Feeling the Heat

"Horses sweat, men perspire, children glow, and ladies feel the heat." - anonymous

Sunday afternoon was the hottest day of the summer, so far. I'd been out for a few 25-30 mile rides during the week before, so after going out for espresso and pastry in the morning, I decided to set up my bike repair stand in the parking space behind my apartment and spend the afternoon cleaning my bikes instead of riding. I worked from about noon until three or three-thirty in full sun, surrounded by black-top pavement, but it was breezy enough that I never felt especially warm, until just about the time I was finishing up, when I suddenly felt sweaty and flushed with heat. I was starting to have some back pain, and my bad left leg was hurting after being on my feet for more than three hours without a break. I'd been drinking a big iced americano coffee, and when I lifted my bike down from the rack I felt very full of fluid and needed to pee urgently, but when I went to the bathroom I couldn't. I took a cool shower and started drinking ice water, but my lower back, neck and shoulders were painfully tense. About twice an hour I felt the need to pee, but only produced a burning trickle of urine. I decided that was just from nerves, but I was feeling worse every time, so I put a cold pack on my neck and back and lay down on the floor to nap in front of my electric fan for a couple of hours. I wasn't sunburned at all, despite spending  three hours in the afternoon sun.

When I woke up I felt a bit better and ate a little bland dinner - teriyaki chicken and vegetables with rice - but still couldn't urinate much despite drinking quarts of water. I sat up reading for a few hours and went to bed around eleven. By that time I was having chills, though my apartment still felt warm, and I slept rolled up in a sheet and shivering, curled up in a painfully tense fetal position. But all the water I'd been drinking finally started working through my system, so I had to get up at least once an hour to go to the bathroom and didn't get much sleep.

Monday morning I was up early, still feeling stiff and sore and exhausted, and did some very easy yoga exercises. I switched to drinking Vitamin Water or Powerade instead of plain water, and ate salty nuts and buttered toast. I went out to do a few errands by bus, but by mid-morning I was so sleepy and confused that I went home and spent most of the rest of day napping.

Tuesday morning, and I'm up early again, which is a nice habit I'd like to keep. And I really need to get my caffeine habit under control. I'm not sure whether I was suffering from dehydration, heat exhaustion or heat stroke, or what. The temperature on Sunday was not much above ninety, but I spent the hottest part of the afternoon in a hot parking lot, and I probably wasn't too conscientious about proper hydration and diet during the week before, so the heat snuck up on me.