Fool's Gold is August 21st and I have felt like crap on the last couple long rides I have done and think I have the reason nailed down...or reasonS. Coffee and beer. Strangely enough, beer the night before and coffee the morning of a ride in the heat caused some dehydration before the ride even began.
I was off last Thursday so headed out for 5 hours on the Pacer. An oppressive wave of heat greeted me when I walked out on the porch at 8 AM. uhhhh, yeah. 107 heat index and one of those "polluted air warnings." The first couple hours were okay, hot but I was able to keep a good pace and just trudge on along. At about mile 65 I was getting cooked heading past Bass Pro Shops in Leeds and stopped to grab 30 oz of ice water from a gas station with the intent of pouring it on my head.
I knew better. I knew not to guzzle a bunch of ice water at once....but it tasted so good compared to the hot Gatorade I had. Now bloated and miserable, I had to do another 20 miles in the sun to get back home where I lay down in the living room for about 15 minutes. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Chalk that one up to a "learning experience character builder something or other".
Had a much better ride today. Drank Gatorade this morning instead of coffee and felt strong for about 4 hours at Oak Mountain. Pretty sure a skunk sprayed me or I ran over invisible cat shit somewhere...I smelled like death for about an hour and a half until the heavens opened up with a monsoon that washed the death stench off. The rain felt great at first but feeling good doesn't mean much with too much grit in the eyes to see anything. Made sure to head down the BUMP trail to see how slick it got in the rain. Awesome ride.
There is an organized Fool's Gold pre ride this weekend but i don't feel like driving out there. I figure affixing the course profile to my top tube with packing tape is about 30% as good as a pre ride and will cost me two tanks less of gas. I win.
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