Allatoona

As with Cochran Mill a few posts ago, a ride at Allatoona wouldn't usually be worth mentioning. However, the ride I did up there a few weeks ago kind-of is.

I'd ridden there a week or so earlier, and felt absolutely terrible. I'd felt ok on the Rusty Bucket and various Mason's loops, but when I got on Driftwood, there was a guy behind me that was pretty evenly matched, and we rode together for that whole loop and a loop of Wildcat. I've had trouble for about a year now where my chest just kind-of hurts both on and off the bike. Maybe "hurts" is the wrong word. I experience discomfort. Well, about halfway around Wildcat I was really feeling it. It was so bad that I actually stopped for a minute or two. The whole rest of the ride it didn't really get much better, so I ended up calling it quits after Wildcat.

I tried to get in good sleep all week though, and had felt ok on after-work rides, so I figured I'd go back to Allatoona and finish what I'd started the last time. I felt good all the way through Wildcat this time, pretty good through whatever that new trail is, and ok on Mumbo Jumbo. I mean, it was like a normal long ride - fun, then work, then eventually suffering. I'd just gotten into the work phase at that point, so I still felt pretty good about it.

I had to tiptoe across a single 2x6 and roll my bike across a parallel 2x6 to get onto Voodoo, which was fun. Voodoo itself was difficult though, and I was fully into the suffering phase on Hocus Pocus.

I was notably low on water, and though it's been in the low-to-mid 90's all summer, it's also been absurdly humid. The heat index has been in the low-to-mid hundreds. I'd been wrestling with that chest discomfort since stepping onto Voodoo.

It was back in there that it occurred to me that, at least some of the time, it may just be that I've been needing to pound water harder than I have been. When racing 6-hours I used to go through 20oz an hour (one bottle) on a hot day. Not racing, I've always needed less than that. Heck, I'd recently ridden the Mill Creek loop on 2 bottles, in the heat. But that was also in the mountains, and it's a bit cooler up there, and yeah, you need legs, but maybe wrestling singletrack makes you sweat more?

By the time I got back to the lot, my chest really hurt, and I was basically in limp mode. I wondered if I could pound some water, recover, and finish the lap.

It turned out yes. I drank nearly 40 oz (two bottles) sitting there at the bathrooms, and in under 10 minutes, felt great. It took another 10 minutes or so to get up to full power, but I was able to ride Turtleback and Red Baron like I was fresh on the bike.

The funniest thing was that, coming back into the lot after the full lap, I just happened to run into that same guy that I'd ridden with the week before. We talked for a while, and I described all of this to him. "Yeah, it's hot!"

I'm not sure that the root of the problem is dehydration, but since then I've made an effort to pound water on by after-work rides, and for the most part I've been able to stay strong the entire time, without discomfort, so whatever's going on, I can side-step it by staying hydrated. I've always heard that when you get behind on water, your blood viscosity increases and your heart has to work harder. I've experienced that as poor performance in the past, and definitely experienced it as poor performance during this ride, but I've never experienced it as discomfort, until this year. I suspect that there's something else going on. Dehydration exposes it. Maybe some other things do too. Staying hydrated helps, in that it doesn't put me in that situation. I think I've still got some work to do on a solution though.

It had been slightly wet out there all day. Not enough to make it slippery, but enough to cake everything with dirt and debris.

Later on, when all of that dried, I ended up just brushing it off, and was about 90% clean. Later I ended up in a swimming pool, and that took care of the remaining 10%.

I couldn't tell all day, but when I finally got home that evening, it appeared that my sunscreen regiment had been inadequate the day before.

Oh, well. I tried!