dehydration + fatigue = crash

I haven't wanted to write this post for a few days, but here goes.

I crashed......again.....

Same thing, hit a pothole, the wheel turned and I went down. I actually bounced this time! I actually heard the sound of the bike bouncing off of the road and I was sure that my precious carbon fiber frames shattered. I just KNEW it. Well once the numbness wore off on me and I was sure I didn't break anything, I scooped my bike up and inspected it. The right hood was totally bent in, but other than a chain that fell off, I could shift with the bent hood and break perfectly fine. The front wheel was a little untrue, but when I undid the front break I could ride fine on it.

So leading up to the crash, I was supposed to do a 3 hour ride on hills. I accomplished the hills bit, but very slow. This was another ride that I just couldn't get my body out of 2nd gear. I knew I had the strength to stand up and pound up some hills, but my body just wouldn't go. So I thought:

Is it because I have been working out so much and not resting properly?
Is it because of the increase volume and intensity of the past week?
Is it this gatorade that I am drinking?
Is it too hot out?

then I realized that I am not sweating like I should be on a day this hot and remembered that peeing was not a frequent event in the past 24-48 hours.

Ah yes, DEHYDRATION! Not in a I am going to die kind of way, but surely enough that I was not riding at my full potential. And even though I was drinking like a mad man on the ride, it was too late. I remember Lance Armstrong saying after his 2003 time trial in the Tour De France when lost over a minute to Jan Ullrich that he wasn't just dehydrated that day, his dehydration started days before. Same thing for, and boy did my performance suffer.

So I had nothing but mental garbage on my mind for the entire ride and to add salt to a wound (that I was yet to receive) without paying attention on a flat straight and smoothly paved road that I have ridden on literally 100's of times, I hit the tiniest pothole in the road and I go down.

BANG!