Gear: water bottle

One decision I made decades ago but didn't explicitly share here was how much plastic tasting water is nasty. Plastic water bottles were one of the first bicycle specific accessories I bought as a young rider. I was not a big drinker of the water but I liked to make sure I had it out on the road. I was a minimalist in gear on the road until I needed something and got stuck. Warm plastic tasting water and a tube repair kit were essentials even before I got a helmet.

After getting the water bottle I got a frame holder for it. Before the frame holder I carried the water bottle in a bag on my back. I tried putting ice in the bottle but the water turned warm pretty quickly. I stopped using the water bottle because it just tasted nasty, especially when warm. I did shorter rides. Eventually I got enough regular income that I upgraded to an insulated plastic water bottle. I bought a few of these and spent time adding ice to cold water but it still didn't last too long. I found a solution to the bad taste of plastic bottles finally about 10 years ago. I now use stainless steel water bottles.

Electrolytes

As I struggled to recover from minor injuries I considered options for recovery and enhancing performance. I can barely keep hydrated so anything including getting enough fluids is an enhancement. I have not been disciplined about stretching either but I don't see this as a deal to help this situation. Hydration and electrolytes are definitely options that could help me. Here in the tropics I pour sweat like never before. For over a year it didn't impede my riding performance. I always avoided the hottest, sunniest part of the day. That seemed to work, but in combination with injury recovery I felt I needed to try some of the options I knew were low hanging fruit. So I tried electrolytes and hydrated a little better than I have in the past. Since the injuries have ceased to hinder me the only things holding me back were bad habits and the need for electrolytes since I sweat so much here. This improvement in my strategy seems to be making a difference. Two days ago I struggled and napped after the same bike ride. Today I feel stronger afterwards. I really sprinted a few times during my 22 mile bike ride. Another statistic was my elevation climb of 1890 feet for the ride. There's one stretch where the climb is 11%! Down that slope I reached 42 mph even without pedaling. I'm using a couple of phone apps to add some dimension to my portrayal of my experience. I have an app that measures my distance, elevation and various speed parameters called Runtastic. The slope measurement is done with Angle meter app. I've just begun using them and it's great to have. No need to buy a GPS or speedometer. I hope to use the history feature on the Runtastic app to see my cumulative progress.