Today was my last long bike of my training. It went okay, but I had issues, so it wasn’t the great ride I hoped for.

It started out really well. My plan called for a five hour E2 (stay in zones 1 & 2) ride. I had chosen the Frosty’s route because it has some good hills. I decided to make this ride like the long runs on my running plan, which has some hard sets in the middle. So, when I got to the end of Dodson’s Crossroads, a nice long stretch of road, I turned around, and set my timer. I rode as hard as I could back to the other end. It took about 11 minutes. I spun easy for 5 minutes, then repeated back the other way. I did a total of 4 repeats, trying to do better each repeat. When I finished the last set, I kept going on my planned route. So far, so good.

About 10 minutes later, I realized I was out of water. Shoot, and it was getting hot. Normally, I have plenty of water on this ride, but that 40 minute hard repeat set left me short. I knew I had a long ways to go before passing a store. And I was right in the middle of all those hills I had wanted to work on. I knew I couldn’t work hard on the hills with no water, so I just rode easy. When I was within a couple miles of Frosty’s (little corner store), I thought I’d push it hard. Then I had this horrible thought, “what if Frosty’s was closed”? It’s a small po-dunk little store in the middle of nowhere, so who knows if they have regular hours. I decided to keep up my easy pace.

When I finally arrived at Frosty’s, sure enough, it was closed! Oh Crap. I was still a long way from water. I got off my bike and looked around for a source of water. Around back, there was a pond – I wasn’t that desperate. On the other side of the building, I saw a spigot – hooray! I walked over to it and turned it on, and what looked like clean water spurted out. I put some in my bottle and then took a big gulp. ICK – it tasted awful. I let it run for a few minutes, to let out any stagnant water. Then I refilled my water bottle. The water looked brown, as if I had filled it with lake water. I filled my other bottle. Still brown. I put both bottles back on my bike, filled with the icky water, just in case I became totally desparate.

I scrapped the rest of my planned route, and decided to head down Jones Ferry Road back toward Chapel Hill, hoping it wasn’t too far back to town. I was pretty sure I should head left. Phew – a sign at the intersection confirmed that Chapel Hill was 9 miles to the left.

That was the worst 9 mile bike ride of my life! I was dying of thirst the whole way. It was close to noon and 90 degrees. And, nothing makes you thirstier than not having water. I kept an easy pace to avoid sweating. I briefly considered going faster, thinking that would get me to water sooner, but decided it was best not to sweat. Several times throughout the ride, I glanced down at my water bottles, hoping that the water didn’t look as gross as I first thought. No such luck – it was definitely gross.

Finally, I got back to civilization and stopped at a Food Lion and bought a gallon jug of water and a 24 oz cold PowerAde. I rested for about 10 minutes, drank the Powerade, rinsed and refilled both my water bottles with fresh water, and continued on my ride.

All total, I rode 75 miles. I estimate I went 1:45 without water. I did not feel at any time that I was nearing heat exhaustion…I was just really really thirsty. If I had felt really bad, there were plenty of houses along the way, so I could have stopped and asked for help.

So far, I have not had any stomach upset from taking a gulp of that icky water.? (Shortly after writing this, I felt queasiness in my stomach.? ? Probably just in my head.)

Maybe it was a good thing lack of water caused me to hold back on my pace and not go hard on the hills.? My plan did call for an E2 ride, and it’s best not to stray too far off the training plan.? ? And, my legs aren’t dead now and I have a track workout and a long run to do in the next few days.? After that, it’s time to taper.
Other stuff that happened today:

  • two dogs chased me. I had recently read an article online about dogs chasing bikes, and it suggested shouting “No” in a really loud demanding voice. I tried this today and it worked like a charm.
  • I had to pee, and my planned water stop (some plan, eh?) does not have a bathroom. So, I stopped and peed in the woods. In the woods, I noticed a mound covered by an old tarp. I wondered what could be under that mound, and imagined it to be a dead body. There was grass growing out of the middle of it, so I knew it probably had been there a long time. When I got home, I sent an email to the Orange County Sheriff telling them. That’s probably silly – I watch way too much CSI!
  • In the middle of one of my hard sets, there was a woman and a boy riding in front of me, side by side. An oncoming car prevented me from passing them, so I had to slow down for a minute. I almost called out to them to move out of my way, after all, I was in the middle of a fast workout! But then I realized how rude that would have been – Here’s a mother and son having a nice Sunday bike ride together…who am I to ruin their day by yelling at them to move?! So, I slowed down and waited until it was safe to pass.

Off topic: this blog has a spell checker – I never noticed that before.