Midtown-->Parkville-->Weston-->Parkville-->hospital

So this last Saturday I hosted a DK training ride leaving from the Crossroads KC traveling to Weston, MO and back using some ultra sneakiness and back road goodness. This ended up being a hell of a test, that's for sure.

First off, my bike set-up, cause it's sexy...My Jamis Team 29er carbon frame, white bros rock solid carbon fork, bontrager race lite front wheel and 2.25 team tire tubeless, stans arch on chub SS hub rear wheel with 2.0 geax barro race tire tubeless. Stylo cranks and flat bars. Sram 8 spd. chain shortened to length, avid elixir R brakes, ergon grips. Ritchey stem, WCS saddle and WCS bar ends. FSA 42 tooth front ring. White industries 20 tooth rear cog. VElocity bottle cages and Seat rail bottle add-ons (for 3 bottles on my bike total), crappy seat bag, crappy feed box. This set up is right over 17 lbs...absolutely unreal and super plush with about 45 PSI.

I left my house to ride down to Volker 18 to kick this thing off. 4 other brave souls decided to come join the fun and we were off a quarter after nine am. We rode down SW blvd, jump by some railroad tracks, then rode around by Kemper, hiked a little through a homeless camp under a bridge, rode sneaky levee, rode through a couple businesses, Riverfront trail in Berkley Park, more sneaky levee after Isle of Capri, cross Choteau, go behind Harrahs, more sneaky levee, hella hard grass riding for 1/2+ mile, sneaky gravel road hidden by downtown airport, loop around, then more sneaky train track gravel, hwy 9 to argosy. This was the first stop...we were already over 30 miles at this point. Water, little rest and we were off again to hit more levee to Parkville. Took a B-road through a field, anhydrous ammonia, yummy. little counrty road to Waldron, more levee, then up to Farley, where we started to get hills finally. LIterally the second hill we hit I cramped bad, this was probably around mile 55-60. Ended up riding up to Weston still and chilled for a bit there while the other guys got subway and john from parisi chilled with me since I was not doing so hot. I ended up opting for paved highway back to waldron from weston, even though it didn't cut off any mileage, it did cut out some hills since by then I was walking anything with any type of incline. John stayed with me until Farley then I told him he could go ahead since he had to get back for dinner with his wife. The other 3 guys rolled into Farley about the same time from the backroads and we set off again splitting up after crossing the platte river again (i stayed on hwy, they went to climb more gravel)..Got back to waldron and I was really really hurting. By now I'm sitting at about 95 miles, whole body cramping, water wasn't working, hammer espresso gel no good, clif bars and block shots nada, electrolite pills no dice. It was now about 5 pm and that day I had consumed 220 oz of water, 3 cliff bars, 1 boomi bar, 3 bananas, 4 electrolite pills, 18 cliff shot blocks (3 packages), a flask of hammer espresso gel, and a package of hostess mini brownies. It took me 1 hour and 48 minutes to get the 6 miles from Waldron back to Parkville, where I went immediately to English LAnding park and a huge Oak tree. By then I knew stuff wasn't going well. I tried texting and calling a few people, but didn't really let anyone know how bad off I was, cause honsetly I had no idea...I was in fucking lala land bad, seeing double, hallucinating, cold flashes, hot flashes, throwing up. After throwing up for I think the 2 or 3 time, I passed out and woke up with a bike cop standing over me asking if I was alright. I remember that I coherently and very calmly told him that I was "not ok, think I'm having a heat stroke, please call an ambulance" I think I passed out again cause I next thing I know there are 3 firefighters on my putting O2 in me and taking my vitals. I heard one of the dudes say my heart rate was 99 and that snapped my shit up real quick. I told them my resting heart rate is usually 38-40. They asked how long I had been there, I told them since about 6:45-7:00...about 1.5 hours ago they said. Heart rate was extremely high, blood pressure was disgustingly bad, initial o2 level was at 92% and body temp at 100*+, not great for an endurance athlete. Throughout this time my legs and core are completely locked up...it was like I was flexing every muscle below my nipples but of course I wasn't. Paramedics IV me right there on the ground to start fluids in me then they have to lift my ass up on to the stretcher cause I can't move from the cramping. Go to north KC hospital...get 4.5 litres of IV fluids total. Blood work showed that I was super dehydrated (duh), that my electrolite levels were suprisingly good (???), but that my kidney's were about halfway to shutdown from my body overheating so badly. Basically the doctor told me that my body was way too hot and that my kidney's weren't processing the liquids that I was feeding my self (the 220 oz of water) and that's another reason I threw a lot of it up once I stopped, I had H2O just chilling in the stomach not going anywhere cause my insides were too hot. Wacky to say the least.

I want to thank a few people first before going on any more in this post...the 4 guys that rode with me, thank you for keeping me sane until Waldron, and sorry for holding you back most of the day. The ladies that gave me some papaya, pineapple and a hamburger when I got to parkville and they saw I was cramping real badly...I ended up throwing all of it up I'm sure, but it had to help is some way (I'm pretty sure these are the same people who found that bike cop as well), the Parkville FD and PD, and KCMO paramedic unit, the hot nurses at North KC Hospital and my good friend's boyfriend for picking me up at the hospital at 1 am, taking me back to parkville to get all my shit, then taking me home. Dude you rock. and "momma" madam for keeping me halfway sane while I was in the park on the phone trying to figure out where and who I was.

so, it was a great dk test, that's for damn sure. Prehydration game is gonna change big time...I'm upping water/gatorade intake to at least 1.5 gallons a day, everyday. More protein on the bike too after 2 hours...doc said another reason I was cramping was because my body was starting to feed of my muscles...not good. Perpetum and hamburgers are in my future nutrition plans for 4+ hour rides (dead serious about the hamburgers). This has been a huge wake up call for my overall "training and nutrition" regimine...mainly that I'd never had any sort of plan or guideline before, and that shit has to change if I'm gonna keep doing these long rides I love so much. This week is chilling, letting the kidneys and body recharge, and probably try to hit a metric century this weekend before hitting hard hill training next week. I have never been a good climber, and that shit needs to change too. Maybe it's time to grow up a little...fuck.

peace and riding!!!