Stage 4 - There's No Place Like Home

60 miles on tap for Stage 4 of the 50% of the Miles 100% of the Effort Tour de France Challenge. Experience tells me that today and tomorrow will be two of the roughest days of the entire Challenge. No matter how many miles I ride in preparation for this thing the fourth and fifth days of consecutive long miles are the most difficult. The miles, it seems, get ahead of the body's ability to adapt. The heat does it's best to beat you down too.

If experience can warn me of the difficulty it can also keep me out of trouble. We all know how important it is to keep yourself hydrated and we've all probably ignored that knowledge at one time or another too. Try that during the Tour Challenge and you WILL pay dearly. Once you get behind in fluid intake it's very difficult to get caught up. That's why I drink, drink, drink when I'm out on the road. And before I ride. And after. The easiest and most accurate way to test proper hydration is to look at the color of your pee. I developed a chart for this a few years a go and it's offered here for new readers;

Hydration Test - Check Color of Pee Before, During & After Riding

Gin Clear (You wouldn't be able to see clear letters, now would you?) - You are drinking adequate fluids and you should be saluted
Lemonade Yellow (Hard to read - it says, "Lemonade Yellow")- You are slightly behind in intake, push the drinks
Dark Yellow - You have not taken on enough fluids, you are becoming dehydrated
Orange - You are dehydrated. Stop what you're doing and drink 48 oz of water
Red - That's not pee, it's blood. Seek immediate medical attention

Do not rush the fluid intake. Gulping large amounts of water will trigger the "time to empty" signal in your stomach and you'll end up peeing as much as you drink. Take it in sips - many if necessary, just don't guzzle it.

The other nutritional nugget of knowledge that experience has taught me is to eat a lot while on the bike. By a lot I mean eating even when you're not hungry. If you're hungry it's too late - your blood sugar has fallen too low and your energy reserves are tapped. Try to eat on a schedule. Here is what works for me (your mileage, literally, may vary); eat something every 15 miles. I alternate between a power bar (I happen to like the Powerbar Triple Threat Bar), two gels (assorted) and Shot Blox. One of the most important times to eat is 15 miles from home. You'll be thinking that there is no point in downing $2.00 worth of endurance food since you're almost home but the problem is that you'll unbalance your blood sugar and you risk feeling lousy for a few hours until you get it back in balance. The Challenge runs for three weeks, you'll feel lousy enough because of the workload and there is no reason to complicate matters by going cheap on your food. Just eat it, baby!

Around mile 40 of today's ride I start feeling the effects of the miles and of the heat. I was melting, melting I tell you! Like Dorothy wishing for Auntie Em I just wanted to close my eyes, click my heals and say, "There's no place like home". Just then I rounded a bend and saw a sign that gave me the inspiration to power the 20 miles home;

We're not in Kansas anymore

Sometimes the confluence of inner thoughts and reality scare me. What are the odds of a guy seeing a street sign like that just as he's thinking about Auntie Em? This is karma at it's finest and I felt much better knowing that magical things like this can happen in the most mundane of moments. (I still kind of wished I was home though)