First off- don’t forget about my awesome stuff for sale. The only thing from the original post that’s sold so far has been the Columbia pack. There’s still a SID World Cup fork, Easton EC90 Stem and Seatpost, some Pearl Izumi women’s winter gloves, and a nice women’s Deuter hydration pack.

I needed to post today to concede to the heat. I’m just going to come right out and say it- I’m having a hard time physically dealing with the heat and humidity in Memphis now that our summer weather pattern is sinking in. Basically, the highs are somewhere in the 90’s, and the humidity is somewhere between 50 and 60%, making the heat index in the neighborhood of 100 degrees or more by  noon.  I’m not complaining… lord knows I only complain about cold. I’m merely stating a fact.
I am pretty sure that my problem is sweat. I sweat sooooooooooo muuuuuuuch. Which, if you live someplace where the normal daytime humidity isn’t 60%, is a very positive thing. A high quantity of low osmolarity sweat is actually a sign that your body has adapted well to exercise in the heat. However, that sweat only serves to cool you off if it can actually evaporate. The humidity here stunts evaporation, which basically means that I lose pounds of water with little benefit to the cooling of my body.

Just an example- Sunday, I had a 22oz bottle of Gu Brew + Elete before my ride (about 500mg of sodium), then drank nearly 5 24oz bottles of water in the space of 3.5 hours (I’d started with some Roctane in my bottles, but refilled with plain water on the road, so it was gone halfway through the ride). I was still seriously feeling effects of the dehydration and heat during the last hour.

My strategy looking ahead? I’m going to start weighing myself before and after both fight training at the gym and my training rides to see just how much I’m losing. On the bike, I don’t know if I could physically drink more water than what I’m drinking now, but it’ll at least give me a good idea on where I stand and how much more I should drink off the bike. I’m also going to start carrying some more electrolyte drink mix on my rides. The Gu Blueberry Pomegranate electrolyte mix works really well (it’s the higher sodium flavor), but it can only work if I’m actually drinking it the entire time (duh). Also, Gu has a new Roctane electrolyte capsule that I’m going to start taking with me on rides as well.

Another thing I’m planning on that I haven’t done in the past is avoid the heat. I’ve always been one to live by, “if you race in the heat, you have to train in the heat.” While that’s very true, the fact is, I don’t currently plan on racing in the heat any more this summer. What I DO plan on doing is racing when its dark (at the Vapor Trail 125). So, I’m going to integrate night riding into my schedule. Today, I’ve got a 4 hour tempo ride on tap. I plan on starting around 5:30 or 6 and finishing the last couple of hours in the dark. That way, I’ll avoid both the hottest part of the day, and I’ll be practicing for my next huge race.

It was very nice yesterday to go to Shelby Forest State Park for some hill repeats. The roads and bike path in the park are super shady, and, while the hills aren’t very big (the longest one takes a little less than 2 minutes to climb), they do tend to be steep as all getout…

I’ve gone from full-on recovery straight back in to eat, sleep, train, mode. It’s 10-15 hours/wk of riding with an additional 5 or so in the gym getting ready for my fight. So, I have some days where everything revolves around getting ready to train, training, and recovery. I live for the feeling of being a little exhausted and digging for more. I’ll get a little bit of a break this weekend at the Mulberry Gap Women’s weekend, where I’ll be teaching bike repair,  helping with some of the riding instruction, and handing out some Gu Energy product to the attendees. I’m pretty stoked to spend a few days hanging out with some like-minded ladies.