pre-exercise hydration and nutrition

Hi all,

   I've been working all summer to be able to ride a 25 mile course that is pretty hilly. It was last week and while I finished the 25 (yea me) the last 3 miles were torture and pretty much left me wasted for the rest of the day and the next.  Thinking about why that might have happened I came to a couple of conclusions that are DS related.

   I had done 25 miles a couple of time leading up to the race, mostly on pretty level ground, so even though I knew the hills would be a challenge I didn't think too much about it. Pride goeth before a fall as they say..

    First mistake - it was an early start so I was nervous about going to the bathroom beforehand. This led me to not hydrate or eat anything in the morning. Big mistake. On all my other rides I always started with at least 40 oz in me and plenty more to drink on my bike. It turned out to be a really hot day so this came back to bite me.

    Even during the race I didn't hydrate like I should have. I was fine for the first 10 to 12 miles and should have stopped then to drink more but nooooo lets just continue on (knock head against desk). Then the one rest stop for the 25 was at about 17 miles and I thought to myself, why stop it's only another 8 miles ( what a dunce ). 

    Anyway the point is make sure if you make DS accommodations to your workpout for your DS be smart about it.

    BTW - there were about 50 port a potties at the start of the race that had I needed to would have been fine for me to use.
More an issue in my own mind than in reality.

Pete

PS - I love my DS that gave me the chance to have this problem.  

It's a good post.

I've made the same mistake in the past, and realized there are usually port o potty's around. Now, I just carry some extra tissue paper in a side pocket in case I happen to need to use one of the port o potty's.

It also helps to get up early on days you have to go out on a journey to give your body a chance to process anything needed in advance. It kinda stinks we have to do it, but a modest price to pay for the weight loss.

Right. I'm not sure why I didn't get up a little early this time. Usually my go to way to get started. I guess I was nervous about the ride.

Thanks for the post Pete. I'm glad to hear you are doing well. I'm still struggling to know what all went wrong after my appendix busted. I'm 2.5 years out, maintaining weight fine but live in pain. I have learned our bodies use lots of fluids especially me to even process foods. I still don't exercise. Riding a bike would b awesome. I've done it twice with my kids but can't deal with the pain. Just wanted to thank u for your thread. I'm glad to hear u maid it 25 miles!!!! That's awesome-Mike

Mike, Good to hear from you. SOrry to hear you are still struggling with the pain and the 
aftermath of the appendix. I hope better days are ahead..   Pete

This reminds me when I went on a family bicycle ride first thing in the morning without any water nor food. Big mistake, one hour in I was completely dehydrated and nauseated.  Was a terrible feeling, that we had to make a stop quickly for water.  This was about Three years in.