chris (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} _fool) wrote,@ 2008-04-29 13:35:00 |
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there and back again
it was the single-day pinnacle of my existence as an athlete. it's definitely not the case that athleticism defines me, but it is a part of my identity, and what particularly excites me as much as anything is pushing myself to see where the limits are. since last summer, distance cycling has really been my sweetheart. since last summer, i have also not trained seriously. though my behavior does not appear to be pointed towards excelling at what i want to do, it turns out that i am still a glutton for punishment, and so i dove into my longest ever bike ride with my only real long training rides in the past 8 months being a couple 100k's and a 200k a couple weeks ago. i ride every day, but i rarely ride more than 15 miles in a go when i'm tooling around town, so it doesn't really count in the same way that an extended ass-to-saddle marriage does.
the three capes brevet was an oregon randonneurs event. this means, in effect, that it is unsupported. there was one rest stop with some snacks and a dose of encouragement about 23 miles in, but for the next 164 miles, we were on our own for food, directions, and mechanical assistance. which is not to say we couldn't stop at a convenience store, or borrow a wrench from an auto parts store, but that there are no sag wagons, rest stops, or anyone looking out for us except to show up at the end before 2am.
it was one of the 5 nicest days of this year (since 1 jan 2008), and for that i am very thankful. if it had been rainy, blustery, or freezing, i would probably not have finished. instead it was clear almost all day (it got hazy for about 20 minutes mid-morning), and though it started a little chilly, it warmed up pretty quickly and stayed warm until i was finished riding.
one of the problems with distance riding is the ol tortoise-and-hare situation. there are supermen who can hammer it for the entire duration of any ride, and then there are normal human beings like me who, between time off the bike, big hills, tired legs, and a sore ass, are disinclined to work at full capacity from start to finish (at which point one presumably topples over, thoroughly exhausted). one of the beauties of randonneuring is that it is specifically not a race, but rather a personal challenge, which gives one a little more time to enjoy the scenery, companionship, and local color/flavor of the towns passed through.
being a normal human being (well, for the sake of this account anyway), i've learned over the past few rides not to try to hang onto the lead pack, since i'll use up all my oomph quickly and then have to limp in. and i'd rather feel strong but not incredi-fast for the whole ride than zoomy+ for a couple hours and worn-out for a lot more hours. i know my limits are around 3 hours of hammering, so i try to adjust accordingly for >60 mile rides, and the latest strategy in turning off my keep-up-with-the-joneses-ness has been the late start. i accidentally started late on the last ride, because i arrived just in time to see the pack take off but i still needed to go potty, so another fellow in my situation (late-arriver-in-need-of-the-facilities)
so once again this time, i planned to start late, and got my wish due to a slow prep that left me ready to go with the pack...except i'd forgotten to fill my water bottles. so i dashed inside as everyone rode off, then strolled back out to discover a small group still gearing up to go...including my friend & fellow late-starter-from-last-time Mike, and a fellow Nate whom i'd ridden with a bit before, and who is one of the most prolific photographers on these rides, so maybe there'll be a few pictures of my butt climbing up a hill in his photostream...
the first checkpoint was 23 miles in, and though we'd started late & slow, we had a pretty good paceline going, and when my group had passed a lot of folks and started to slow down, i was on the wheel of a fellow who said "why don't we close the gap?" and pulled me up to the next group, with whom we danced up the first hill. since the checkpoint was a turnaround, i kept expecting to see the leaders coming back down the hill, but never did...we apparently put the burn on to such an extent that we caught them at the turnaround...leaving just as we arrived. oops. still, i felt good and it was chilly so the sweat wasn't pouring forth yet, so i deliberately took a longer break than i felt like i needed, stretched, ate, drank, and felt ready to do another fast 20 before i left.
