My fourth century turned out to be great! Coming into it I was worried that I was ill-prepared, and I was. The recommended training mileage is about 200 miles a week with the longest ride being at least 70 miles. I hadn't rode more than 70-miles per week. The week before the century, I had only done a 63-mile ride. Yeah, I'm lazy =)
I'm not really as strong as some riders. Consequently, I'm all about tactics. So how am I going to finish the century without any training? Three things: Nutrition, Conservation, and mental toughness. A few things I learned being a bit older and wiser.
The beginning of the century was cold as heck and wet. The fog set in and everything was slippery. It doesn't help being in an area with a lot of trees dripping water at you. This was also the windiest century I've ever done. One of my friends with bladed spokes was actually blown sideways onto the road. Luckily there were no cars coming.
I wanted to do the 12 mile extra loop but the first loop had been extended to 20 miles so I came in late meeting my friends at Tilden Park. We met up and started our descent down Wildcat Canyon. That's when trouble started. At the bottom of the hill, we received the word from one of our dropped Jewish friend that a cyclist had fallen. Nevertheless, our group was still intact so we kept going. That's when there was a huge surge in speed. One of the guys in our pack decided to play hero and drive this gear train down at 28 mph so I hung on watching the HR monitor slowly tick to 170 bpm (getting close to Zone 4: Tempo). I was like "WTH is this fool doing so early in the ride?! He's gonna pay for it big time like I did last year!" I took the draft created and was able to coast much of the way while our hero did all the work =P
This went on for another couple hours uphill too and I decided, "screw these guys" I'm dropping back and going to stay in contact. They're gonna crack at mile 100 up Redwood rd. guaranteed and that's when I will attack. I kept a moderate intensity until the lunch stop but something didn't feel right.
My HR was fine but my thighs felt sore and achy. An aura of cramps to come. Uh oh, that's muscle fatigue. The thing is there's nothing wrong with my cardio. I was in shape but my leg muscles were not used to those hard efforts of spinning in big gears. By lunch I didn't think I could finish and would have to bail. But as I predicted, the hero bailed at lunch after mile 55. His side kick (hero #2) who wanted to prove himself dug too deep and bonked at lunch. Too bad he registered too late and did not get a wristband to get food. So he had to go to Subway.
After lunch, some yoga, and massaging, I felt replenished but my legs were still a bit sore. I decided to spin above 100 rpm to flush the lactic acid out and recover. I took it easy the rest of the way maintaining contact and waiting for the kick to return back to my legs. After the last rest stop, filling my water bottle with Dr. Pepper, and 2 fruit popsicles after, my legs recovered and I felt energized.
Climbing Redwood Rd (the last 10 miles), there were sirens. Two hwy patrols, a fire truck, and ambulance passed us. Eventually we saw a support vehicle and 2 black motorcycles parked across the road. Probably hit a cyclist and the motorcyclists are in back of the patrol cars in handcuffs. Serves them right. We already almost crashed into 2 cars while going downhill and the cars decided to play chicken with us and brake. While everybody was watching and discussing, I picked up my pace and did a stealthy but steady attack and got ahead. At the last 200 meters, I still had it in me to do a 30 mph sprint and came in second among our group of friends =)
15 mph average the whole ride. 111-miles with about 15,000 feet of climbing. Not bad for no training =P
The next day I got a sore throat =( Overtrained, dug too deep. And I had my first race coming in 6 days!
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