Obviously I'm Not Getting Into Shape as Quickly as I Had Hoped

I've been back on the bike for a couple of weeks, but until yesterday hadn't done more than about 10 or 12 miles in a day. Yesterday, I decided to ride (with the bike in "campaignmobile" mode) to Bronson for the Florida Freedom Group's courthouse "Florida Harvest" rally. They -- we, now -- are circulating petitions for a ballot measure that "guarantees the right of persons over twenty-one years of age to possess, use, and cultivate cannabis."

The distance from my house to Bronson is 15 miles, give or take. I left in the morning and had a fairly easy ride going out. I made my usual stop to revere Bo Diddley's grave on the way into town, then proceeded to the rally location. Very nice event. In addition to signing the petition myself and bringing a stack home to collect signatures on, I did what I could to help Jodi James and Alex Snitker with the event. Here's a shot Alex took of me in my loud "please notice me and don't hit me, cars" riding gear with the campaignmobile:

Coming back home was kind of a disaster. I realized a couple of miles out of Bronson that I was getting dehydrated and hadn't brought enough water with me. Rookie mistake. I drank a bunch of water in Bronson and had a full water bottle when I left, but had obviously neither consumed nor brought enough. When I rode to Bronson, the temperature was in the low 60s and it wasn't obvious that I wasn't drinking enough. Coming back, it was in the mid-80s and I started feeling not well at all.

To keep it short and sweet, I ended up walking more than riding the 15 miles home, and taking two long rest stops on the way because I was literally seeing spots, going blind for a few seconds at a time, and occasionally nearly falling over. Fortunately there's a town (Archer) 2/3 of the way home and I was able to buy water to hydrate and a little candy to get my (unusually low, especially for a diabetic) blood sugar back up.

The trip to Bronson took less than two hours, stops included. The trip back from Bronson took about five hours. And 24 hours later, I'm still not anywhere near 100%. Dehydration and heat exhaustion. The cure to the former is "drink a lot of water," and I am. The cure to the latter is "rest," and I'm trying to do that too. I have another event to attend tomorrow, and there's a good chance between the exhaustion and a flat bike tire that I won't be cycling to it.

Bit off more than I could chew. But except for that hell-ride home, it was indeed a good and worthwhile time.