mike caught me up about 5 miles into this next leg, and we cruised/powered up a moderate but steady incline for about 5 miles before setting a good pace the rest of the way into tillamook, home of squeaky cheese and also my first bike-powered sighting of us101, aka the pacific coast highway. i ended up out in front by a hundred or so yards and, being ravenous, pulled over at the first sign of an open cafe that was on our route. dunno what mike did, but he didn't follow me and i didn't see him again that day. the results seem to indicate that he finished, which pleases me, since this was also his longest ride ever. the cue sheet describing the route mentioned a grocery store we were going to pass in tillamook, but since i wanted greasy, i figured where better to go than a greasy spoon? this place (name already forgotten) fit the bill...practically empty, vinyl-covered barstools, both other customers smoking, oh, and there was a bar in the back of the building that had 5 people in it at 10am saturday morning. the bathroom was...interesting, and looked original to the 80-year-old structure. anyway, breakfast of eggs, hash browns, toast, OJ, and serious (not funny) sausage was exactly what the doctor ordered, and i wish i'd had seconds, since it was the last real food i was to eat all day. you might be thinking: "how on earth could he eat that and then ride his bike 126 more miles?" however, that's about what i eat before i head out usually, and i'd had to skip pre-breakfast since there was no place open before we left @ 6am...so i was just making up for lost...taste? however, i had already started out in the hole, nutritionally, which was dumb.
headed out strong after applying sunscreen for the first time since i left texas last october, and my tummy was full...and it continued to feel full for the rest of the ride. for the most part, i was drinking water/electrolyte replenishment stuff to the point of fullness, but it occurred to me after the ride that i basically never had to urinate all day, so despite drinking something like 12 (20oz) bottles of water and a couple of other randoms (OJ, chocolate milk, iced tea and soda), i was apparently underhydrated even though i didn't feel as though i was sweating very much. the weather may have had something to do with that--it wasn't really hot enough to make me drip, but i did notice extensive salty spots on my spandex as i stripped down after the ride.
up til tillamook, the terrain had been a little hilly but not too bad, and the wind had not bothered us at all. i set out, and rode, alone for the next 40 miles or so. and while i was playing leapfrog with a few folks so i didn't feel lonely, it was the hardest and most beautiful part of the ride, both of which i like my alone time for (the pretty and the huff-n-puffin). hardest, because there were two short but steep climbs...both less than 2 miles, an average of 750 feet apiece. pretty hard on not-so-fresh legs. the only saving grace was that it was freaking beautiful, since we were effectively on the coast, way above it, and both climbs featured nice views through the trees and overlooks at the top. i only stopped at the one, but it was just as scenic as i remember the PCH down between san fran and LA being when i drove it in '03. i can't say this is somewhere i'm gonna bike again, but i can say i'd like to...
whilst climbing, we were pretty well along the beach for about 40 miles...from tillamook down to pacific city, we varied between about 5' elevation and around 1000', but were rarely more than a few miles from the ocean. the views and the rare sound of crashing waves (audible only when there was a tailwind and i wasn't huffing up a huge steep or hurtling down the other side of it) were comforting and peaceful. made it out to the 93 mile checkpoint and stopped at the first convenience store which was across the street from a marina, for a signature on my route card and a snack...chocolate milk to the rescue!
it was only about 17 miles later that trouble started. i'd been caught up by a fellow named (i think?) Dan, with whom i rode for a bit and we took turns breaking the wind...until i realized i was flagging, and hung on to his wheel for a brief moment before wishing him well and peeling off to trudge along to the next intersection, where i planned to stop and rest for a minute. he waited for me and encouraged me to eat something--i was pretty obviously bonking, but i still felt full..mostly of chocolate milk and water, i came to realize, and so i forced down an apple and some clif shot blocks, and immediately perked back up, though dan had long since headed on without me. it was here that Jim pulled up, munched a bit, and proceeded to ride the entire rest of the ride with me.
thereafter, Jim and I rode for awhile with a few other folks, most notably Pat from-seattle-via-Ireland, stopped approximately every 10 miles for stretching and eating, and worked our way slow and steady, aiming for arrival before dark, which we seemed on target for. every time we stopped, i forced myself to eat something and i think that's what kept me from just toppling over.
