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It's now been a week since I had my first 100 mile day. Last time that happened was around 1995. Been a long time.
Before the TB event I wondered how I would feel around the 75 mile mark, not having done that distance yet this year. It was an unknown for me. I committed to the 100 mile route and had that goal in mind the whole day.
I have been training hard, but really not enough. My ride routes have been chosen for quality, not frequency. Learning how to balance all this has been an experience which I haven't figured out yet: wife, kid, BMX, T-Ball (how did I get roped into helping Coach James I'll never know), music lessons, weights, yoga, spin, TWFK, and oh yea, my business needs to run everyday.
I did ride 100 miles, I survived, and except for my left knee felt really good after. A group of about 8 TWFK riders started out together and had a great rolling time in the morning. The weather was cool- just perfect for the beginning of a long day. On Santa Teresa someone had the idea to pull a 20+mph paceline along the flats. Of course it was fun so we all hung in there. Not really the smartest thing to do early in the mileage for the day. But it felt so GOOD.
I left the Anderson rest stop a few minutes before the others since I knew they would all catch me somewhere on the climb. I think Leah caught me first. She's amazing... flys up the hill, chats everyone up along the way. I think she got her heart-rate up to a 100... :^)
My knee started hurting part way up the climb to Henry Coe State Park. I had plotted out an escape route before the last climb, up to Gilroy Hot Springs, in case I felt like I would injure/hurt myself if I continued. When I approached that spot I evaluated my condition and decided to go for the 100 miles. In retrospect I am glad I made that decision. Sue R and I rode together to Gilroy Hot Springs, had a good rest and refuel, and headed out for the last part of the route together, feeling good.
I ended up at the bottom of the last descent not knowing where Sue was. I coasted waiting for her. She didn't show. I ended up asking the next person down the hill if she'd seen a light blue jersey... she did, on the side of the road crashed, near the top of the descent. Options: ride back up to her (an hour climb) or find a checkpoint with a radio, report it, and get medical to her. Luckily there was a checkpoint near the bottom of the hill. Reported rider down, got a report back she had been found with minor injuries, she'd be taken back to the school. Dave R was at the school and we connected via cell, he would look after her and get her to the hospital to get checked out. Long story short... Dave drove Sue to Nancy's, Nancy the wonder-nurse cleaned Sue up, Sue's got road rash, bruises, a banged up helmet and bike. Cause of the crash is unknown. She went down hard but survived without broken bones or a concussion. Good news considering what could have happened.
Looking back on the day I would have to say it worked out.
The Good:
- Fueling the body went well and worked
- Mileage goal was met
- Bike held together
- No flats - knock on wood
- No breakdowns - knock on wood
- The weather and scenery were beautiful
- No sunburn
- Sue survived her crash
The Not-so-Good:
- Sue crashed
- Dave was hurting and cut short his ride
- My knee hurt
- My gearing was too high
- I finished without my TWFK teammate
It has been over 15 years since I've had any sort of bike fit/position review. With the Death Ride looming ahead I need to take advantage of as much help as possible. So it was off to Thomas Chapple's place.
On Friday I had the bike fit session with Thomas. Over the course of 3 hours we measured, rode, measured again, adjusted, rode more, re-adjusted... on and on.
My flexibility was evaluated, knee pain investigated, goals discussed, exercises reviewed... on and on.
We found:
- my flexibility is pretty good for an old guy, thank you yoga
- my weight training routine is good
- need to up the stability exercises - here comes one leg lunges, and one leg cycle-rows
- cassette gearing not low enough for the proper cadence on long steep climbs - new cassette on the way
- seat was too low - moved higher which improved the saddle/knee/foot position
- raised handlebar to match saddle height movement
- old style LOOK cleats locked me in too much - adjusted to best position during session
- switched to LOOK Delta Red (9degree float) before first "new" ride on Sunday
So now I am on a transition ride routine for a week or so. Small movements up to the new fit position while emailing Thomas about how the changes feel. In another week we will evaluate the results and confirm a "final" position to train with.
Tierra Bella Stats...
Saturday April 18th 2009
- 7:30am start - 4:15-ish finish.
- 1 hour spent stopped at various rest stops.
- Total time on course=8.25 hours
- Total time on bike= 7.25 hours
- 100 miles.
- 6000 feet of climbing.
- Temperature: lowest 56, highest 92.
- Maximum speed while descending: 44.5mph.
- Minimum speed while climbing: 4.5mph.
