CC part 1

These are the posts that I will randomly explore different aspects and equipment of the Cache creek ride, in no particular order, and with no real plan.  Lengths of these posts will be entirely dictated by the amount of time I have between/during classes :).

The Spackle!!!!!
Which still needs an awesome name.


It was totally awesome.  With some caveats.

1. did not want to squeeze out of the tube.  I was hoping after it heated up it would become more liquid, but it stayed fairly viscous.  It might because I made it with honey instead of agave.  The good news is that the best way to eat it, even in the afternoon, was to break off chunks from the stuff I had in baggies.  So - I still need to find a delivery system.  Don't laugh at me, but I'm thinking about modifying some of my elyte syringes for in the saddle eating, and looking into some better baggies/containers for saddle bags so that I can stand there at the out timers eating chunks of it.

2. The oil falls out of solution.  Must switch to coconut oil or reduce the oil.

Formulation and delivery aside - this was the only thing (besides applesauce......) that went down good all day and I could go on eating it without suddenly hitting a "wall" that happens with my other foods (going good going good.....and then BAM I'm nauseous and have to spit out whatever is in my mouth).  It was TASTY.  It was GOOD.  It was CALORIE DENSE and really easy to eat chunks out of the bag without water as I stood there waiting for my out time.

And other food.....
Cold Pizza was GREAT the day before, went down OK during breakfast, had a hard time with it at lunch.

Cliff blocks was what I ended up with instead of my preferred honey stinger brand, but they were fine.  Never made me nauseous.  Weren't especially yummy but were neutral which is sometimes the best you can hope for :)

Applesauce: yum...........

The ride management provided breakfast and dinner so I tried some other stuff.

Fruit juice: Ick 
Soda: good for 2 or 3 sips
Sandwich: didn't even upwrap
Trail mix: see sandwich notes
Fruit salad: AWESOME!!!!  part of the dinner - it looked really simple - just large chunks of melon and citris etc........but I could have eaten 5 gallons of the stuff.
Chicken: ick
rice stuff: ick
peanut butter cookies: YUM (part of dinner)

The heat - human
I drank and drank and drank.  I was taking elytes in my water, elytes in capsules and eating - a combination of fat, carbs, and proteins.  I still got a heat headache in the afternoon.  I switched to water for a couple of hours to see if that was the issue.  Nope.

I am very heat tolerant.  I regularly run in the middle of the day in the sun.  I do have elyte issues, but it doesn't seem to correlate with hot weather - it usually manifests as nausea and calf cramping and only happens when I ride (not when I run) and will happen no matter how cool the weather.  So, in general, assuming I have enough water, don't get sunburnt etc I don't even notice the heat.

I talked to other people at the ride that are generally heat tolerant and they were complaining of issues too, so I definitely wasn't alone.  I compared the total amount of fluids I consumed and I was consuming as much or more as anyone there.

I'm tempted to chalk up the fact that I got dehydrated and got a dehydration related migraine post ride to how hot and humid this ride was, and how early it was in the season.  Especially because I did NOT get calf cramps!!!!!!  If you don't count the LD I did last fall, this is the FIRST endurance ride that I didn't get calf cramps from a probably elyte problem --> which is one more thing that makes me think that heat issues at this ride were truly because of a high heat index and the impossibility of drinking enough water - my elytes were probably OK. 

I'm not sure what else I could have done besides not ridden :).  So.  I'll monitor it on my next ride and hopefully it works itself out.

Carrying Elytes on the horse.
I tried 2 different methods of attaching elytes to my breast collar
1.  Wrap several layers of electrical tape around the syringe and attach it with one "go around" with a tab.  I positioned the syringe to the tip was up, so that the salt didn't fall out.  Not much sponge water got into it. To use, unwrap, give elytes, and then unwrap tape until you have sticky again.......and reattach.
==> wasn't  very nice......

2.  Take bottom part of plastic that the syringe comes in.  Tape that with electrical tape to the breast collar.  Put syringe into this holster.  Put a piece of tabbed electrical tape (or perhaps in the future, velcro?) across end and on sides of holster.  Holster filled with some water, but didn't affect the elytes.
==> worked like a charm!

Got to go, more later.