Originally Posted by
drmweaver2
...living in the US Southeastern area, I walk out of my house and begin to sweat profusely as the heat index is usually over 100 in the summer (90F+ and 75-85% humidity on a regular basis). Put me on a bike with even moderate exertion and my skin is wetter than a turned on water faucet in the bathroom.
On my last tour (Mexico to Panama) we were riding in near 100-degree heat with 100% humidity and it didn't matter how much water I drank and how much I ate, it was at times impossible to keep up with the hydration. My riding clothes were literally soaked to the point where I was creating puddles under me at each stop. With each pedal stroke, drops of sweat fell off my soaked riding shorts and landed on my calves. At each break I would remove my saturated sweat band (an absolute necessity to keep from being blinded by sweat in the eyes) and wring it out. Despite drinking lots of water and Gatorade (when we could find it) and eating mountains of food, I got ill from dehydration and lost 20 pounds over the course of the tour. If not for the emergency hydration salts I was carrying with me (due to my doctor's recommendation), I would have been in big trouble. Even with that it took several days of drinking double-doses of the stuff before I felt normal again.
We spent a lot of money on Gatorade and Powerade on that trip, and were thankful when we occasionally ran across the powdered mix. On the next one I will definitely try to trim that expense. It adds up.