we were tired and our crotches were sore, but that was to be expected. what was unexpected (to me) was my calves. always the most cramp-prone part of my body, they'd sent up some warning flashes and then for about 10 miles they started writhing! i felt like i was that dude in the animatrix, or maybe that guy in alien...anyway, there was definitely stuff wriggling around under the skin and some on-bike quick-rub of the wriggly areas only served to put off the writhing for a few minutes...and then they'd be back. both legs. not boding well...but we were less than 10 miles from the end, and the sun was trying to set, and so we were pressing on, hoping to beat the dark and cold and cars more likely to run us over.
every time i get a cramp, it's almost scripted. i feel it start, which hurts a little, and groan/moan/scream in anticipation of the upcoming pain. usually, cramps happen to me in bed, a-la charley horse, when i'm doing my morning yawn-stretch. i've mostly stopped yawn-stretching in avoidance :(. so usually, i reach down and rub the cramp as it's happening and reduce the duration of the pain/lockup and it seems to improve recovery time as well. that worked out for me well on a ride a month or so ago, when i cramped before i was clipped in, but it cost me a minute worth of gap on the peloton that i never managed to close, try though i did (and hard!) for at least 20 miles. i could see them when terrain was flat, but i never got any closer than a half mile.
i was riding behind Jim and another fellow whom we'd seen on and off when i felt my right calf cramp, hard. i was really angered by the cramp's arrival, and my "aaarghnoooo" was shouted loud enough to turn Jim around. later, he says "i thought you were objecting to the rider ahead not making a turn", and was turning around to assure me this was the right direction. but then he saw me coming to a stop and unclipping just in time for my leg to completely stop working. lesson learned? next time, unclip both feet...since i was unable to straighten the cramping leg to find the ground, and when my left calf also cramped about 2 seconds into my tornado of legpain, i wasn't even thinking straight enough to worry about unclipping, staying upright, or gravity in general. and so, one-cramped-leg unclipped, one cramping leg clipped in still, i toppled over unceremoniously in the street. i guess i'd managed to stop, since i didn't turn up scraped, but i was certainly still attached to my bike and unable to move my legs even if they hadn't been tanlged up in my ride. and it was starting to get dark. and the road we were on had a speed limit of 50mph. and there was a car coming up. and i was in the lane going its direction. none of that really occurred to me--my thought being more OWCALVESOW on a tightly repeating loop. but fortunately Jim had the presence of mind to turn on his ultrabright bike light and point his bike into the driver's windshield, which saved the day until Jim convinced me that i was capable of detaching myself from the bike and hobbling to the ditch at the side of the road.
we were only about 8 miles out, and there were still at least 5 hours until the course officially closed. i would have walked that last 8 if i'd had to, but it turned out that my legs were still ok for biking. i slammed all my remaining electrolyte juice and pills, and turned in a steadily-increasing-but-never-taxing pace all the way to the finish. we didn't quite beat sunset...but we made it in before i was unable to read my cue sheet in the failing light. i was happy for my head and tail lights and should have been wearing my reflective vest, but every second not pedalling was a little more crotch agony, so i played it slightly unsafe and cruised in barely legal (by the rules of the organization sponsoring the ride...of course i was all lawful with my lights as far as the cops were concerned =))
kdaisy721 was waiting for me at the finish with congratulatory hugs, muffins, and pampered me all night, forcing food and stretching upon me and no doubt vastly improving my recovery time. despite all my dilly-dallying (which i think was essential to finishing the ride in as good spirits as i did), i made decent time on the bike: 186 miles in just under 12 hours of riding. of course, there was 2:45 of not-riding in my total course time. and that's a-ok.
so. in the future, i shall eat and drink more, and more regularly, and from the start, and i shall probably not attempt over 300k until i've got some more long rides under my belt. which is a shame since there's a 600k in 2 weeks that i would have loved to do...
