Tuesday in the Bag

Yesterday turned into such a mess that I made the decision around lunch to bag Tuesday's ride. I told my wife to tackle me if she needed to. As the day wore on the sickness settled in deeper and deeper and it was an obvious call to make. At the end of the day a few Advil and a bunch of trail mix helped more than I could have guessed. Perhaps I was so low on calories and spent from the big Sunday ride that I brought it on myself? I woke up feeling fine and probably needed a big nutritious breakfast desperately. You would think this would be second nature but I assure you that's not the case. These lessons you learn the hard way are the ones that stick the longest. Hey at least I was smart enough to take today's ride off.

Whatever, the end result is an off day Tuesday and a questionable remainder of the week. I could make this a rest week but that wasn't the plan. On the other hand, who cares? What's a plan but some gibberish on a piece of paper? What's a "build" period but a 3-4 week span where you waste yourself in an effort to get stronger? What does it mean that yours truly is starting to get philosophical?

It means it's probably time for a rest week. We'll see how I feel at the end of the day though I've pretty much bagged tomorrow's ride too. I'd really like to pound myself further on this 4th week but with 3 days off in a row it's a holding pattern at best. Not that there's anything wrong with that but if I follow a hold week with a rest week am I going to start sliding? And then do I turn the rest week into another hold week because I feel like I'm sliding too much?

What does it all mean Basil?



So let's look at Jake and his cramps. Better yet why not just point you in the direction of my post race discussions here. For me I think the 3 main problems were hydration, lack of event specific training, and pushing too big a gear. YMMV for sure but there is no one solution, IMO. I strongly believe it's always a combination of several things and if you screw any of them up you pay the price.

Cramps are complex, like an onion.



I did more reading on the sodium thing and apparently salt losses have been measured in the 115 mg to 2300 mg per hour range. It doesn't take a Professor Frink to be able to say that's a pretty fucking wide spread there Batman. Batman is, incidentally, a scientist.



So supposing we knock off the total upper end of that range your average person is going to be in the 115 to 1800 range. Given that my shirt and shorts end up with salt lines it's not unreasonable to guess that I lose 500 mg per hour at least. The endurolytes caps provide 40 mg per capsule, or 120 per hour if I pop 3. Queue Professor Frink again to identify that this is almost assuredly far short. I think my next big ride will be without (or with fewer) endurolytes, and with plain old salt.



These are all fictitious/ballpark numbers but even nutritionist Monique Ryan suggests that 400-1000 mg sodium isn't too much to supplement with. There's a good article about it here. I may just dope with pizza. It's good, salty, and has both carbs and protein. All this high priced shit is only going to send me to the Poor House eventually anyway.

You know I never did give Sean props for commenting on the blog. Check out his art site here.