Dehydration

During the last two Saturday road rides I have been experiencing symptoms of dehydration. Our weather has been oppressively hot lately and I think that I have basically been living in a state of mild dehydration every day. This is causing severe leg cramps near the end of my saturday rides. Sometimes, the pain is so excruciating that it causes me to dismount my bike at the side of the road and wait for the pain to subside. Even worse, the pain is sometimes joined by nausea. 

I've developed a routine that reminds me to drink more liquids throughout the day. I basically take one drink from my one gallon thermos whenever I get out of the truck. By the end of the day I have gone through at least the entire one gallon container. Sometimes I add more during the day which gives me about 1.25 gallons consumed by the time I'm ready to head home for the day.

Now for the shameless plug:

I've also started using Hammer nutrition's Endurolytes. I take the recommended dosage of 3 capsules every hour during exercise. This seems to have made an improvement. I'm also trying their product called Liquid Endurance. I have yet to see results as it requires a "loading" period three days prior to your "event". This product reportedly allows your cells to retain more water then normal, basically getting you very well pre-hydrated. I will let you know the outcome after the weekend.

Last saturdays' ride went very well performance wise. I was right where I wanted to be for all the sprints as well as chased down several breakaways. I have surprised myself by being at my current level of performance, but of course once you reach a level, you always set your sights higher.

I'm looking forward to this years mountain bike season. It looms dangerously close and I have yet to have my new bike built. That should change over the next couple of weeks and I will post pictures of the new bike once it is completed. Our first race will be an endurance race on Labor Day weekend. I will probably ride the eight hours solo. Then on to the Florida State Series.