Tuesday, July 9, 2013

When it's Hot, Go Slow

It's hot here in Phoenix.  Like, painful, disorienting, make-you-question-why-you-live-in-this-flipping-desert hot. About a week ago the temperature pushed up to 118 degrees (48 Celsius), which is ridiculous no matter how "dry" the heat happens to be.  And around this time of year, because of all the blacktop the city planners have laid in this sprawling metropolis, it never really cools down.  Today's low temperature, at seven in the morning, is 90 degrees (32 Celsius).

This puts a damper on our preferred methods of transportation: the scooter and bike, because by the time we get off work to run errands or go out, it just happens to be the hottest time of the day.

I'm wandering into whining territory though.  The point of this post is to share a lesson we've learned from living in the oven that is an Arizona summer: when it's hot (over 100), go slow.

I noticed the other day when I was riding to my barbershop on our scooter, I actually felt cooler when stopping at a traffic light, which was odd.  I should be feeling hotter when I'm stopped, because there's no wind, right?  But something weird and terrible happens when the outside temperature gets higher than your body's temperature.  The wonderful wind that typically cools you down, and makes the summer heat more bearable, changes.  It is a bad change.  The breeze generated by flying 50+ mph on a scooter turns the already oppressive heat into a kind of evil convection oven, heating your body temperature up even faster than normal.  When it's really hot, your usual welcome friend, the wind, becomes your enemy.  It actually gets kind of dangerous, too, since you're already wearing a helmet (well, at least I am, since I value the contents of my skull), which is like a plastic blanket on your noggin, and any drastic increase to your brain's temperature is a bad idea.

So, what are we to do?  Just drive everywhere during the summer months?  Sadly, I've noticed that we do drive a lot more simply because it's so nice to blast the AC and ride around in an icebox on wheels.  But comments in Mr. Money Mustache's recent bicycle post motivated me to ride the bicycle more often, since it's the best & healthiest way to travel.  And I noticed something cool: when you're biking, you're going slow enough to not generate the convection oven effect.  While it takes a little longer to get somewhere, the ride is more bearable.  You don't heat up to dangerous, disorienting levels.  (My wife and I both contend though that after a certain distance, say, six or eight miles, all the extra time spent on the bike makes the scooter seem more attractive, if only because you're not subjecting yourself to the sun's rays so long and inviting skin cancer.)

Here are some other desert biking tips we've found help us:
  • Timing is everything.  Leave very early in the morning or after sunset if possible, as the heat isn't nearly as bad.  
  • Carry nalgene bottles with ice water in your backpack. Not only do you have lots of water to drink, but you also have something cool resting on your back.
  • Go at a leisurely pace.  Biking fast not only creates some of that undesirable wind, but also naturally raises your internal temperature from exertion.
  • Soak your t-shirt in water before going out on your bike ride.  (I got this tip from Jimbo in the MMM comments -- thanks!)  The wet shirt helps tremendously and typically you are bone dry by the time you arrive at your destination.  (And if you're brave and shameless, like me, you can use a public restroom at your destination to soak it again before you head home.  Caution: you will occasionally be caught and mistaken for a shirtless vagrant doing his laundry in the sink, if you do this enough.)
  • Use sunscreen -- a lot of sunscreen. Whether on a motorcycle, scooter, bike, or on foot, apply sunscreen to your face and other exposed areas before going outside.  If possible, cover up with a light long sleeve shirt and a hat, too.  Sunshine is awesome and so is using smart forms of transportation.  But be smart about it and protect yourself.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the summer!


Photo by YLev at Flickr Creative Commons.


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16 comments:

  1. I've wanted to get into biking for a little while now and just haven't done it. Part of the problem is that my work is far enough away where biking just doesn't seem reasonable. Glad to see that you're enjoying it though.

    Also, it's definitely been hot here in Boston recently, but 118 degrees is insane! How can you even be outside at that point? Our winters can get pretty bad, but I think I'll take them, haha.

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    1. I work from home, so luckily I have some leeway over where I bike and at what time of day. I typically bike to kickball games (where playing in the heat is half the fun!), the library, and small grocery runs.

      I try to avoid the absolute hottest point of the day but when I was riding to the barbershop, it must have been around 115. It was kind of dangerous -- I felt disoriented when I got there but luckily could drink a lot of water, cool off during my haircut, and make my way home. Anyway, it generated this blog post and now I know better.

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  2. Wow I would die, seriously! That is effing hot! :) Kuddos to you for even leaving the house! :)

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    1. It is effing hot! It took about a year to adjust from SoCal weather but, like with most things, we adapt.

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  3. Too hot for me, though my genetics are from Scandinavia areas, so anything above 80 feels hot to me. I did visit Tuscan in the summer once for a consulting gig, and I got off the plane and walked into a wall of 118 degree heat out of the airport. Ick.

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    1. Ugh, that's the worst. In February, I visited Minneapolis and had the opposite experience...going from 70 degrees to single digits. It's weird.

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  4. Good suggestions! I'm going to stop my whining as well and give them a try.

    I don't know how people can live in places like Phoenix. To me, the heat is like a big vacuum that sucks the life out of me.

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    1. I hear you, the summer is tough here. I tell people our summer is like a lot of other places' winter: a three month stretch when it's tougher to get outside and a lot of us turn into homebodies.

      Still, I actually really love where we live. But I'm not picky...I love everywhere we've lived. I'm easy. :)

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  5. That's an interesting point about convection. I remember thinking about this in my thermodynamics class back in college, though I'd never experienced it. If the air temp is over 98 degrees, more wind = more heat. The wind just accelerates heat transfer, except when it's that hot out, the heat transfers to you instead of from you. Thankfully I don't have to deal with 118 up in Chicago, but you've still got some great tips.

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    1. That's a concise way of putting it; the wind just accelerates heat transfer. I should have studied engineering in school...

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  6. I can't believe it's that hot out there! I live in Indiana...I simply cannot imagine!

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    1. I grew up in a similar part of the country, weather-wise (Pittsburgh) and it's definitely an adjustment. But some days aren't so bad. Today's high is only 108!

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  7. Holy Moly! Maybe I should stop complaining about the heat here in Denver now. Yesterday it was 97, and CatMan (my better half) and I went for a 45 mile bike ride. Perhaps not our best decision ever. By mile 35 my head was pounding and I sorta felt like a wilted lettuce leaf! This despite drinking nearly a gallon of water along the way.

    Anyhow, I admire your tenacity to even try biking in that sort of heat. You have given me an idea though. I see people biking with those "hydration packs" on their backs all the time, and it just seems horrible to me... carrying all that weight, plus you'd have this hot thing on your back... but maybe if you filled it with ice water, or even better if you froze the whole thing. Hmmmm... Anyhow, thanks for giving me that idea!

    p.s. I just discovered your blog from a comment you left over at Tonya's site, and I wanted to offer some words of encouragement on your mission. I never made more than $45K/year back when I still had a "real job" (if you can call running a folk music school a real job) but I saved my money and kept my expenses low and got to quit working and support myself through hobbies at age 39, so it can be done!

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    1. Running a folk music school has to be the coolest flipping job ever.

      Thanks for the words of encouragement! There's no manual for this sort of thing, so hearing how others have made it work is really helpful. Congratulations on your early retirement!

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  8. As a kid our car didn't have AC, so we had to keep the windows down pretty much all the time. And when it was 110+, my dad would call the car a turbo oven as the hot dry air whipped through the car every time we moved. You're absolutely right that it was better when we slowed down!

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    1. That's a cool story. We had a similar experience when we first moved here with our Jeep, which had a broken AC for years but in San Diego, we never needed it.

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