Fuel and hydration for the rider

[ISummit7]

I’m wondering about the importance of fueling the rider, I know we talk in depth about the “correct fuel” for our motorcycles, but I’m curious about how rider’s fuel themselves for their sport.

We ride on challenging terrain, we use intrinsic and extrinsic muscles that require cat like reflex’s, we deal with cold/warm weather affecting our cognitive skills, we ride dangerous terrain, challenged by other rider’s ,cars, wildlife etc… that can deplete our “fuel” levels quite quickly. We are affected by environment, noise, weather, terrain, our personal emotional state, and personal skill levels, and many other factors, but do we check in with our own personal “internal gauges” to view our fluid and fuel levels?

Without thinking about our own gauges - we put poor “high octane” fuel not prescribed for our specific body types. We drink Red bull, and eat Doritos and Cheezi ‘s and expect our bodies to perform at optimum performance, we eat chips and hamburgers and expect our energy and skill level to take us up logging roads, over creek beds, and steep terrain, yet we fuel ourselves poorly, expecting amazing results. We wonder why we get tired and we cannot go further, and then possibly get ourselves injured in the process.

We line up at Starbucks having coffee or latte’s to get our fatigue levels stimulated in order to last a few more hours, we don’t drink water (our primary hydrant) instead putting bad fluids in our body and expecting our energy levels to keep us in going until the day ends.

We wonder why we sleep poorly, or wake up fatigued. We take the time to check our motorcycles fluids and fuel levels and top them off, yet we simply do not correspond the need to do this within our own selves. And we begin another day with a poor breakfast purchased at MacDonald’s or another fast food outlet, and repeat the process over again.

I question our need to put the “bikes” needs first, - and the rider’s personal needs second.
To ride more effectively I’m going to put myself first and take time to fuel myself more efficiently and hydrate regularly in order that I ride longer, with improved stability, efficiency, and to feel good at the end of the day. I’m going to bring my own food, not food from boxes, and pack a solid fuel base of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and water to effectively hydrate myself. UPON completing of my personal gauge and fill ups - I’ll do a check up on the motorcycles fluids and fuels.

Today I'm starting a personal challenge to myself to be better aware of fueling and topping off my “internal gauges”.
I’m going to start with a nice cold glass of water! Vroooooooooom!!!!

[offworlder]

Excellent ! Health/hydration is an absolutely critical means of being at your best, and all to often overlooked. Healthy fuel and lots of water folks - you'll thank yourself for it !
Here's a basic formula regarding MINIMUM daily water requirements:
- take your body weight and divide by 2 (half), and (without taking any others factors in, ie: stress, temperature, etc... which would make your daily water requirements increase) you'll have the minimal amount amount of water that you require daily in ounces. So, (using metric values) if you way 80kgs, you'll need (at least) 2.6 litres of water daily !