Hypno Toad

I'm preparing for the Westside Dirty Benjamin on Saturday. A group of 4 of us will ride to/from the race... making ~150 mile day. Saturday's forecast has the high temp at 97F

Adding to the issue, this will be the first 90F day all season, so I've had no time to train/acclimate to these conditions.

Last year, we had a similar issue with this race, first hot day, plus it was very humid. I did OK, finished the race in good time and rode slowly home. But I was struggle to keep up with my hydration. Here's a thread I started about that ride and my hydration experience: https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dista...hydration.html

Here's a pic from the 2016 after 'party'
14088569_10154368773516878_9198440549620976549_n.jpg
Hypno Toad is standing in the water

My lesson from 2016: more pure water, less drink mixes.

Let's hear your successes and fails at staying hydrated on long and hot rides.

unterhausen

first hot day always stinks. The last couple of years, it has happened on the 600k, which led me to DNF. Two years ago, I was just a ball of cramps the second day, and I couldn't eat anyway, so I couldn't ride faster than 5 mph. Last year, I was sick, so that doesn't really count. But my jersey was soaked before the sun came up the first day, that's never good.

Fortunately, you aren't going that far and have the next day to recover. At that temperature, a hydration pack with ice is a good idea. Hopefully, the temps will not be too hot on the way to the race. The issue with my plan is that you can over-hydrate. I'm not really worried about hyponatremia, which seems unlikely. But you can really mess up your nutrition. Nausea is a real possibility. Don't forget about bananas. Also, electrolyte pills

Even when you are acclimated, that kind of temperature really stresses most people's ability to carry water on the bike, that's why I say hydration pack. I rode a 1200k with temps like that with just two water bottles, and it was a struggle to find water every 20 miles. I carry plain water in my hydration pack, anything with sugar is an invitation for problems.

10 Wheels

Carry one bottle w Ice Water to pour on your head and neck.

Socks w Ice around the neck are good.

If you stop where there might be an Iced Beer Cooler, place the back side of your hands on the ice , which will help cool some blood.

bikemig 

+ 1. I grew up and did a lot of riding in south Louisiana. It is hot and humid there all summer as well as most of the spring and fall. Camelbaks made all the difference when riding in that kind of climate. I still use them for long hot days in the saddle.

Hypno Toad

One of the bright points: I'll start my day at ~5:30AM with temps around 65F. The race starts at 8:00, at around 70F. If I can hold a good pace, I'll be done before 2:00 when the temps start hitting 90F. Then a slow, sweaty ride to beer & pizza as the temps climb to the high.

rhm

I did a 400k in southern New Jersey two years ago. They were running a 200k the same day, which started at the 100 km point and ended at the 300 km point.

Anyway, it turned out to be a very hot day, the first really hot day of the year, and by the 200 km point I felt awful, just awful, just really awful. I don't actually know what I did wrong; but dehydration is the most likely explanation. I kept going, a lot slower, and as darkness fell I was reaching the controle at 300 km, and I just didn't want to go on.

Knowing the 200km ride ended at that controle, I figured I could mooch a ride; and indeed that's the way it turned out. I bailed, got a ride back, and never regretted it. In retrospect, I had some ten hours in which I could have napped until I felt better, and probably finished the ride successfully. I just didn't want to.

Carbonfiberboy 

I also use a Camelbak, 70 oz., on long hot rides. Makes a big difference to me. Plus I'll have a liter bottle with something in it, food, sports drink, that sort of thing. I normally drink from the Camelbak, but will take several swigs from the bottle at the tops of big climbs, etc. I find that I drink more frequently from the Camelbak compared to bottles, not worrying about where I am in the paceline, road conditions, etc., the sorts of things which make me hesitate to hit the bottle. I also slip a coin purse full of Endurolytes up my shorts leg. Stuff you really have to do should be convenient.

79pmooney

I have found Vitalyte (aka ERG aka GookinAid) to work very well in very tough conditions to keep my hydrated and my electrolytes in good shape. Now, I have ridden just road and for me waterbottles work well. On solo rides I bring ziplock bags with extra water bottles worth of the stuff. It will encourage mold if your container isn't rinsed well after.

Ben

unterhausen

I kept meaning to get some vitalyte, I just noticed they aren't selling through Amazon any more. The problem is that I like to have one bottle of malto and the other clear water. I once ran out of anything but water with nuun in it, and unfortunately, that made me sick. That was a unpleasant 10 miles to the next source of water. Not sure if the vitalyte would mix well with malto or not.

skiffrun

Drinking pure water is a good thing, but understand that if one drinks ONLY water, one can not stay hydrated or get re-hydrated.

