Hi all,

Last year (my first summer cycling, and a very hot one) I had some huge problems with heat exhaustion. I would get home and have a bad headache that lasted for 24 hours, could barely speak. On one ride of about 35 miles when it was 95 degrees out, I weighed myself before and after, and I had lost 12 pounds (can you say "massive dehydration"??). So I got a 100 oz. Camelbak, started pushing fluids and adding electrolytes/nutrition to my water. However, I'm still having problems with getting headaches after a ride, though not as bad as before.

My stats are that I weigh 225. I did a 35 mile ride Saturday, and it was fairly hot, high seventies/eighty. I was on my bike for four and 1/2 hours. I drank 130 oz of water during the ride mixed with GU2O, then came home and had a 12 oz glass of water with Accelerade in it. I weighed six pounds more when I got home than before I left (and all I'd eaten was a bowl of cereal and a packet of GU)!

Obviously I am doing something wrong, my guess is drinking too much. But I'm terrified of not drinking enough because of my run-ins with heat exhaustion last year. How can I figure out how much to drink?

Advice, please?

Thanks,
Amy