Today’s ride: 48.93 miles, in the globally warm hot heat that threatens to destroy civilization as we know it. Temperature: 83.2 average, with a high of 84.9 degrees, and an average humidity of 54.4 percent. (See! There’s the proof! I hope Al Gore’s reading. We’re all doomed.) Wind was out of the southwest at an average 8.1 mph. Not fascist, exactly, but certainly progressive, as in “a bothersome nuisance.” The steepest grade was an 18 percent monster; don’t ask me why we did it. My legs are already accusing me of rude overuse. X and I kept a pretty intense pace the whole ride, but because we had a couple of slow, steep climbing sections the average speed doesn’t reflect it: 15.4 mph.