YeaWhatever's cycling thread

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:03 pm

It's been over a month since I've posted here so I thought that now would be a good time for an update.

I am still averaging about 300 miles per week for my training. My average speeds continue to rise little by little.

Yesterday, I went 122 miles in exactly 6 hours. I was not pushing it too hard either. This was merely a "tempo" workout. The good part was that when I was finished, I did not even feel tired. I still did a lot the rest of the day with the kids and did not lose a step.

Lately, the biggest adjustment that I have had to make is dealing with the heat. When it is close to 90, I need at least one ounce of fluids for every mile ridden, some days, even more. The thing is, I need to bring all of those fluids with me when I set out for my workout. That is a lot to carry along and obviously ads a lot of weight.

A couple of weeks ago, I was about 30 miles from home and had totally run out of fluids. It was hovering around 90 degrees. I did not have any money with me either so stopping someplace was out of the question. I had a cell phone with me. I was so dehydrated that I nearly called home for a ride. But being the idiot that I am, I decided to simply slow down and just tough it out. I made it home, but I was nearly ill. It took me a couple of days to fully recover. I lost 8 pounds of water in just 2 hours. Very dangerous.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

So in other words, you were nearly stredded in hash conditions.... Wink

Glad you made it home safely.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:07 pm

I love that last post. Stredded, no food, drink or money, in hash conditions. Is this karma at its most ironic?

122 miles in 6 hours is impressive.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:10 pm

^^^
It's sort of funny about the "stredded in hash conditions" thing.... while I was out there, nearly falling off of my bike from exhaustion, I thought about the Abeche lads and started to laugh. They were in FAR worse shape than I ever was, and I was miserable.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:56 pm

Do we get to see the bike wear as we seen the swimwear? Very Happy

btw, Great job! Wink

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:59 pm

Well, good luck. Smile

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:09 pm

Thanks for this inspiring thread YW. I am now only a Minneapolis bike commuter, but my wife is a serious cyclist and she says she has enjoyed viewing your training logs.

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:02 pm

Yesterday, July 21, was another example of how poor nutrition can screw things up really bad.

During work yesterday, I was massively busy (I didn't even have time to bait). When I get really busy, I tend not to eat as well or watch how much water I take in. Yesterday was no exception. I barely ate a thing all day. So, after work, I rode just a hair under 50 miles and man, did that suck.

My legs did not feel week, but they did not feel 100% either. But most annoying was the fact that my butt, lower back, and neck all hurt... a classic sign of dehydration and poor nutrition.

In my head, I broke the ride down into 4 sections; heading south (out of downtown Milwaukee), heading west (into the general area where I live), heading south again (first half of my extended ride) and then heading north (back home). Each section is, on average, 13 miles long.

The first section, I averaged exactly 20.0 mph (always my target pace)
The second section averaged 18.9 mph (mostly uphill... so far so good)
The third section, starting to feel the lack of food and water, averaged 18.6 mph.
The final section, into breeze, a painful 17.5.

The last section was horrible and I could not help but think that this was not even 10% of the distance of the upcoming race. I must make sure that during the race, I eat before I get hungry and drink before I get thirsty or that 500 miles will seem like a million.

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:58 pm

Here I am posting into a thread that I am barely worthy to read.
17.5 mph headed into a breeze is still a good pace. A sore butt is a sign of dehydration? I didn't know that. I try to hydrate but I lose lots of water weight on rides. I was at a different bike store looking for brake pads yesterday. I was mentioning that my riding buddies keep track of mileage by asking me if my butt hurts. There seems to be a switch that goes off at 53 miles. The salesman suggested a Specialized saddle, but at $163.00 I don't really need hollow titanium tubes that much and don't know if my butt could feel the difference.

On long rides I have stopped trying to carry all of my water. I start out with bottled water than I just fill up two 24 oz bottles at rest stops. I know it sounds disgusting but when the temperature hits 95 I need a lot of water and there is no way I can carry 12 bottles of water for a century. I find it easier and tastier to use the sink. People don't use drinking fountains anymore but do wash their hands so the water does not sit in the pipes. I never use the hot water, or if there is a mixer that uses hot water as the hot water heaters have magnesium anodes. Those single use Propel tubes will cover the taste if you need. There are some electrolytes but its really not an issue. As far as food, I use biking as an excuse to graze. Instead of Powerbars, I eat Sweet and Salties. Instead of Clifblocks, I chew on Fruity Snacks. I buy at the membership big block stores where the products are fresher and cheaper. Jell packs are for runners. I would suggest getting used to what you will eat during your big ride.

I keep a ten dollar bill in by saddle bag. Its for what ever but could also be used to patch a tire if there is a sidewall blowout.

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:21 pm

It's not just the sore butt that is a sign of dehydration, it is the combination of all of the things hurting at once. That is how I can tell. Plus you can actually start to feel like you are going to puke if you get really bad.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:30 pm

I thought earlier in the year, that there were three main components to successfully finishing the 500 mile race that I will be competing it. Conditioning, mental toughness, and in-race nutrition/hydration. I figured that all three parts were equally important. As the weather gets warmer and warmer here, I have come to the conclusion that the in-race nutrition/hydration are probably closer to 50% of this race.

Friday the 25th, I did a relatively short ride of about 60 miles. I started out around 4:00 PM and the temperature was about 86 deg. F. I was sweating like crazy, as if someone were pouring a glass of warm water over my head the whole time. I was carrying with me about 80 ounces of water. With about 10 miles left of my ride, all of the water was gone and I was feeling sick from dehydration. Once I made it home I weighed myself. Even with the 80 ounces of water that I had consumed, I had lost 7 pounds of water in just three hours. That means that I had probably lost closer to 11-12 pounds of water in just three hours. This is totally unacceptable and if this were to happen during my race, there is no way in hell that I would be able to finish.

So I called up my coach on the phone and we talked all this over. I was under the impression that you could only absorb about 24 ounces of water per hour. I was relieved to hear my coach laugh at me and tell me that I could pretty much drink as much as I felt like. If I am sweating out 40 ounces per hour, I could take in 40 ounces per hour. The obvious question for me at this point was, "how much do I swear per hour"?

Figuring out the answer to this question is not all that easy. There are several things that effect the amount that you sweat, the two biggest things are the temperature that you are riding in and your amount of effort. Fortunately, I track both of these things pretty closely. Measuring the weather is simple, I use the Internet to get/track the weather conditions. As for the amount of effort that I put into a ride, I wear a heart rate monitor whenever I workout.

From now on, I will be weighing myself prior to, and just after every ride. If I lose weight during the ride, I am not drinking enough. If I gain weight, I am taking in too much. Then I will need to mark the temperature in the workout notes. After about 3-4 weeks of workouts, I should start to have enough data to be able to make predictions as to how much water I will need to keep everything in balance. Too much water can be just as bad as not enough. I do not want to take the approach that "if a little is good, a lot is even better". That is not the case.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:03 am

YW,

You should also talk to your coach about hyponatremia which is a serious (potentially fatal) condition caused by taking on too much water in too short a time. I'm sure the cycling fraternity is well aware of it, it may just be a question of taking in some salts along with your fluids.

YeaWhatever's cycling thread	View next topic View previous topic