it was the single-day pinnacle of my existence as an athlete. it's definitely not the case that athleticism defines me, but it is a part of my identity, and what particularly excites me as much as anything is pushing myself to see where the limits are. since last summer, distance cycling has really been my sweetheart. since last summer, i have also not trained seriously. though my behavior does not appear to be pointed towards excelling at what i want to do, it turns out that i am still a glutton for punishment, and so i dove into my longest ever bike ride with my only real long training rides in the past 8 months being a couple 100k's and a 200k a couple weeks ago. i ride every day, but i rarely ride more than 15 miles in a go when i'm tooling around town, so it doesn't really count in the same way that an extended ass-to-saddle marriage does.
the three capes brevet was an oregon randonneurs event. this means, in effect, that it is unsupported. there was one rest stop with some snacks and a dose of encouragement about 23 miles in, but for the next 164 miles, we were on our own for food, directions, and mechanical assistance. which is not to say we couldn't stop at a convenience store, or borrow a wrench from an auto parts store, but that there are no sag wagons, rest stops, or anyone looking out for us except to show up at the end before 2am.
it was one of the 5 nicest days of this year (since 1 jan 2008), and for that i am very thankful. if it had been rainy, blustery, or freezing, i would probably not have finished. instead it was clear almost all day (it got hazy for about 20 minutes mid-morning), and though it started a little chilly, it warmed up pretty quickly and stayed warm until i was finished riding.
one of the problems with distance riding is the ol tortoise-and-hare situation. there are supermen who can hammer it for the entire duration of any ride, and then there are normal human beings like me who, between time off the bike, big hills, tired legs, and a sore ass, are disinclined to work at full capacity from start to finish (at which point one presumably topples over, thoroughly exhausted). one of the beauties of randonneuring is that it is specifically not a race, but rather a personal challenge, which gives one a little more time to enjoy the scenery, companionship, and local color/flavor of the towns passed through.
being a normal human being (well, for the sake of this account anyway), i've learned over the past few rides not to try to hang onto the lead pack, since i'll use up all my oomph quickly and then have to limp in. and i'd rather feel strong but not incredi-fast for the whole ride than zoomy+ for a couple hours and worn-out for a lot more hours. i know my limits are around 3 hours of hammering, so i try to adjust accordingly for >60 mile rides, and the latest strategy in turning off my keep-up-with-the-joneses-ness has been the late start. i accidentally started late on the last ride, because i arrived just in time to see the pack take off but i still needed to go potty, so another fellow in my situation (late-arriver-in-need-of-the-facilities)
so once again this time, i planned to start late, and got my wish due to a slow prep that left me ready to go with the pack...except i'd forgotten to fill my water bottles. so i dashed inside as everyone rode off, then strolled back out to discover a small group still gearing up to go...including my friend & fellow late-starter-from-last-time Mike, and a fellow Nate whom i'd ridden with a bit before, and who is one of the most prolific photographers on these rides, so maybe there'll be a few pictures of my butt climbing up a hill in his photostream...
the first checkpoint was 23 miles in, and though we'd started late & slow, we had a pretty good paceline going, and when my group had passed a lot of folks and started to slow down, i was on the wheel of a fellow who said "why don't we close the gap?" and pulled me up to the next group, with whom we danced up the first hill. since the checkpoint was a turnaround, i kept expecting to see the leaders coming back down the hill, but never did...we apparently put the burn on to such an extent that we caught them at the turnaround...leaving just as we arrived. oops. still, i felt good and it was chilly so the sweat wasn't pouring forth yet, so i deliberately took a longer break than i felt like i needed, stretched, ate, drank, and felt ready to do another fast 20 before i left.
