Hydration - Tour tip

Zippy the Pinhead wrote:
:: I can understand why a real racer would need to drink enroute.
::
:: But I am constantly amused by the racer wanna-bes who are woggling
:: along at 12 mph and think they have to drink without stopping to
:: drink. Wobbling in the way of other riders, or of motor traffic,
:: violating the requirement that cyclists be vehicular and predictable.
::
:: Probably the same people who get on Usenet and [censored] about the soccer
:: mom in her minivan with the cell phone, yet it's OK that they are
:: equally if not more distracted trying to drink like the pros without
:: stopping or slowing down.
::
:: Pull over, get off the bike and have a drink, then get back on and
:: pedal away. You ain't in the damn Tour de France, you're just an
:: uncoordinated [censored] with a Walter Mitty complex and a pile of
:: overpriced toys. Don't become a hood ornament while trying to suck
:: warm plastic-flavored water out of your bottle.

Hmm...I agree with Zippy the Pinhead, at least as far as I'm concerned. I
only woggle along when going uphill, though 🙂

Zippy the Pinhead said:

I can understand why a real racer would need to drink enroute.

But I am constantly amused by the racer wanna-bes who are woggling
along at 12 mph and think they have to drink without stopping to
drink. Wobbling in the way of other riders, or of motor traffic,
violating the requirement that cyclists be vehicular and predictable.

Probably the same people who get on Usenet and [censored] about the soccer
mom in her minivan with the cell phone, yet it's OK that they are
equally if not more distracted trying to drink like the pros without
stopping or slowing down.

Pull over, get off the bike and have a drink, then get back on and
pedal away. You ain't in the damn Tour de France, you're just an
uncoordinated [censored] with a Walter Mitty complex and a pile of
overpriced toys. Don't become a hood ornament while trying to suck
warm plastic-flavored water out of your bottle.

Well, -I- don't feel the need to put on a red rubber clown nose when I
ride, unlike some posters, Zippy. ;->

-B
actually, I have had my nose broken by guys wearing 8oz red gloves

I take my camelback on every ride, even my short one hour ones.

Part of that is because I ride early in the morning and I'm not as well
hydrated as I'd like, but I also do it to set up the habit, so that when I
go on longer rides, I don't have to do anything differently.

I don't eat on short rides (< 90 minutes), but if I'm going to be out
longer, I'll start eating at 30 minutes, and then eat every 15 minutes
thereafter. Small bits of food (ie two fig newtons, half a sports bar, or a
gel pack) more often works well for me. That's also a habit thing, and
worked fine when I did a recent century.

--
Eric Gunnerson

Visit the C# product team at http://www.csharp.net
Eric's blog is at http://weblogs.asp.net/ericgu/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

As anyone knows who has worked a day job in their youth as a laborer,
either on a landscaping crew, or doing farm work where there's just
continuous activity, with a few planned breaks, you can lose a -lot-
of fluid.

On the landscaping crew, we were allowed to go shirtless, but had to
wear heavy long pants,( typically denim, and boots - somewhat of a
safety issue), and we were literally soaked the entire day. Most guys
brought a 2 gallon jug with a push-button spigot and emptied that and
more over a 9.5 hour day. You get thirsty right away and drink all
day.

But on a bike you presumably don't want to wait.

According to the babbling on OLN, team postal is drinking 16 bottles
of replacement fluid. The guy said they learned that you needed to
start out hydrated and then on the ride needed to replace up to 150%
of your starting fluid level. IOW, your body systems are using the
fluid constantly, so to avoid a post-post lowering, they go up to 150.

I don't yet get to the point of feeling thirsty at my level of riding
(1-2 hours), so right now, I go out hydrated, but don't drink on the
ride, and have a few glasses of water when I get back then a few large
coffees. That's probably unwise.

When did any of you get into your training (phase, level, physical
level) where it naturally started you carrying and drinking a lot of
water/fluids? I suspect in another 6 months I'll be up to the 2-3 hour
level of riding, and will start using my camelback.

-Badger

Patrick Lamb said:

I remember reading somewhere physical performance starts to
degrade when the body loses 1% of its weight in water.

A 2% drop of your body weight due to fluid loss produces a 10% drop
in performance. At 4%, performance drops by 20-30%.

Quoted message said:

IIRC, clinical dehydration hits at 5% or more.

At 5% loss, you probably wouldn't be able to continue riding.

Quoted message said:

I can sweat half a gallon in an hour. It's hard to replace that
much quickly

It's actually impossible to replace half a gallon of fluids per
hour. A liter is probably the high end for safe fluid replacement.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Eric Gunnerson said:

I take my camelback on every ride, even my short one hour ones.

:

Quoted message said:

I don't eat on short rides (< 90 minutes), but if I'm going to be out
longer, I'll start eating at 30 minutes, and then eat every 15 minutes
thereafter.

There's a point I forgot about. Though I may stay hydrated (100 oz
camelback) I don't eat much. Even On this years 200 mile ride I had a
bowl of cereal, a bannana, 2 Fig Newtons, 1 Milkyway, 1 Rice &
Marshmallow bar, 5 Gus, handfull of grop & 1 turkey, swiss & mustard
sub half. But I was drinking Gatorade straight after the first 4 hours
(50% watered down for the 1st 4 hours). I probably drank 2.5 gallons
that day. On my 65 mile rides I eat a bowl of cereal and a bagel with
about 200oz of Gatorade & water.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry [email hidden]
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)