Sweating and Owl's Head views...

Saturday, July 6, 2013

“I’m telling you we had a sweating competition and I lost about 8 pounds in an hour of running on a hot, humid summer day,” I said to Savannah and Jack.

They weren’t buying it.  No one, they were quite sure, could lose that much weight that quickly.  I assured them it was not only possible, but that I’d done it more than once.  “Every time I compete in some long event, like the Iron Man, a marathon or even while climbing all day in the Adirondacks, I sweat too much and get some symptoms of heat illness.  You’ve seen me soaking through my clothes, Savannah…you know what I’m talking about.”

I couldn’t convince them, but I knew.  I was heading out on the bike, which doesn’t cause me to drop water like running, but something at which I still sweat plenty, so I weighed in before leaving just to prove a point.

It wasn’t uncomfortably hot, but the humidity was around 90%.  I started out wondering if it would be another sluggish day or if my training would start kicking in.  It was the latter and I felt pretty strong throughout the two-hour ride.  When I returned home, I grabbed the yard tools and began pulling weeds, edging and trimming before getting the hand mower and doing the parts the tractor wouldn’t reach.  Sweat continued to pour from my body, though I was replacing fluids with Lipton Tea, water and Gatorade.

After a cleansing swim, I went inside to change when I remembered to weigh myself.  I hopped on the scale to find I was 6 pounds lighter than I’d been when the day had started.  Considering I’d drank over 4 pounds of fluids throughout the day, it was a very significant weight loss and indicator that I still had a long way to go in the rehydrating process.  Amazingly, I hadn’t had a cramp all day.

I received a picture message from Eric from atop Owl’s Head Mt. in the Adirondacks.  He’d been hiking with a group that included someone not up to the challenge of Mt. Van Hoevenberg, but the views were still spectacular and he and his daughter were in love with the hiking and kayaking so plentiful in the area.  I wrote back only ‘I knew you’d love it’ because, as everyone who travels to that area does, they did.

Bike duration:  Two hours and 10 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  850.