April 14, 2009

Thinking About The Tierra Bella

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, stretc
hing, 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.

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