MOTHER NATURE IS A TIGER MOM

145 kms | 5 h 21 m | 27.1 avg km/h | 131 avg hr | 2.413 kcal

As the title says, mother nature is an aggressive tiger mom: it gives and it makes you pay if you don’t behave. Today it was a beautiful and a hard day: sunny and hot but also full of pollen and allergy in full swing and I was even stung by a bee. In the lip. But it was a good ride and I did NOT bunked like the last 3 rides.

Como diz o título, a mãe natureza é uma daquelas mães asiáticas: dá mas cobra pesado se você não se comportar. Hoje foi um dia bonito e duro: quente e de sol mas cheio de pollen e minhas alergias no máximo. E eu até fui picado por uma abelha. No lábio! Mas foi uma volta boa e eu não fiquei sem energia no meio da volta…

I rode today in the afternoon instead of the usual early morning due to family reasons. It was already 28 degrees when I left at 13:00 and still was going up. It went up all the way to 31 degrees later in the day and without any wind in some places make it extra hard to keep pushing. I decided to do the ride around the Makermeer lake to get mileage and also because I’ve never done.

The thing started not really well as I forgot to copy the route that I planned to my Garmin. So I had to go all in the memory. And right from the beginning I got the wrong way to Kamerik. What was a good thing because I found this 5km great cycle lane in the middle of  farms and surrounded by vegetation. Great because there was almost nobody and there was no roads, no cars, nothing but you and the bike.

5 kms of only you, the little road and the bike.

And when I was enjoying it the most, almost at the finish of the road, two things happen almost in the same minute. A very little bird shoot out from the right side, panic and tried to go to the left and hit the front spokes. It happen so fast that I could do nothing. I didn’t stop. And that is when mother nature paid back: right after that a bee went straight to my lower lip and stung me. It heart like hell and my lip swallow and hurt every time I ate or drink. It was just like pay back for not stopping to check the bird. It also activate all my allergies and my eyes, nose and throat were burning for the rest of the ride.

From there, I went thru lots of new places on  the way to the Markemeer, not without quite some stops and go to find the roads. Not a lot of indications signs around. Cycling around the lake was great. Not a lot of people, very hot but with a good wind coming from the side and good legs. The clean air helped to easy off the allergy and made the rest of the ride much more pleasant.

The way back was without any drama. Around 115 kms I started getting a bit nervous because I have been bunking in the last 3 rides at around 120 kms mark. I actually hit this mileage right at the bottom of the only good climb of the day, in Amersfoort. But nothing happened and I managed to climb it keeping a steady speed of 21 kms/h. I’m very happy with that. Maybe it helped that I did the whole ride at low heart rate, around 135 bpm…