It’s almost the end of July, but the high temperatures show no sign of abating. Phoenix has broken a couple of weather records this year, to which I say “Phoenix, STOP being an overachiever!” Summer riding in Phoenix is always challenging because the “coolest” part of the day occurs VERY early in the morning. I’ve managed to get myself outside by 5:30am when I want to ride my bike, but I’ve also given myself some grace to NOT ride my bike. The last few early morning rides were a little hard to wrap my head around, because the temperature was already 95-97 degrees F at 5:30am! (That’s about 35 degrees Celsius for my Canadian friends.)

What does an overheated Phoenician do to weather the heat? Escape to cooler climates! A few things I’ve done in the past couple months include:

• a fun bike park skills clinic at Fort Tuthill in early June with Trail Lovers Sedona. This was a fun class that focused on a couple of skills used at bike parks: jumps and drops. I drove up to Flagstaff with a couple of friends and we spent a half day working on jumps (i.e., getting some “air” on the bike) and drops (i.e., when you ride over an elevated surface and “drop” down to the ground). I did execute a couple solid drops, which made me happy. 🙂

• A few friends and I spent a weekend in Flagstaff in mid-June exploring new trails and enjoying the cooler weather.

• In early July, my SAT (self-appointed trainer) and I visited our family in Canada. While there, we attended a family wedding, which was on a boat! Fun fact: I get seasick. 😦 However, even though the boat ride was a bit disappointing because of nausea, we did other fun things, like visit a water obstacle course and meet some animals from Australia.

• I went to Flagstaff AGAIN shortly after coming home from Canada with some other friends to ride bikes. Although it wasn’t as cool up in Flagstaff as we would have liked the day we went, we still enjoyed the change in scenery. We left Phoenix at 5am and started our ride shortly after 8am, when the temperature was 80 degrees F (about 25 C). The temperature was about 95 F (about 33 C) when we finished riding around 11:30am.

• To prove that living in Phoenix is like living in an oven, I baked cookies in my truck (again). I made a chocolate cookie dough with Heath bar pieces, dropped a dozen onto a cookie sheet, and placed that cookie sheet inside my oven. Started at 10:30am and took them out 6 hours later. The max temperature inside the truck was 190 F (88 C). The cookies were DEFINITELY baked….rather crispy, actually. Although it’s super cool to bake cookies in one’s truck, I’d prefer it if Phoenix did not get hot enough to do that!! I’ve now baked cookies in my vehicle three times and each time, the max outside temperature was at least 117 F (47 C). Also, the temperature inside the vehicle hit a high of 190 F. Consistency is key, my friends.

• The rest of July was spent in Colorado! The first half of our CO trip was with our good friends Carl and Lifan, who moved there recently. They showed us the delights of small town life and introduced us to the Phil’s World trail system. We will definitely come back!

The second half of our CO trip was to ride at Trestle Bike Park in Winter Park. The drive there from Carl and Lifan’s is absolutely gorgeous. We passed through a few mountain passes and were inspired by all the “14ers” we saw along the way. I’m thinking that we’ll be making our way to hike up some of those 14ers next year! One nerdy highlight was seeing the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, which features prominently in the American opera “The Ballad of Baby Doe.”

Finally, we met up with our friends at Trestle. We rode there for two days and wow, who knew that downhill riding could be so tiring? By the end of the first day, my hands were cramping so badly that I couldn’t hold onto my handlebars. I was fine the next day, but I was definitely tired! It was fun being at a bike park with my SAT; it was the second time at a bike park for both of us. What was great about being part of a group at the bike park was that we could ride with other people who were more at our level, as well as riding with each other. For me, my Trestle experience was like a personal workshop in downhill cornering, jumping, and getting used to speed. Of course, the weather was awesome! I keep saying this, but we will be back to Colorado as soon as we can!

*Any guesses as to what song the blog title comes from?