Allergy plus Grit equals Stingy Nettles and a Swollen Throat
Yesterday I went out with Sam from Urban Cyclery and Nick from Exist Skatepark, it was chaos.
I popped a sachet of energy/electrolyte powder into my water bottle and we headed straight for one of my favourite climbs. I rode up it with no more or less effort than normal but I felt a bit of a headache coming on which I assumed was due to the muggy weather. We descended down into the valley and as soon as we hit the next climb I felt like hell, my head was pounding, I was sweating pints, I was huffing and puffing like a big bad wolf and I lost sight of the guys.
By the time I got to the top they had turned around to come and look for me, it was at this point that I thought there might be something up with this energy drink, I put it down to the sugar and we headed towards Ammanford where I planned to get a bottle of water to replace it with.
On the way down I was feeling all light-headed and managed to over-shoot a bend and skidded right into a bush full of stingy nettles and brambles! I am blessed with the reflexes and balance of a panther so I managed to unclip and stay upright and only got stung all over my legs, I hauled myself out of the mess and we headed towards a petrol station.
I came out with a big bottle of water and Sam noticed that all round my mouth had gone red, I was definitely allergic to this powder. We had planned to ride back up and over the same mountain using a different road but right away I felt my throat swelling up and I was struggling to breathe properly so instead we took the easy way home.
I think if I hadn’t stopped drinking the energy/electrolyte stuff as soon as I did and hadn’t drunk a lot of water I could have gone into a full blown anaphylactic shock and ended up in the hospital. I’ve never used an energy drink before and won’t be using one again, I only wanted it for the electrolytes anyway!
On the final stretch we took a short cut and I managed to hit the thickest block of mud on earth, one day after cleaning my bike, bloody typical! We stopped at a petrol station again and I hosed my baby down then went home. The End.