My friend, randonneur, and Ph.D. Physiologist explained it this way:
hydration triangle

Hypno Toad

+1

I didn't think to include this in my post, but this is my strategy:
A. Drink water
B. Consume electrolytes
C. Consume carbohydrates

Additionally, I'm working this week to keep my electrolytes high pre-ride.

bwilli88 

Here in Cambodia, I have a couple of Nalgene 32oz bottles and try to drink one every 30 to 50km. I also stop and buy a freash coconut and drink the juice every 70 to 90 km and once in a while I buy a baggie of fresh squeezed sugar cane juice with half an orange squeezed in.
I also have 2 camelbaks on 70oz and one 100oz normally one of those goes with me any time when it is over 95 degrees
On one bike I have a velo orange large bottle holder that a large nalgene fits in and I have a large 48oz nalgene for that.

seajaye

Oh man, I wish there was fresh coconuts here on brevets! I don't carry a hydration pack (have one for the MTB I don't ever ride), but 3 bottles works for me.

Lately, I have been doing:
Downtube - Large Camelbak Podium Ice bottle with Perpetuem
Seattube - Medium Podium Ice bottle with lower concentration of perpetuem / Gatorade or Powerade + water from convenience store soda machine / straight water depending on how I am feeling as the ride goes on
3rd cage - Insulated Klean Kanteen with lots of ice and water. This thing stays cold like a champ and is great for impromptu pull-overs in the shade.

Spoonrobot 

All my long rides are in the summer so I feel like I rarely have any successes over 90 degrees and 100 miles, like other posters mentioned I shoot for "less bad than last time" and often hit that goal.

I like weird stuff, it seems to work for me. I also sweat a ton so usually drink a huge amount of water.

• I discovered this during this year's mountain bike racing season. If load with creatine the week leading up to the ride and make sure to drink copious amounts of water I feel better and am significantly less thirsty during the ride. I get a little bit of water retention, maybe 1-3 pounds but it all sweats out within the first two hours or so after which I just continue drinking normally. This seems to work well for 100+ mile rides.
• I eat a ton of pretzels - usually between 0.75-1 pound a day on days I ride. That's about 3800mg of sodium.
• Drink only water and eat my electrolytes. I can't stomach sports drinks on rides longer than 5 hours or so.
• Ditched the camelbak - the extra water was great but I lose a ton of heat through my back and it was making me hotter and less comfortable the longer the ride.
• Stopped wearing gloves - same as above; I lose a ton of heat through my hands and gloves don't work well for me.
• Pour cold water on my legs and not only my face and head - whenever I take a break near a water source I always wash my hands, douse my head and legs in water. If I'm near a stream or lake I'll even take my shoes/socks off and go stand in the water for a few minutes. Sucks so much heat right out of my body so quickly.

I had my first 100+ mile ride of the year last weekend and it's gone better than the past so I'm really hoping this year is more successful overall than the past few years.

Hypno Toad

Update on my "Royal Benjamin" - the short story: DNF

... OK a little detail, we were fight a viscous head/cross wind and the temps were climbing. I had 3x 22 oz bottles on my bike to get me to the first water stop at mile 47 (I'd also finished a bottle on the 20 miles to the race, in additional to drinking water & OJ before leaving the house). I expected it to take me 3 to 3.5 hours to get the water stop; but the headwind had slowed us down to a tragically slow pace. I was out of water by mile 30. It took us 4.5 hours to get to the water stop, and I was in a dark hole by the time we rolled in. I was luck to find another rider getting a lift back to the finish line and I was able to pile in with him.

Here's a long race report: Bikes, Beers, and Stuff I like: 2017 Westside Dirty Benjamin - DNF

I will be adding some kind of large capacity water bladder to my set up, either a minimal CamelBak or a frame mount: Guitar Ted Productions: Dissecting The Gravel Grinder Set Up

Here's a video from the day with my bar mounted GoPro:

unterhausen

I also dnf'd my 600k. I was feeling really good, but any time I tried to push the pace at all, I would cramp really badly. I probably took 20 enduralytes in 400k. That made me wonder what the LD50 on those things is. Had lots of trouble eating. And that was just with temps in the 80s, Sunday's 90+ temps just didn't seem worth fighting.

rhm

The photo above is my bike at Hawk's Nest, overlooking the Delaware River, on Saturday afternoon. It's not a great photo of the bike, but you can see the Jandd frame bag, in which I carried a large hydration bladder. I didn't want it on my back. I was able to drink on the bike, but that involved sucking a lot of air out of the tube before I got to the water, which was not ideal.

