Good and Bad days

July started out on the rough side with heat advisories, air quality warnings and temperatures in the mid/high 90s accompanied with high humidities. And caused some unexpected migraines, which I haven't experienced. I even went to the Doctor to make sure it's not the beginning of future issues as it stuck around for more than 2 weeks.
When the weather turned nicer with lower humidities and slightly bearable temperatures, the migraines/headaches subsided and concluded that it was the heat and my riding position that created a strain on my right neck muscle and created the headache.
In Any case, the training regimen started again, especially with my training schedule/log showing some obvious blanks reducing my goal of a min 100 mile/week to 30-40 miles at best.
I've set a couple of goals to ride a couple of charity rides later this summer as well as in the fall.
Thus far this year my "epic" or "big" ride has only been 70 miles.
I am in search of new routes to challenge myself; I've been dreading the day I actually try the Poolesville ride by myself since the 1 mile 7% climb by Old Angler's Hill is seriously challenging not mention the other hills around Travilah Road. I did that ride last September with my friend's climate-ride training group. And had pretty bad luck with it: 2 flats on mile 10 (1st ride) and chain stretch/bust (2nd ride) on mile 68, still 15-20 miles from home. So, the trepidation is warranted, I assure you.
Anyways, back on the saddle again with a great start on Wednesday (7/6) with a puny 22 mile ride around Hains Point and back to Capitol Hill with no issues. However, my Friday (7/8) ride was absolutely rough! The first hill travelled with a bonk, already!
And the next few very steep hills, though short, was spent in the saddle, not even an attempt to dance on the pedals.
Even the arrival of the flats did not seem to perk up my energy level.....the ride sucked, BUT....a ride is a ride......
Perhaps the fact that I did not have a sufficient/decent lunch contributed to it.


And, I could feel my left thigh abductors straining unnecessarily.
I had only 2 other occasions last year with this issue and this year I've already had several Abductors' cramping issues.
I need to investigate more on this.
I am slowly beginning to like climbing hills due to the nature of its challenge and planning (in my head) on how to approach and
actually proceed on it. But climbing means standing on the pedals and that usually aggravates the muscles more.
Monday (7/12) I went to do a small-ish ride around Hains Point (4 laps) that, surprisingly, averaged around 18-19mph with spikes up to 22-23mph along the way.The great thing about it was that at and around 18-19, my breathing was not labored and my legs held up. A personal record of 19mph avg speed was had......and travelled 25miles within 68 mins.
I am also noticing a lot of how my daily diet affects my rides. My body will not lie and tolerate the