Originally Posted by
LoriRose
***Progress Report!!!***
I worked myself up to 82Km, and it killed me. I made a few mistakes for my last ride and am now considering backing off completely though my goal was to complete 100km before winter arrives. My previous ride of 75km wasn't too bad. I was suffering near then end but nothing like yesterday. I was all good up until about 60km and then the sun went down and my front light was not adequate enough to light the way so I was straining to see. Then the low blood sugar set in and it was cool and there was an unforgiving strong headwind. I couldn't feel my feet, I was exhausted and couldn't think straight - all I wanted to do was pull over and take a nap. It was a little bit scary. I was starting to hallucinate. I had to get off and walk for about 20 minutes.
I would really like to continue on and do a metric century before winter arrives but I absolutely do not want a repeat of yesterday. I think I need to rest and have a real meal half-way through rather than relying on carb snacks, and also not get caught riding in the dark.
On a lighter note, the first 2/3 of the ride was great. I was thoroughly enjoying the ride and the sunset over the water was stunning.
Thoughts?
This ride shouldn't have been a problem but it was. As you say, low blood sugar. Only two possible causes for that: you're not recruiting your bodyfat for energy, discussed in post 47, and/or not eating anything like enough or sufficiently regularly. Also it's possible that if you're not eating enough carbohydrates in your regular day-to-day diet, you're not replenishing your glycogen, especially liver glycogen as I've discussed earlier. This latter however can be ameliorated simply by eating.
It works best for most riders, early in their training, to replace lost sugars by eating. The fat burning is a slow adaptation that takes time. It'll happen even if you eat because it's impossible or at least very very difficult to eat enough to ride without burning fat.
A full meal in the middle of a ride is the worst way to eat and the most likely to cause a blood sugar event. The stories of cyclists who ate a big meal and 200' later were either barfing or sitting in a ditch are legion.
Try this: buy a 6-pack of Ensure. Chocolate works well for most folks. Put two bottles in one of your water bottles and fill the rest with plain water. Put plain water in the other. 15' after you start riding, take a swallow from the Ensure bottle. Continue to do that every 15', by the clock. If there's any left over after the ride, drink it down immediately after the ride. Bring along a cut bagel with cream cheese. After the ride, eat 1/2 the bagel every half hour or until you sit down to a meal.
I'm recommending this particularly because I know the dosage from my wife's work on it.