Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Dear Bruce--

 

  Having read your Tevis ride story, and knowing that the Tevis in not the normal ride, I do hope that you are still planning to "keep trying" so that in 2007 or maybe 2008, Joni and myself can benefit from your "non-finishing Tevis experiences."  :)

 I would hope that you will be willing to guide us through the ride, and tell us "Don't do this, or you better do that" so that maybe we can all finish.

Yes, you're right about the brain controlling all those functions and decisions....maybe that is why I have done some of the things that I have done in the last...oh, 40 years.  Not because my mother dropped me on my head...which she did, but because I have been functioning at a less than normal level of hydration (and no telling what else).

 

 I like that....It can be my new moto. "I do stupid stuff, because I am dehydrated."

Do you think that AERC will let me sign up as a mentor....knowing this?

 

Jody and her dry-out brain. :))

 

 

Bruce Weary DC <bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear Jody--
> I think God must have made you and Joni out of leather, beef jerky and 
> barbed wire. I'm not nearly as tough as you are, so I err to the side of 
> caution and prudence when I do rides as far as keeping myself fueled and 
> hydrated for many reasons. What I didn't mention in my recent posting 
> about my first Tevis experience was that my dehydration level had become 
> close to life threatening. I had gotten to the point where I would drink 
> an entire water bottle at once, and in two to three minutes would have 
> to urinate the same amount. My body would no longer hold water, as my 
> electrolyte
>  concentration was so low. This is one step away from renal 
> failure. The brain runs on glucose, water and electrolytes.The brain is 
> not only responsible for running the body systems, but many of us use it 
> to make decisions. In a difficult undertaking such as Tevis, I need all 
> my faculties to get through the day, since my life and that of my horse 
> may depend on it. These are my main reasons for taking care of my body 
> systems during a ride. Heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, 
> nausea,and dysequilibrium are all very real threats on a difficult, hot 
> ride. I had to hike both canyons at Tevis last year, and though I had 
> trained to do one canyon, I hadn't trained for two. My horse was running 
> out of gas, and I had to get him to Michigan Bluff without him having to 
> carry me. When you're down at the bottom of that hot, humid canyon and 
> it's straight up for three miles, it's hard to get yourself out on an 
> empty tank. We made it to
>  Michigan, he ate and drank and came alive, and 
> I must have looked like the runner up in a prize fight. Since I had 
> taken care of myself all day, I recovered quickly. I hate to think of 
> the outcome if I hadn't.
> Shifting from "recreation mode" to "survival mode" is stressful and 
> scary, and I think sometimes the shift might be delayed because we might 
> not recognize early on that we could be getting into trouble. I mean I'm 
> here to have fun, right?
> Of course there are people who, no matter how much food, fluids or 
> electrolytes you give them, their brains don't work right. They're 
> better off just staying in politics. Bruce Weary
>
>
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