It's A "whine"report.........

Weathergeek

Weathergeek

:rolleyes: Ok. So decided to head up and visit my "friend" Pat aka DICK on one of my weekends off and do some riding. The area near where he lives is in the Sierras and incredibly beautiful, so I was really looking forward to it. Generally when I ride with DICK, I know that he is gonna put me through my paces and extend/test my riding abilities which I look forward to. He knows what I can and cannot do.

So everything starts off great. We do some tight singletrack thru the forest and I do mean tight single track with changes in elevation both up and down. About an hour and a half in, I start to feel tired. At this point we had only done about 10 miles with the average speed around 10 mph. Now to this point, all of the single track is lose and either rocky or soft dirt littered with forest debris including plenty of switchbacks and constant sharp changes of direction. This all requires using much energy and I am burning thru my reserves quickly not really realizing it fully. At about mile 20, I also realize that I am about done. I tell the boys this and they tell me we are at the farthest point from the truck we have been all day.:eek: In any case, they try to arrange for an easier way back. As we are making our way back, I continue to deteriorate, get really sloppy and start to fall.:cripple: In fact climbing a small loose hill, I lose momentum, stall and fall backwards landing in a bush stuck, with my head facing downhill.:foul: Pat comes and pulls me out. Then the cramps start. Frustration sets in hard. My hand cramps shut from clutching and both legs completely cramp both in places I have had cramps before (calfs) and in all small muscles that I have never cramped before including my entire upper legs and triceps.:rant::foul: I manage to pull myself out and up the trail to get to the fire road to start to head down. Problem is, even though the riding is easy at this point, we have to climb to get to the fire road, and I am still dealing with off and on cramps all over. Finally we get to the fire road and start to head down. I am holding on as gingerly as I can, because every leg raise to change gears or brake, brings another round of cramps. We crawl down to the trucks (another half hour), and finally arrive. I never ever have been so happy to see the trucks. We change clothes, load up, sit a bit and then head home. These stupid cramps last the next 5+ hours off and on to go with upset stomach, shakiness and overall weakness.:crazy: Pat and his family are great hosts and do what they can to take care of me. I get so irritated by the cramps that I google "cramp relief" and see something about drinking pickle juice. I try it, and it helps quite a bit. We have dinner and go to bed.

Now those that know me pretty well, know I like to eat and drink, especially after a good ride with friends. I tried to choke down a cocktail and that didn't work. Only managed to get thru about half my meal. Bottom line is that I overdid it, which included probably getting heat stress. All of this coming from not riding hard like this for a while. Funny thing is that it was not overly hard just incredibly taxing on that lose singletrack up in the elevation.

So there it is, let the thrashing begin.:D I do want to thank Pat, his family and Adam, Slowerthanu (:lol: :rolleyes:) nice name too:moon: , for taking me and putting up with me Saturday. Last thing is I had over 120 ounces of fluid while I was riding too. Go figure.
 
CDA

CDA

Great report Geek:thumb: I will be heading up there in a couple weeks, anything I can do while riding with our DICK friend that will make you feel better? :devil: oh yeah slowerthanu is a great name for him..:lol:
 
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