Yesterday, i.e., on Sunday I did my very first Half-Century ride of the season. I did a little over fifty miles on the bike but calling it a Half-Century sounds so much cooler . In reality when I got back home from my bike ride, I had only done 48.7 miles or something like that so I just did laps around my apartment complex until I reached 50 miles. Sounds silly, I know, but I wanted to officially reach that 50 mile marker and then snap the picture of my bike computer proudly displaying my achievement.
I won’t complain about the fact that I didn’t get to riding until 9 am (ridiculously late for Arizonans) or the fact that the temps were around 105 degrees by the time I got back or the fact that I had a hard time stomaching anything besides water during the last 15miles…well now I’m complaining aren’t I? I know I sound like a broken record when I complain about the heat here but I swear, there’s a new issue that arises every time I go on a long work out.
This time, the heat was blistering…literally! I definitely struggled a lot during the last 15 miles, feeling like puking every time a gust of hot, furnace-like breeze would blow into my face...in fact I think I did puke up a little gatorade-stomach acid mix in my mouth during one of my burps. That was nothing new.
When I got home, however, I experienced something I never even thought could happen to me as a result of the heat! My roommate was home when I stumbled in from my ride and after re-racking my bike and throwing off my shoes, (definitely didn’t have anything left in me for a run right after) I proceeded to dish it out on how hot it was and then pulled back my sleeveless cycling jersey from my shoulder to display the new layer of tan that I had just put on myself.
Roomie: “Ughhh…what’s that on your back?”
Me: “What….what are you talking about?”
Roomie: “Man that does not look good…ughh!”
Me: “What….what is there? What? Tell me!!”
Roomie: “You have a huge patch of blisters on your back! Like your skin is bubbling or something!”
Me: “What? Are you serious? You’re kidding right?”
At this point, I’m pulling back my jersey further and still not seeing anything.
Me: “Dude stop lying…you’re just messing with me. I don’t feel anything!”
Roomie: “I’m telling you dude, you’ve got blisters all over your back, go check it out in the mirror!”
Still in disbelief, I ran to the mirror in my bathroom and peeled the jersey off my back a little further to take a gander at the supposed blisters.
Feelings of masochistic astonishment and loathsome disgust came over me as I viewed my back. Little water blisters had bubbled up all over my shoulders and back in the same areas where I got sun burned last week!
Holy Hell!
Me: “Oh my God! Wow…wow. Haha…I can’t believe this!”
I ran my fingers over the raised blisters and one of them popped. Ewww.
I shook my head in horror and fascination.
Me (to myself in the mirror): “This is wrong man. This is just plain wrong.”
I thought “blisteringly hot” was just a figure of speech until now.
Don’t worry, they didn’t hurt at all. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have realized they were there if my roommate hadn’t pointed them out. They kinda looked like sweat beads on my back…except they’re under my skin. Most of them popped during the shower I took after my ride.
If you notice, the bubbles only appeared on either side of my racer back tan line on my shoulders and nowhere else. Normally, I wear a racer back running top or triathlon top when I ride because I find them more comfortable than cycling jerseys, hence the deep tan line on my back. Yesterday, however, in an attempt to protect my shoulders from being burned again by the sun, I decided to wear my sleeveless cycling jersey, which covers the areas on my shoulders that would normally be exposed during my rides.
I guess my skin was not used to being covered in that area and decided to rebel against the change by bubbling up.
So now I’m faced with the ultimate dilemma: Should I wear the racer back top and get burned again or should I wear the cycling jersey and get blisters? The burn doesn’t look nearly as bad but definitely hurts more than the blisters. Of course, I could avoid all of it by simply waking up at 5am like I’m supposed to and go for my ride when it is still some what pleasant out.
But that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?
