Parched

I drink, I think it's fair to say, a tremendous amount of water on a daily basis.   I pretty much live with one of those ridiculously over-sized insulated mugs next to me, and I drain it frequently.   As such, it would seem dehydration should be somewhere behind diseases with odds a lottery ticket would covet in terms of things that could be wrong with me.  Sadly, that isn't the case.  For whatever reason, my body needs vast quantities of H20 just to maintain a baseline.  Sometime, especially on the road bike, that can cause difficulties.

Sunday I went with some OBC folks to Winona to escape the snow and ride some hills.  It was supposed to be about a 40 mile ride, with mention of possibly a bar or two.   Lately, I'd been getting by on one of my 28 oz bottles on the weekly rides which tend to clock in at 25-30 miles, so I figured I'd be safe with two.   Two things worked against me from the start.  1) We were climbing and 2) it was much warmer than I had been accustomed to so far this season.

Our first stop was in a tiny town that had an inn that wasn't open and a museum that was, but had no running water.   I was already into my second bottle by then, but one of the guys was kind enough to give me half of one of his, so I figured I was good.   However, fairly soon after this stop, it became apparent that 40 miles was a rather large under estimate of how long the ride was going to be.   And, there was another brutal climb.

Enjoying the day at the mill

At the top of the second big climb, I had two issues.  One, I was pretty much dry and two, my painkillers had given out on me.   It worth noting that Tramadol gives you dry mouth, so in that regards the painkillers were actually a double-edged sword.   I swallowed my second pain pill and kept riding, but at this point I was scanning ahead for some kind of spigot or friendly looking farmer to get water from.    Finally, I saw someone out cleaning their lawn mower and I pulled in and did my best "harmless girl" look.  Replete with two full bottles, I hurried to catch up to the rest of the group.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, but I did manage to finish off both of my bottles in that time.   At the time I had got my bottles filled by the helpful stranger I figure I had gone through 70 oz of water, and was dehydrated enough that I had a headache.   When I got back to my car, I had added another 56 oz and polished off a smaller 20 oz bottle on the way home.    I realize for a lot of people that would be enough water for two or three rides of the distance we did, but judging from the normal signs, I was still working at a pretty massive water deficit.

So, what to do?  Normally, when I plan long rides for myself, I plan them such that I can regularly refill my bottles.  However, with groups, especially with groups of normal people, that's not always the case.   The only thing I can really think of is to wear my hydration pack in addition to bringing bottles.  Not ideal, certainly when it's warm out, but better than hoping to find an unguarded hose or outdoor faucet.

Edit:  I just got a very timely email from Final Stretch Inc. that suggests that I should need 64 oz of water A DAY.   

The ride: Garmin Connect