Lots of lessons

I just got home from an overnighter on the Colorado Trail. I started in Denver where the trail begins on 7/3 at noon. I felt really good through Segments 1 and 2. Segment 3 took longer than it should have. At the end of 3, I started chipping away at the mandatory detour around the Lost Creek Wilderness. Wellington Lake might be 5 miles into the detour and it was a good spot to wash up and eat some food and relax a bit. I was there for probably 25 minutes before I got moving again. I got about 10 miles further (for those that know...just after the fire road starts to climb up after the buffalo ranch) and the skies looked an eary shade of black. This isn't good when you're terrified of lightning. I watched the clouds for 5 minutes. Never saw lightning or even heard thunder. This area is in the heart of the Hayman Fire burn area so there's not much there for cover. I really wanted to get through the burn area so I wouldn't have to deal with it in the heat of the day. 2 minutes after I started pedaling a wicked bolt of lightning fired off and the pucker factor went through the roof. I spotted a small grove of pines that somehow survived the fire and made a bee-line for them. This was right at 9 p.m. I made camp and crawled in my bag and watched the sky light up.
I was disappointed but I finally dozed off. I woke up to a large pack of coyotes howling at 2 a.m. I've heard a lot of coyotes during the night but even I was shocked at how large this pack sounded. I hoped they weren't heading my way. The stars were out and I considered riding but I really wanted to sleep. I slept even worse than last week when I tried my sleeping system in the back yard. The issue I'm having is that I'm cold. No...make that freezing. Those that know me know that I'm never cold. I really need to figure things out or I'm gonna be in huge trouble. I intended on being on the move at 5:30 a.m. but when I woke up I was so tired and agitated that I didn't. At 7 a.m., the sun felt so good that I just laid there getting warm. I finally got moving at 9. I can't be moving that late.
All in all, I rode 80 miles in a 24 hour period. The majority of those miles were singletrack. The ride totaled 10,217' of gain. I'm not real thrilled about this but I don't know that it's all that bad. I definitely didn't stick to my ride plan, and I wasn't as religeous with my nutrition plan as I have been and I feel it. Professionals watch their diet and recovery periods with great detail. I used to think it was a bit silly but in reality, there are far more factors involved with just nutrition than most would think and even I thought until I slowly put 2 and 2 together today. I opted to use iodine tablets for water purification but that was an issue as well. The 2 bottles that I carry are for liquid meals and recovery drinks. Keeping those clean after I'm done with the bottle was a big issue. I can't just wash them in a creek and then re-use them. I need to address the sleeping problem and the water purification one as well. I also need to do what I know works for my body and not be an idiot.