Cooked - 1 Braised Cyclist

[melissam]

And might I add Mel, that stubborn, tenacious freakazoid made it the Whole Way! Her longest ride ever, and in the blistering heat - woo hoo Mel!

I attribute my success to wearing my "Ride Like a Girl" socks.

Seriously, it was a great ride. Well, a little hot, but an awesome route. I must admit that Pig Farm Hill @ mile 90, with no shade in sight, just about did me in.

Veronica, glad you're OK today. Maybe a Red Bull will chase the headache away?

Jo & Lee, thanks for the post-ride dinner & beer!

- Mel

[TrekTheKaty]

So glad you made the phone call while you were still able to! Just a reminder to us all that we need to be careful out there--lack of sleep, nutrition, stress, etc can stop us from doing something we have done before. Occasionally you have to throw in the towel and try again another day! Hope you are feeling better :-)

[sundial]

When he picked me up he noticed my skin was totally dry. I am normally a huge sweater. I should have been drenched. We stopped at the nearest gas station and got water, about half of which went on my head.

I lost three pounds on the ride and that was AFTER drinking a liter of water on the way home.

Oh my goodness, Veronica! It's amazing how heat exhaustion can sneak up on you, even when you've trained in the heat. Please take care of yourself and take a break from this heat. You don't want to get to the point that you can't tolerate heat anymore.

[jobob]

Part of the problem is that we've had a fairly mild summer, so there hasn't been all that much opportunity to acclimate to intense heat.

For instance, when I did this same ride just 2 weekends ago, it was foggy & chilly when I started out, and while it warmed up during the day it was never particularly hot.

[snapdragen]

Glad you decided to stop Zippy, heat exhaustion is no fun. I had it once, haven't been the same since...oh wait...

[ttaylor508]

I second the suggestion of dousing water over your head when you start to overheat. You did the right thing by stopping. DH was suffering from heat exhaustion last July when we did a double century in close to 100 degree heat. The last 30 of the 206 miles was a torture chamber with very little shade. I finally made him pull over and take a good long break. With some added electrolytes pills and plenty of fluid he made it to the finish, but it was scary and unfortunately we didn't have anyone who could come pick him up. The electrolyte pills really saved us when it started to heat up, unfortunately he had stopped taking them and I think that is why the heat got to him.