topeka for a day now and it is really hot.  Like so hot that my local guys are talking about not doing the normal Wednesday evening ride.  I just looked and it is supposed to be over 100 at 6 pm.  Add the humidity from a thunderstorm a couple days ago and it is really ugly.

I probably would have just stayed up North, maybe went to TOAD or Lutsen 99er, but I’m getting inducted into the Topeka/Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday night.  Two other Topeka High graduates, Clardy Vinson and Judy Dryer are getting inducted too.  Sort of can’t miss that.   Here is a link to a local article the Topeka paper did yesterday.  It talks about me delivering newspapers to buy my first racing bicycle.

I hate not going back up to Lutsen, really.  But the induction thing is supposed to be past 10 and then it is probably close to 12 + hours to get to Lutsen.  It really just didn’t make sense.

For the Hall of Fame induction, I have to give a short, 5-7 minute speech, which I haven’t really even thought about yet.  Today I’m doing a 30 minute radio deal with a local radio station.   I have not done a radio thing in years. Should be fun.  If you want to listen live, you can click here, then click the listen live to the WIBW 580 radio link to the right.   The show is at 4:30 pm CST.

Today I’m starting my heat acclimation training.  Maybe a little too late, since it is already hot and it is nearly July.  I hate worrying about racing in the heat, so I need to do as much as possible to ease my mind.  I’m heading out super slowly for 4 hours, or so, at the heat of the day. Well, it might not actually be the heat of the day since that seems to be closer to 5 or 6pm than noon-ish.  But when the sun is more direct, it feels hotter.  I hope I don’t melt.

Alright, it is pretty windy already.  Supposed to be blowing over 20 mph all day.  I’ve always wondered it there is an opposite effect of wind chill when the temperatures are over your body temperature.  Something maybe like wind warmth or such.  It seems like if air hotter than your body temperatures is blowing over you, then the opposite of wind chill would occur and you’d be getting hotter, quicker.  Think?  I just looked it up.  Guess it is true.

This could have been me, but I was riding a Schwinn Collegiate and had baskets on the back too.  I doubt I have a picture of myself delivering papers.  We didn’t have a camera back then.  Crazy.

Pretty hot this afternoon.

Tucker lays between the seats while I’m driving. Sometimes he just stares at me. I wonder what he’s thinking?