Plans

We started our second week of Insanity (first workout yesterday). Like I said before, I'm not really interested in losing weight and am honestly a bit concerned about how losing some weight would impact my longer distance riding but I can always increase my ice cream consumption this spring if a problem arises. So far my weight is the exact same but I have lost an inch in the belly but my beer consumption has also not been the same since we started (except for Saturday night which we're not going to talk about that or the whiskey that seeped out of my pores during last nights workout). I am now cleansed. 

The biggest thing I'm seeing from these workouts so far is the increased cardio. Normally I ride a 32x20 gear and on Saturday I was hardly breathing so that's nice. I'll order up a 19 and slowly step it up. 

This workout will last another 50 days and then I will have about 2 months to get ready for a ride that I have been wanting to do for a few years now but it just never worked out. I've been spending a lot of time lately, pouring over other folks' trip reports and thinking about the water availability as that's what's concerning me the most. This will be a cool summer because it's the first one in years where I won't be all consumed with riding to Durango and I'm super excited to move on to other things. 

Along with studying maps and trip reports, I have also been thinking about an issue that I had that was really an noticeable around Silverton this past summer. The issue involved serious swelling in my legs, knees, ankles and feet as well as in my face. I'm assuming that some of it was just over use and maybe some was due to diet or electrolytes but I do not know. This picture is in Waterton Canyon. It's not a detailed picture but every thing was fine. 

This is 400 miles later in Silverton. I believe that part of the issue with my face was due to the sleeping disorder. Even at home, when I don't use my machine Heather notices swelling around my eyes but this was really bad. My face felt tight.

My feet were really bad. Every time I stepped, my thighs and knees would giggle. They felt very tight and range of motion was very limited to where I could not bend down so that my calves would touch the backs of my thighs. Couldn't even get close before things just stopped.

This was in the hotel in Durango. Really bad picture but this is where Heather started cutting things like socks off because she couldn't remove them and I was way too out of it to help.

Can anyone help with what might have been going on with my body? Was it over use? Were my cells retaining water because of electrolyte/salt issues and this is just where I noticed it the most? I probably should have had blood work done right when I got back home to see if it would reveal anything but I didn't. This is just something I'm thinking more and more about as I research this other route. It is not anything like CTR and I won't be bringing much at all and don't anticipate that this will be an issue but just wonder. I know Mary Collier had what looked to be similar issues during her TD ride. I need to track her down.