Mar 26 - way dehydrated

OK, it was a good ride, except for the "shake & bake" as Judith referred to the 23 miles each way of rough pavement and except for the fact that I really, really dehydrated myself. If I'm correct in my guess of my starting weight, I was down 8 pounds -- almost 6% of my body weight. Not good.

It started off comfortable, low 60's, but then got hot. The shake and bake section is where I probably did myself in, not even drinking all the water or gatorade that I was carrying, partly due to the fact that I was standing up a lot and it's hard to drink when you're clenching your teeth due to the bouncing !

I did ride the "hummer", and that turned out to be a good plan. It doesn't make any difference with zero climbing. The trip is south to Oak Hill (familiar territory), then west through the rough stuff, then south again. Since the wind was from the SSE, we did most of our wind-fighting on the way out although the eastbound rough road was really blowing in our faces. The last-minute prediction was 15-25mph and it was certainly hitting the top end.

We completed the ride in 8:32 -- reasonably good for 124 miles. I have not looked at the computer yet ... ok ... hold on ...

7:26 rolling time and 16.73 mph average. That's really good for me. I drive myself harder when riding with a good rider -- and she's good. Again, I'm amazed at how much time goes by at Control stops.

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Supper's over and Sandy has left to pick up Sheryl -- actually they should be home any time now. Abby will be so excited !

Sandy had an exciting day today, cleaning house. I'm kidding of course. At least it's a small house !

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It's a.m. again -- back to dehydration -- I've gotten into the habit of letting myself run low in my daily rides. That way two water bottles will last me 70-80 miles. Yesterday was warmer, and I only consumed one bottle of water (my other bottle was mostly full coming home), 1/2 bottle of gatorade, a 10 oz bottle of chocolate milk and a 10 oz bottle of grape juice -- perhaps 60 oz of liquid. I should probably be drinking at least 20 oz per hour, which would be over 160 oz. 100 fluid oz. of water weighs 6.5 pounds. I'll have to aggressively drink more at the 600km next Saturday or I'll severely bonk. It's supposed to be warm; it will cover some of the same ground as the 400km -- the climbing that is; and it's three times as long as yesterday's ride.

Sheryl and Sandy arrived a little after 10pm. Sheryl's flight was in early but the gate was occupied. The NAV took Sandy to the airport, but unfortunately unless she wanted to climb the fence she was on the wrong side of the airport from the entrance. Luckily it is a small airport.

I was still awake when they got home -- amazingly -- still eating and drinking, mostly the latter -- recovering from my ride. Of course three diet cokes might have contributed to me staying awake as well ...

Today -- the plan is still to go boating. It's supposed to be windy so we'll either limit our traveling or launch further north. I'll let the ladies decide.

It's time for breakfast ... for me and Abby.