[BigCliff]

Here lately I have taken up cycling for exercise, as it is too hot to stand still and fish the mudholes left by our stout drought still in effect in the Metromess. Got about 10 mi into the ride last night and just didn't feel right. Got off the bike and could feel my heart thumping way too fast. Having been dehydrated before, I just took some time to recover and drank most of the water I had with me. Made it home fine, taking it as easy as I possibly could.

Moral of the story, if yer fat like me and not dripping with sweat when its hot out, something ain't right. Drink some water and let yourself recover, your body will thank you.

[tightlines57]

Hey Cliff, 10 miles on a bike ain't bad. My legs hurt after 10 blocks on my bike. I work retail so I am on my feet 8 to 10 hours a day but biking uses very different leg muscles.

[BigCliff]

My normal rides are around 20 miles, and I don't get to do them often enough with all the home maintenance/alteration I've gotten into lately. Its the lowest impact excercise I know of that gets me into fresh air, and doesn't require a drive from the house and the corresponding burning of dinosaur wine.

[STARMedic]

Cliff, I just recently sold my road bike to a friend but still have and ride the mtn bike.... I do know where your coming from, and am glad to hear you didnt fall out with heat exhaustion or worse from this incident.

I cant remember what the average recommendation was for endurance related excercise but it goes something like 20oz of water or sports drink prior to the ride and 20oz every 20 mins of the workout. Our Search Trauma and Rescue Team does quite a bit of plodding around in the mesquite thickets looking for wayward boys and girls coming from down south, and here lately Ive found that my 100oz Camelback runs dry about 2 hrs into a walk....

Please be careful especially in this heat.....HAHA if its too hot to fish its darn sure too hot to work out....

Bruce

[BigCliff]

My main mistake was doing some work in the garage and sweating quite a bit before I ever even got on the bike. I was starting out behind on hydration that way.

I got pretty overheated during a scrimmage in August back when I was playing football at Trinity there in San Antonio and it was a lesson I will retain for a while. That was scary, this deal last week was nothing like that. I also keep my cell phone with me and ride in neighborhoods to provide a little more safety.

20 oz beforehand definitely sounds like good measure, but an oz. a minute after that sounds like a little too much. That means for a 20 mile ride which takes me a little over an hour I would need 4 water bottles on my bike. I also think if I consumed that much I would end up getting a citation for indecent exposure due to sheer frequency of biological need. In the future I'll plan on starting out hydrated and plan on downing 20 oz. of water every 30 min after that. I also keep my wallet with me so I can hit a quickie mart for more water if need be.

Thanks for the expert advice. If you need any bike stuff to get your MTB back up and running there's a great shop in San Antonio on broadway called Bike World. (not far from the tackle box) You can also find great deals on tires, tubes and such on www.pricepoint.com . For the non-cyclists, you might wanna check out their deals on hydration packs, they have a private label that makes great low-priced stuff.

[STARMedic]

Reminds me of an accident I had last summer as I had just gotten a new Dana Design 5500 cu in pack, Filled it with various gear and loaded 2 large nalgene bottles with water and a 100oz platypus resevoir in the pack. To say I had my blinders on would be an understatement as the new pack had me absolutely smitten.... I was absolutely stupid in that I didnt note that it was mid morning, and the noon temp was predicted at 108. So I head out on an "hour out" trek with a 50ish lb ruck....at my mid point I noted that I had begun tapping the platypus as the two nalgene bottles had been emptied, at about the 80% completion portion I noticed that no matter how much I was taking in I had stopped sweating. I was debating setting the pack in a mesquite thicket and coming back for it once I had gotten inside and cooled down. Luckily I made it to the frond terrace of the house, dropped the pack and called a friend who was working at the rescue station. He came out and did a basic assessment on my person and noted that my pulse was 160 or more, I was diaphorretic, and sinus tach on the monitor. two large bore IV's later with 2000cc's of fluid I was on the track back to normal.

Before leaving my director came by to link up with my partner for lunch, he called me a dumb ass for walking around mid day with a pack on when it was 112 degrees outside.....

I count myself as lucky cause I could have been much worse off...

Bruce