After I finished the gatorade in the photo, I filled that bottle with water and put in a NUUN tab. Must have consumed a half dozen of those on Sunday.

CliffordK

Most of the hot summer weather around here is in the 70s and 80s.

But, one of my first rides to Portland (about 180 miles that time, I think) was on one of the hottest days of the year, 95 to 100 degrees. Whew, it got HOT in the afternoon.

Make sure you have good suntan lotion.

Anyway, for that ride, I had two 30+ oz water bottles, plus a camelbak.

I look for water in every park I pass, and refilled several times. Unfortunately I was a bit unfamiliar with the route through Salem at that time. So, I refilled in Albany, missed the water stop in Salem, and was pretty parched by the time I hit a campground just north of Salem, maybe 50 miles past my previous water stop, at which point I had to ride about a mile around the campground hunting for water.

I've brought a filter with me for more camping type expeditions, but I've rarely used it, and generally don't bring it for day trips. I do occasionally refill with unfiltered water in small trickling streams, but rarely in large ones.

rhm

To continue what I wrote above....

I don't think I drank enough on the 400 portion on Saturday, and I pushed myself too hard, and ended up with an upset stomach. I knew what was happening, but I didn't know what to do about it. I continued to drink as much water as I could, and small bites of dried mango when I could. A can of perrier helped a lot. But at the end of the 400 I could barely eat anything. I drank a couple sodas, which helped. I slept for an hour and got up feeling no better, but resolved to go on at my own pace, drinking all the water I could, letting my stomach settle itself if possible.

It was an oven, and we were riding straight into a stiff west wind that ironically helped me a lot. I was sweating profusely and the dry wind kept me remarkably cool. I gradually revived, started eating real food, and eventually finished. My first 600, and at the end, i was feeling pretty good. The 200k on Sunday was the inverse of many rides: it started out as a death march and ended up as a nice afternoon ride.

What have I learned? Okay, I already knew I'm a bad listener and a slow learner. No matter how many times I'm given good advice, I don't believe it until I figure it out for myself. That said, I think it's impossible for me to drink too much water on these rides. NUUN tabs (or the like) are necessary to speed the absorption of that water.

People tell me I'm eating the wrong things, and they're probably right. That is, there are probably better things to eat. But I'm still of the opinion that if it looks good at the moment, I should eat it. But better eat it very slowly, on the bike. Sitting down at a restaurant for a big meal, that's not such a good plan.

unterhausen

good job finishing, the weather made it really tough. Restaurants are a bit of a waste for me, it's always too much food. I remember once the waitress knew I had ridden 300km and was shocked that I only ate some fries and 1/4 of a hamburger. But I am not going to eat more than my stomach can handle.

This time, I could eat, but then my abdomen was agony for about a half hour afterwards. It would be really nice to have a 600 that wasn't the first hot ride of the year.

bwilli88 

Get a good bite valve for the end of the tube, it should seal and not allow the water to drain back to the bladder and when you bite, there is no air.

unterhausen

Soon after starting to use a hydration pack, I learned to blow the water back into the bladder because the water in the line gets hot otherwise.

Carbonfiberboy 

I put a light colored foam insulator on ours, made for the purpose. Works well.

skiffrun

Oh, Spring weather.


I did notice your line about the temps on one of your first rides to Portland -- that's what most of our afternoons on Summer 200's are like, and frequently the Raleigh Region 600 will have temps into the mid-90's (or higher) both days, with no shade, and boring flat roads. The low temps just after starting on the first day, are often already 75.

To quote the RBA's website regarding the 600: "[t]his route is flat but head winds and heat can make this route challenging."

njlonghorn

The night before a long, hot ride, I fill my 100 oz. camelbak bladder up about 90%, and lay it flat in the freezer. Before leaving the next morning, I defrost around the cap (so I can fill the bladder up the rest of the way) and the valve (so I can connect the drink tube). The camelbak stays frozen for 4-6 hours, depending on how hot of a day it is. The frozen pack feels great on my back, and I have a steady trickle of ice water to drink.