A Cautionary Word

Part of the #DecGTD challenge is tracking water consumption. Water consumption is important to me -- mainly because of all the other crap that people drink (water, soda, diet soda, juices, etc.).  I'm a firm believer that pure, unadulterated WATER is the only "DIET" drink you need (in other words, it compliments a well-balanced diet).

HOWEVER.... I found myself wrapped up in a little bit of a Twitter mini competition as to who could drink the most.  For the most part I'd encourage this type of playfulness.... except for a very sad occasion in my life:

District Officer Dies After Bike Ride
Over-Hydration Cited as FactorThursday, August 11, 2005 

A highly honored 25-year-old D.C. police officer died yesterday after he apparently drank too much water Tuesday while training to use a bicycle on patrol, police officials said.

Doctors believe that hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance caused by drinking excessive amounts of fluid, most likely caused or contributed to the death of Officer James C. McBride, police officials said. McBride consumed as much as three gallons of water during and after the 12-mile training ride Tuesday morning, police said.

I know no one has approached the 384 ounces that Jim is rumored to have drank. I know not everyone is doing a rigorous biking course in the middle of the summer.  But I do know there's a fine line between being okay and overdoing it.

He had a 3-liter Camelback pack.  The day he told me about it, I warned him to cut his water with Gatorade or Pedialyte -- passing on the advice that two former boyfriends (and long-distance cyclists) had shared with me.  They told me it was important -- because if they only drank water and didn't replace the salts in their body their body could shut down.

Jim ignored my advice.  To this day I regret that I didn't make him hear me and heed me.  Because of this the world is less one of its champions and I lost one of the best friends I've ever had the privilege of knowing.

His last blog post (on what was my 24th birthday):

So today was my first of five days in mountain bike school.

It hurt.

It was hard.

It was full of rain, mud, scapes, crashes, bumps, brusies, sun burn, and pain.

And it was a damn lot of fun.

The first thing we did was the usual administrative nonsense (sign this, write that, read this, agree to A B and C etc.), then we learned how to work and do basic maintenance on our Smith and Wesson bikes. Then we went riding. We tackled small hills (and at the beginning, before I figured out how the gears work, I couldn't do even small hills), then long rides, then hills again. Hills suck, but the long rides were fun. I believe I drank over 7 liters of water all told... and I was still wanting for more towards the last half of the ride (Monica you thought the 3 liter camelback was to big!)

After my initial gear working issues I def kept pace with the group. They tell you when you start the class that its all mental... and it is. I refuse to fail, and so far I've been doing well. Will power and gel pads. I'm not sure when gel pads became the rage, but I found shorts with gel pads and gloves with gel pads, both of which def helped with my overall post-class comfort.

Tomorrow: Big hills.