Аннотация: MMMDXIV. The Forty Degree Heat: The opening of the cycling season. A diary note. - July 5, 2024.
The Forty Degree Heat: The opening of the cycling season. A diary note.
The day before yesterday, early in the morning - even at night, at 3 o'clock - it was reported on the radio that the heat plus 42 Celsius could come to Rostov-on-Don. I immediately began to make a plan for the opening of the cycling season: without much crowding, you can safely ride a bike and refresh yourself.
However, both the day before yesterday and yesterday, the temperature at night was around plus 26 degrees Celsius, and during the day it stayed slightly below plus 35. Hopes for plus 42 were clearly unrealistic.
Tonight the temperature was about plus 28 degrees, and in the morning it began to steadily approach 35.
The announcer of one of the local radio stations confirmed the forecast: plus 42; this announcer urged not to wear dark clothes, to stay at home, to take care of children and old people, to provide them with hats.
It became clear that today the 42 degrees is a quite realistic level of temperature.
Having solved some problems in the morning, I began the movement to the bike rental point at about 13:00.
I put on a white long-sleeve T-shirt with a hood, the panama hat (ten-year-old) in which I rode a bike every summer (the fields of the panama are 8.5 cm wide), black trousers (an unfamiliar bike), white sneakers. It is useful to throw the hood (with [under] a strong Sun) [from above straight] over the panama hat.
Before the bike ride, I looked at the pedometer: in the morning I walked more than 17 thousand steps.
I covered about 6 km on a ordinary (road) bike in 33 minutes. I refreshed myself a little. The water reservoir was nearby.
As I expected, there was no crowding. I met (I saw) two people on bicycles, two people in ordinary shirts, trousers and shoes (for some reason both were with some papers), and one naked (in underpants) barefoot man who, apparently, had just come out of the water.
The pedometer has hardly added any readings: it does not measure the distances traveled on a bicycle. But the markings on the bike path allowed me to form an opinion about the 6 kilometers distance. During the calm riding an ordinary (road) bike (not a sports bike), the speed is about twice the speed of a pedestrian and is about 12 km per hour.
Thus, my plan came true: I calmly opened the cycling season.
Before a small bike ride (6 km in 33 minutes) I was looking at my thermometer-keychain carefully. At first it showed 42 degrees, but then it clung to 39.5 and did not move either way. It bothered me: the forty degree heat has come, or not!!!
However, at the end of the bike ride, I saw an electronic scoreboard that showed for the public the time, date and temperature. The scoreboard showed exactly 40 degrees. It means that I made the correct forecast, although the temperature did not reach 42.
After making this important action (the opening of the cycling season), I went to the supermarket to look at hats for old people and for children, as well as to make some purchases.
I was walking (to the supermarket) for 25 minutes and found myself in the blissful coolness of the store.
I did not find any hats worthy of attention, - basically, baseball caps were there on sale, - not the most comfortable option in the extreme heat.
But I bought a one-and-a-half-liter glass bottle with direct-pressed pomegranate juice and drank it in ten minutes.
After that, I returned home and wrote this diary note.
July 5, 2024, 18:18
Translation from Russian into English: July 5, 2024 19:40
Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' Сорокоградусная жара: открытие велосезона. Дневниковая заметка '.
{ 3543. Сорокоградусная жара: открытие велосезона. Дневниковая заметка. - 5 июля 2024 г.
MMMDXIV. The Forty Degree Heat: The opening of the cycling season. A diary note. - July 5, 2024.
Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского. }