My wife went to the east coast for a concert this weekend so that left me free to ride all morning on saturday. The boys were having a sleep-over friday night at grandma's house. I did the normal saturday ride and had a good showing for the first 40 or so miles. I took a solid 3rd in the first sprint and chased down several breaks. I felt pretty tired when we got to the point where I could cut off and head for home with my usual 55 miles, however I decided to keep going and see how long I could hang with the remainder of the group. I did ok through the next section but got dropped at the very end. I turned the corner and saw that about 500 meters ahead, the group was looking back and soft pedaling. I waved them to leave me for dead but they continued to go slow, so I felt guilty and sprinted up to them (these guys are good teammates). We continued on and I rode in the back to try to recover. The next and final section is a long loop that gets fast. They slowly built speed and finally I got spit out the back. Another guy got spit out after me but several hundred meters ahead. I followed him around at that distance until he slowly pulled away as well. I continued on the loop until I could cut off and head for home.
Partway home I started to get leg cramps. One series of cramps were so bad I had to get off my bike on the side of the road and grit my teeth. I couldn't believe the pain. Then, when the pain subsided, I had a brief spell of nausea. I'm thinking, "Great, look at me on the side of the road, puking my guts out!" Luckily, I didn't throw up and I was able to get back on the bike and ride home slowly. Total finishing mileage, 76.
Moral of the story I think is, you must drink ALOT of fluids ALL WEEK LONG in order to put your body through that sort of stuff on the weekends. I do make sure I drink at least a gallon of gatorade during the day at work but I don't continue to drink that much once I get home. I drank six water bottles during the course of the ride but it just felt like the water was sitting in my stomach and not being absorbed. I think because it was already too late. I was actually dehydrated before I started the ride.
I will be better prepared for next week!
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1 comment:
Awesome job on the mileage. I know exactly the feeling you're talking about with water just sitting in you stomach - makes me feel even more sluggish (like I need anymore help with that!)
No riding this weekend. We had planned to do a short road ride around the house to get Lori's feet wet on Sunday but it was pouring when we got up. Maybe one day this week we'll get up early and do it before work . . .
Look for an email re: the Bet later today . . .
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