As you know I have been MIA for a while now. I was having a great week of training and then it hit me. I still don't know what the hell hit me, but it hit me hard. I was so sick.
In a five day span I lost 18 pounds. I told myself if it lasted another day I was going to go to the hospital, and then it went away. I think I had a bad case of "the 5 day cholera," but that is just a guess. Whatever it was I don't like it, and never want it again.
Now the sickness is gone, but I am still very dehydrated. I have my first 100+ mile bike race this Saturday, my longest ride ever was 54 miles. As you can imagine I am quite nervous.
Question: If I start pounding tons of water now to get back some of the hydration I lost will I be alright for the race, or is it too late to start chugging water?
9 comments:
I don't know about the hydration, but it might be worth having a 'plan b' where you decide prior to setting out what would have to happen to make you pull out eg dizziness, not urinating etc. No point being unsafe and often when you're under duress it's hard to make decisions.
starting to rehydrate now is certainly important and will get you much closer to where you'd like to be come Saturday.
With that said, are you sure you want to jump from 54 to 100 after such a serious illness? Check the ride and see if there are shorter alternatives (my local recreational rides usually will have smaller loops or fewer loops for shorter distances). A 100 mile distance somehow feels like more than two 50 mile routes. I did one this last weekend, perfectly healthy, well fed and hydrated and it was STILL hard.
Okay, now I realize I'm being a negative nancy. But I just don't want you to hurt yourself out there just to hit that mile marker.
1. Hydrating always counts.
2. You can keep weighing yourself to estimate how dehydrated you still are - minor adjustments for weight loss from caloric deficit over the five days.
3. Jumping from 54 to 100+ miles puts you at big risk for injury or requiring so much recovery that you set yourself back on your training plan - which has already been compromised by illness.
Oh yes, rehydrate but not just with water. You need to hit some electrolyte replacement. Head down to Tribe and see what they have. Another good thing to do the couple days before the race will be to down some large bottles of V-8, high in sodium and other good stuff.
Don't know how you felt after the 54 mile ride but I think you can jump to 100 if you don't need to push. If this is just a big organized Century then no big deal just cruise but if it is really a "race" then I would consider bagging it to avoid a relapse.
Tony, I hope you didn't race today. Your body needs it's recovery time, otherwise, you might end up back in bed...listen to your bloggy peeps!!
If you have suffered from dehydration in the past and know your body can bounce back then great. I lost 23 pounds at IMAZ with my viral infection and racing with it, but after some IV's felt good at 72 hours.
Hey Tony:
Well, please blog & update us on what you did & how it went.
I had a 3 day version of what you had back in late June and it's really taken me until now to completely recover [although I had a minor surgery along the way]. But the 2 weeks after I was completely burned out.
Hopefully you listened to your body & did the right thing [whatever that might have been].
Take Care!
rehydrate but don't forget to electrolyte/sodium-up too, so you'll hold that water in ;)
good luck!! and remember, most of it is mental
Hi, Tony! Someone said you're training on the West Side of town. I live around 47th ave and Peoria. Ride the canal. Hike T-Bird Mntn. Lookig for group to train with off-and-on. Let me know.
Left some posts at
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=79851
Hope you're feeling better!
Jer (jdwoz@yahoo.com)
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