I suppose I should preface this post by saying that the “unwritten rules” segment below was meant to be taken lightly! It was simply a list of funny habits that I see often, not meant to belittle or make fun of any group in particular. I do apologize to anyone who I may have offended!
Now on to a more important topic: it was about this time last year when it started burning while I peed. I wish it was a joke! I started going often and getting some pretty serious pain during and after. I figured the best way to not go as often was to limit my intake of fluids. Surprise surprise, that made it worse. I took a trip to the doctors office and he did some pretty thorough questioning. It was my first winter spent in the northeast and I had been doing some long training hours outdoors. When it’s 20 degrees and wet outside you tend not to drink as much, at least in my case. When the doctor found out that I was going through about 20 oz of fluid every 2-2.5 hours he immediately determined that I was severely dehydrated.
It can sneak up on you if you live in the cold weather, since you’re losing most of your moisture through breathe and evaporation. These losses don’t make you as thirty but they do remove just as much water from your body as you would experience in hotter weather. I found it interesting that in Florida, when it was 95 degrees and humid, that I never had a problem with dehydration. I was drinking a bottle every 45 minutes or so.
So for those of you in the frozen tundra these days, remember to drink20-24 oz every hour on those rare occasions when you get to ride outside. Otherwise you may just feel the doctor’s cold finger of injustice on your insides.
