Just a few little things I've learned.

- You can't force fitness.  It takes time, multiple years to really get legs, especially as it gets hot.  It affects everyone
- Make sure you eat enough.  You say you are losing weight, but make sure you aren't losing it too fast.  If you don't have enough food to repair your body and store fuel you are starting on an empty tank.
- The single most impactful thing I started doing was downing an electrolyte drink 30 minutes before the ride.  It ensures you drink enough early.
- Try to eat approximiately 1.5 - 2 hours before the ride.
- Make sure to eat while riding.  I like chews, bananas, waffles, and gels if I have to.
- Make sure to drink on the ride.  I load two water bottles with a low concentrate electrolyte mix.  Skratch labs is my favorite.
- Lay off the alcohol, especially red wine.
- Optionally drink a recovery drink.  vega sport recovery accelerator seems to work for me.
- Take some time off.  Your form is based on your fitness minus your fatigue.  It could be your legs are fatigued and you should do something else for a couple of weeks
- warm up
- get better sleep.  most recovery happens while sleeping
- massage / leg rollers
- ride longer at lower intensities.  You just may not have enough of a base yet
- do some different type of riding.  road riding is great for building a base and could be enough of a switch to get you going

Like I said, you can't force fitness.  You have to be patient.

Anytime I ride over 2.5 hours I have to do some serious eating and drinking if I'm going to do it again the next day. One thing that helps me is to make sure a drink a 22 oz bottle of Scratch labs  a couple of hours after the ride to rehydrate. Re Hydration is my greatest enemy since I too struggle with the heat.  Hard efforts can burn 700/900 calories a hour. You need to try to put a little of that back in too. You can't just live on recovery drinks, it just ain't enough. Sometimes, like today, I have to cave in and say I have had enough heat exposure and take some time off.

How long are your rides?

I did not stay at a holiday inn express last night, but it sounds heat related to me. When it gets as hot as it has been lately you have to back off or go shorter. (100 degree days are not for setting PR's) And drinking a bunch of water during the ride won't keep up, you really need to be drinking in advance, during, and after. This is where I am going to shamelessly plug Nuun Hydration tablets, works for me.. And recovery will take longer after riding on these really hot days. 

   Everyone is different on what they need and unfortunately it can be a painful process to learn what your body wants.

Lot's of good advice here, so you can experiment and see what works for you. I tolerate the heat pretty well, and rarely have leg cramps. But when I first took up mountain biking, I would get them in the middle of the night. I'd shoot straight out of bed and had to stand on the affected foot/leg to get the spasm to release. No one thing helped, but rather a number of things:

1. Better hydration. Not just during or immediately before a ride, but every day. Drink more fluids, and not all as sports-drinks. Alternate with good old H2O. Avoid high-caffeine drinks in large quantities (coffee, tea, colas) - they can have a diuretic effect, making you loose all that good hydration prematurely.

2. Potassium, magnesium & calcium. Bananas are good for potassium. Better (for me) is  the low-sodium version of V-8 juice. They replace the removed sodium with potassium to keep the flavor palatable. A 12-oz can has as much potassium as 3 bananas. Magnesium supplements and/or dark leafy greens, nuts, fish, fresh fruit. Calcium: milk, cheese, and tums (yes tums - great to keep by the bedside for night cramps - stops them almost instantly).

3. Pedaling cadence. If you're riding where you're constantly mashing the pedals vs. spinning, you're really making your leg muscles work VERY hard. Much better to have a 70-90 RPM spin-rate than be struggling with every turn of the crank.

4. Road-ride. It builds endurance and lean muscle. Plus, you'll develop a better and more consistent spin-rate that translates well to mountain biking. Muscle-memory is an amazing thing - your legs will want to pedal on auto-pilot.

5. Take a break. If you're working your legs to the point of exhaustion (bonking), then take a day (or 2) off. What you put into your body in the 30-60 minutes after such exercise has a great effect on your ability to recover. Water, chocolate milk, electrolytes, and a high-carb sports bar are all good.

6. If weight loss is the goal, then longer, lighter intensity workouts are better than shorter, more-intense ones are. Get a heart-rate monitor and train your body in the aerobic zone, or just below - the fat-burn zone.

There have been some excellent thoughts (some of which I need to start implementing), but 2 things I would mention from my own experience:
-  You're younger than I am, but I've found that particularly during hot weather, I need to lay off of heavy exercise for a day or two before a hard ride, or I start out weak and stay that way. I need to space out my rides more in hot weather.
-  Chris Carmichael (who used to write a column in Bicycling magazine and was Lance Armstrong's nutritionist) says that low fat chocolate milk is one of the best recovery drinks available. It's the perfect blend of carbs and protein for muscle recovery. You need to drink it as soon after a ride as possible, and after 30 minutes or so you've lost the opportunity for most of its benefits. I find that this helps me. After a hard ride, I head for the closest convenience store.

Both of these things have been alluded to in earlier comments, but I thought they were worth elaborating on.

Along with Sport Legs, Hammer Endurolytes also a good choice. 

Last but not least, take some packs of cheap yellow mustard with you and suck one down with water if you feel the cramp. Had forgotten about this little trick until a friend reminded me of it recently. Works for me if I forget the Endurolytes.

dwright wrote on 07/13/15 at 6:07pm:


How do you like the Feed Zone Book? Any good I've considered getting it

UncleThunder wrote on 07/16/15 at 4:23pm:

The Feed Zone has some very good recipes.  It's a little light on tools, such as strategies, but the recipes as are tasty and relevant.  It's basically a good cook book.

I personally have also like "Racing Weight" because it gives a very simple tool for eating better in the DQS score.  There is also a cookbook companion to Racing Weight.  Both cookbooks have a good amount of variety and practicality.

Specialist wrote on 07/17/15 at 1:29pm:

 
Lmao +1