- Lowest gear: 39/26
- Highest gear: 53/12
- Calories Burned- calculated: 8000
Food/Nutrition:
Before ride:
- 16oz. Iced Coffee
- 1 GU
- 16 oz. H2O
During ride:
- 3 GU
- 1 Powerbar
- 2 20oz. bottles of Hammer Perpetuem
- 6 24oz. bottles of H2O
- 2 12 oz. cups of Gatorade at last rest stop
- 2 bananas- 1 each at top of 2 climbs
- 6 capsules Hammer Endurolytes
- 2 Advil at top of 1st climb
Within 2 hour window after ride:
- 2 12oz. cups lemonade
- 1 serving meat lasagna
- 1 serving vanilla ice cream with apple crisp
- 24oz. Hammer Recoverite
- 20 oz. H2O
My first Century Ride of the year is coming up on Saturday. After signing up for the Death Ride last December I thought to myself that I better do a couple long, 100 mile, training rides before July. Since I would be unbelievably bored doing one on my own I signed up for the Tierra Bella Century put on by ACTC.
100 miles in April? No problem, I have been training since October. But wait, didn't I ride to Henry Coe a couple weeks ago, and while closing in on the end of the ride, I thought to myself "here I am at 60 miles and I don't think I have 40 more miles in me". Uh-Oh.
4 days to go and I am prepping for the ride. Drinking lots of water, stretching, eating well and trying to quiet my mind. I am a bit worried about the ride. The weather report predicts good weather, I just hope the winds don't pick up in the afternoon. How/what I will eat on the ride has been a concern. During my longer training rides I have been experimenting with different brands/flavors of gel. Hammer is good, so is GU. Powerbars are on my list for solid food. Eating only gel during the ride should be all I need, but sometimes I want something solid to chew on. My plan is to have 2 bars/100miles, 4 gels/100miles and 24oz/hour H2O. I don't know if they will be serving an energy drink at the rest stops. I'll probably avoid it since I haven't been using anything during training. After the ride I will have some Hammer Recoverite - GOOD stuff.
I'll check in after the ride and write up a re-cap of the event and whether, or not, my training has been up to speed.
Wish me luck, I'll need a little bit to get up the last steep section to Henry Coe.
Check out the last mile... one section is a 17% average grade over 1/10th mile.
Had a good ride today, except... about halfway up Montebello I noticed my front tire going soft. Made it to the top and changed the tube. Used CO2 for the first time - WOW! way better than a pump.
Take a look at the route... steepest section was 13%.
An interesting weekend...
Susan and I had been planing a ride to Henry Coe State Park for a few weeks. Somehow we just couldn't get the time for the ride. We finally got on the road last Saturday. I had been looking forward to this ride, I was also a little worried. I heard stories of how steep some of the sections were.
I have been doing okay on hills with nothing over a 7 or 8% grade, but every climb I have been on where it goes over 9% I get beat up. A week ago Saturday, after installing my new cassette, I rode up Hwy9 to test it out. I now have a 26t replacing the 23t I had previously. It helped a lot having the ability to spin a little faster on the steep sections. I didn't pick up any speed but my legs felt way better raising my cadence.
My plan for this weekend was to ride Almaden to Coe, and back on Saturday, and then ride to Livermore on Sunday. I hoped to do my first 100 mile weekend of the year. Didn't quite work out that way...
Sue and I left at 1:15pm from Almaden, headed out McKean to Bailey. Then to Morgan Hill to Dunne Avenue. We stopped at Concept Cyclery for a little gel and to say "Hi". Last year the shop donated a bike to TWFK for a fundraising raffle. At mile 21 we started the climb up Dunne. 11 miles later we were at the top. One dastardly thing the road throws at you... right before the top there is a steep 50 yard stretch... why do they do that?
A beautiful route, the road climbs past Anderson Lake then heads east up through the oak covered foothills to the park entrance. This time of year the hills were covered by vibrant green grass with many wildflowers brightening up the view. We spent about 20-30 minutes on top and then realized if we wanted to get home before dark we better hightail it. The bottom part of the downhill was fun - hit 47mph on one stretch. Don't tell anyone - the speed limit is 35mph.
Sue and I both agreed that we needed a flat ride home. We bypassed Bailey road and the also the IBM hill. After a long flat 21 miles we rolled into the driveway, the sun was down, but it wasn't quite "dark" yet. 64 miles, 5.25 hours on the bike, somewhere around 4000 feet on climbing.
Let's see... the Death Ride is 2x as long with 4x the climbing. Am I really gonna do this thing?
About Sunday: Nope, not gonna ride 38 miles over Calaveras Road to Livermore. But I woke up Sunday morning not feeling too bad and decided I should do something to loosen my legs up. I had Vero drop me off at 680 and 84. I rode from Sunol to Pleasanton to Livermore the back way. Was a great (except for the killer headwind most of the way) rolling 13 miles in about 50 minutes.
What a weekend. Didn't go exactly to plan, but was good anyway.
