I just meant that I was so tired I couldn’t UPD to my feet, that I fell all the way down… and in so doing, scraped my leg on a rock through one of the very few places my leg armor didn’t cover. So I ended up with a bit of a bloody scrape with a nice bruise… I also bruised the heal of my hand good through my gloves…
Keld
I see … I was thrown off when you said “lucky”. My inferencing skills failed me here. You bruised the heal of your hand THROUGH your gloves?! OUCH.
Not being able to land on your feet due to tiredness or numbness is scary. I’m sure you tried to make your legs listen ALL the way down. 
Hope you are feeling better and able to do the next trip.
On the plus side you now know what it feels like to run low on electrolytes. Now that you know what the early stages feel like you can catch it early and take in some electrolytes before it gets as bad as it did this time.
I’ve found that I need more electrolytes than most people doing the same ride. I sweat out a lot of salt and it seems my body just processes or balances the electrolytes differently. So I need more to keep things in balance.
I carry Lava Salts with me. On a hot ride I’ll take a Lava Salt every 30 or 45 minutes. When I finish the ride I look like a salt lick. I use just plain water in the hydration pack.
When the electrolytes get low the first thing I tend to notice is that my muscle reaction times get slower and that I’ll UPD on little things that normally wouldn’t trip me up. Fueling up with some electrolytes gets me feeling better in short order. I’ve never had it get so bad that I got severe cramps.
A lot of foods have lowered the amount of sodium that are in them. Even some energy bar type foods have lowered the amount of sodium. So check the labels. Some are actually advertising that they have additional sodium and electrolytes. If you’re relying on “real food” make sure that it has electrolytes in it or plan on taking additional Lava Salts to make up for that.
I can find Lava Salts (and some other electrolyte tablets) at a local runner and triathlete oriented store in Seattle. Otherwise you can get that stuff from the web.
Hello Keld, Terrific write up, good lessons, successful ride. Glad your both fine, Thank you for listing the story.
Same here.
At Moab, for the Sunday ride, I came back so sweaty. Once I took a shower and the water hit my head, and ran down my face, my eyes just stung. I never knew that I salted that much. lol
Know, on any long hot rides, Muni or Coker, I brink plenty of salt pills and those electrolyte packages you add into water to pretty much make it like a sports drink.
Helps keep me going on the 10-12 hour long rides I have done.
Excellent writeup.
I am one of those unlucky souls to be in the photo album which John linked to. Corbin and I aren’t wearing shirts out of hubris, so much as it was just that hot. Well, maybe not.
Downieville is one of the only rides I’ve ever done to just completely drain me. Drain as in can’t walk, can’t open eyes, hardly speak, just lay down and vegetate drain. The last time I did Downieville (the same ride as above), I ran out of water about 6 miles from the end. That is an entire 100oz camelback with another 16oz gatorade. Downieville is a nasty 16 miles. Not super technical though, which means if you have the endurance (which it sounds like you will soon), it is a blast. Just bring lots of food, and LOTS of water.
I bring bars and water on my rides. I almost always bring about 90oz of water and 3 cliff bars, however lately I’ve been disgusted by the bars, so I think I’m going to move to real food as Nathan has. I almost always get a rather bad headache at the end of long rides, so I’ve been thinking of trying lava salts or something similar. They sound like they might be just the ticket, since honestly, it’s that damnable headache that stops me more than anything.
Good luck, and feel free to join us on some rides. If you can do that 12 miles, you should be fine with us on nearly any ride. I have almost never gone more than a mile or two without taking a sit-down break on a group muni ride. I pray that will never change.