Our Saturday training ride produced good news and not so good news. We did the same 93 mile route that we did last Saturday, and we did it almost 10 minutes faster with fewer breaks. We took 1 “refueling break” after 3 hours, 40 minutes, and after most of our climbing was finished. We refueled with SuperStarch, did a lot of stretching, and gobbled down a SlimJim. We took a shorter break with about 15 miles to go so I could stretch and try to get my leg pain under control – which worked for a short time.
The last 12 miles were excruciating for me – I had some of the worst leg cramps I’ve ever had. Having a few days to reflect on it, I suspect it was a combination of a few things. I flew from SoCal to Atlanta Thursday, then turned around and flew the same flight back on Friday. Flying dehydrates you and I probably did not drink enough fluids to rehydrate. I also had a glass of wine with dinner Thursday and Friday night, something I haven’t done much of the last 6 weeks. We also forgot to take our Magnesium Saturday before riding. All of those factors combined with riding faster with fewer breaks are most likely the cause of the intense leg cramping.
Fortunately, I recovered pretty fast from the leg pain – within 20 minutes – with a lot of stretching and fluids. Sunday morning I did not feel great so I drank some chicken broth to try and rehydrate. We went for a short recovery ride on Sunday and other than a persistent headache (which I think was again due to dehydration) my body felt pretty good.
The not so good news was my ketone levels on Sunday morning. I checked them around 10:00 am, which is earlier than normal, but I wanted to do it before riding. My levels were .08, which to me was disturbingly low. I should be at 1.0 or higher every day, and after a hard day of exercise I expected a much higher number. Morning ketone levels are always lower, but I was still surprised by the low reading.
I will check again today (Monday morning) and hopefully have better results, otherwise I’ll have to do a much more in depth analysis of what I ate and drank leading up to Sunday.