Hot 48 miles and dehydration

[Catrin]

...... The cyclists I know will stop at specific points based on either 1)calories burned, 2)distance or 3)time. I use calories burned because I cycle with low blood sugars also and I stop to refuel at specific levels, every 800-1200 calories burned, eat and drink, and that will usually keep something from happening.......And yes, you are correct, the most difficult part of increasing the miles is actually the nutrition and liquid intake, figuring it out, adjusting and tinkering with it, and then you will find the years go by and you are still tinkering with it.

Good advice, thank you. I really didn't feel bad until my calf started cramping...so lesson learned that I need to plan better for this. I guess it wasn't a real issue when I was riding <40 miles...

What works for me is taking a big gulp (in my case nuun or G2 diluted) every 10 minutes max. I don't think you did that. It will help when you can drink while riding, but in the meantime, plan to stop every 15 minutes and drink. Eat every 30 minutes.

I was drinking from my Camelbak pretty frequently - but no - not every 10 minutes - but it just had water in it. That will change this weekend when I go on my long ride. If I wind up having to replace the bladder because I put Heed in it then I will. Thanks for the other food ideas as well.

....I believe that HEED is designed to have enough electrolytes for shorter workouts. For longer ones, Hammer recommends Perpeteum (or however it's spelled) because HEED does not provide enough electrolytes beyond 2 hours (or something like that). Of course, HEED supplemented with shot bloks should have been fine had you been eating them.

And yes, overheating can definitely cause fuzzy thinking. It happens to me particularly because I'm not the most prolific sweat producer. If you aren't either, that probably contributed to your issues.

I did drink my bottle of Accelerade - though it would have been better to have had two of them rather than one. It is like Perpeteum and my stomach likes it better. In this area what my tummy wants she gets I DID have shot bloks with me though I forgot to eat them .... considering how many long rides I have planned over the next few months I think a case of them would be a great idea! My tummy likes them as well, which is good.

I am not the most prolific sweat producer either, though that seems to be changing - which is a good thing.

I've another 50 mile ride planned for Saturday, but this one will be a supported club ride. It is supposed to be back to reasonable temps this weekend as well so there shouldn't be a repeat.

[Catrin]

Yesterday's ride went much better as far as nutrition/hydration was concerned. Same number of miles that took more than an hour longer due to the presence of lots of hills - and I am still working on finding my inner hill-climbing animal

The temps were much, much cooler so the comparison stops there - but felt many times better even though I was on the bike almost 5 hours.