#25 - It felt great… untill I crashed
After just over a week of resting, the ING Cyclontrack event at the formula one circuit of Spa Francorhamps offered a great occasion to test my legs again. This time, the weather was much better than the last time. As you may remember from post 20, the weather was pretty horrible the first time. With temperatures in the high 20’s today, it was all a lot more inviting.
A porsche trackway the day after, makes for a nice collection on the paddock parking
I loaded the trike in the car, and drove there early. Since I have to fold the trike for the car, I wanted to have plenty of time to set things back up and have a chance to double check. This also gave me a chance to park close to the entrance, since there would be a lot more riders then last time too. In fact, there were so many riders that at times, it all felt a little crowded. On a 7 km track, that says something. I had to navigate the slower riders on the downhill much more then last time because of that. So no speed record this time. While peddling downhill in the highest gear, giving it my best, I
noticed some slight unbalance in the trike. Immediately I thought of two possible issues. A slightly off pressure in the tyres, or a bad tracking on the front wheels. Since it only happened when I was pushing myself to my limits, I decided to take it a little easier for the rest of the ride, and check the trike when I got home. It seems it had to be the tyres. They were just a pinch under pressure, and the tracking was pretty much perfect.
I planted the AZUB flag on top of the Raidillon once again today :-)
Riding a recumbent is different in many ways. There’s the obvious things such as riding position and visability, but the technical side of the bike is also different. The trike is built up using pretty standard bikeparts, but on a road bike, I’ve never encountered tracking issues for example. Two front wheels will give you that. To much toed in or out, may make the trike pretty much impossible to control. Or it may shave the front tires to an inch of their lives in a matter of hours. Especially on a racetrack like Spa, that could throw you a curveball. I noticed the tires got really clean really fast. There was some sand and dust on them when I started, but that was all gone in under a lap. Even deep in the grooves, the tires were as black as they could get. And then the penny dropped. The track surface is pretty rough. It has to provide much grip for the racecars. So it’s not a regular tarmac. It’s much grippyer by design. Grip means tiredegradation of course. So note to self: Never attempt a track ride on nearly done tyres.
Now I mentioned a crash. That actually didn’t happen on track. It happend when I was home safe and sound. My bloodpressure suddenly plummeted. So much so, that it became pretty scary. I started to feel dizzy, and all over my body, I got a tingling feeling. Then I started to sweat profoundly. It formed drops all over my skin. As quick as it started, it also went away again. I checked my bloodsugar levels. All good. Then my bloodpressure. 9,5 over 6,4… Wait… WHAT???
Even for me, that’s low. And that was AFTER I felt so bad. It could even have been lower a few minutes before. I started to rethink my day. Did I eat enough? I believe I did. Not much, but I’ve had less. And I never got hungry. Did I drink enough? Again, yes. Also during the ride, and after, I drank plenty. The only thing I haven’t really been monitoring, is the salt. Salt and other minerals are really important, and I know a shortage can really mess up your body. I have been eating protein bars during rides for a while now, but I never really considdered my minerals intake. I guess that will be high on the list now, especially with my rides becoming much more intensive. I’ll tell you more in future posts of course.