mike caught me up about 5 miles into this next leg, and we cruised/powered up a moderate but steady incline for about 5 miles before setting a good pace the rest of the way into tillamook, home of squeaky cheese and also my first bike-powered sighting of us101, aka the pacific coast highway. i ended up out in front by a hundred or so yards and, being ravenous, pulled over at the first sign of an open cafe that was on our route. dunno what mike did, but he didn't follow me and i didn't see him again that day. the results seem to indicate that he finished, which pleases me, since this was also his longest ride ever. the cue sheet describing the route mentioned a grocery store we were going to pass in tillamook, but since i wanted greasy, i figured where better to go than a greasy spoon? this place (name already forgotten) fit the bill...practically empty, vinyl-covered barstools, both other customers smoking, oh, and there was a bar in the back of the building that had 5 people in it at 10am saturday morning. the bathroom was...interesting, and looked original to the 80-year-old structure. anyway, breakfast of eggs, hash browns, toast, OJ, and serious (not funny) sausage was exactly what the doctor ordered, and i wish i'd had seconds, since it was the last real food i was to eat all day. you might be thinking: "how on earth could he eat that and then ride his bike 126 more miles?" however, that's about what i eat before i head out usually, and i'd had to skip pre-breakfast since there was no place open before we left @ 6am...so i was just making up for lost...taste? however, i had already started out in the hole, nutritionally, which was dumb.
headed out strong after applying sunscreen for the first time since i left texas last october, and my tummy was full...and it continued to feel full for the rest of the ride. for the most part, i was drinking water/electrolyte replenishment stuff to the point of fullness, but it occurred to me after the ride that i basically never had to urinate all day, so despite drinking something like 12 (20oz) bottles of water and a couple of other randoms (OJ, chocolate milk, iced tea and soda), i was apparently underhydrated even though i didn't feel as though i was sweating very much. the weather may have had something to do with that--it wasn't really hot enough to make me drip, but i did notice extensive salty spots on my spandex as i stripped down after the ride.
up til tillamook, the terrain had been a little hilly but not too bad, and the wind had not bothered us at all. i set out, and rode, alone for the next 40 miles or so. and while i was playing leapfrog with a few folks so i didn't feel lonely, it was the hardest and most beautiful part of the ride, both of which i like my alone time for (the pretty and the huff-n-puffin). hardest, because there were two short but steep climbs...both less than 2 miles, an average of 750 feet apiece. pretty hard on not-so-fresh legs. the only saving grace was that it was freaking beautiful, since we were effectively on the coast, way above it, and both climbs featured nice views through the trees and overlooks at the top. i only stopped at the one, but it was just as scenic as i remember the PCH down between san fran and LA being when i drove it in '03. i can't say this is somewhere i'm gonna bike again, but i can say i'd like to...
whilst climbing, we were pretty well along the beach for about 40 miles...from tillamook down to pacific city, we varied between about 5' elevation and around 1000', but were rarely more than a few miles from the ocean. the views and the rare sound of crashing waves (audible only when there was a tailwind and i wasn't huffing up a huge steep or hurtling down the other side of it) were comforting and peaceful. made it out to the 93 mile checkpoint and stopped at the first convenience store which was across the street from a marina, for a signature on my route card and a snack...chocolate milk to the rescue!
it was only about 17 miles later that trouble started. i'd been caught up by a fellow named (i think?) Dan, with whom i rode for a bit and we took turns breaking the wind...until i realized i was flagging, and hung on to his wheel for a brief moment before wishing him well and peeling off to trudge along to the next intersection, where i planned to stop and rest for a minute. he waited for me and encouraged me to eat something--i was pretty obviously bonking, but i still felt full..mostly of chocolate milk and water, i came to realize, and so i forced down an apple and some clif shot blocks, and immediately perked back up, though dan had long since headed on without me. it was here that Jim pulled up, munched a bit, and proceeded to ride the entire rest of the ride with me.
thereafter, Jim and I rode for awhile with a few other folks, most notably Pat from-seattle-via-Ireland, stopped approximately every 10 miles for stretching and eating, and worked our way slow and steady, aiming for arrival before dark, which we seemed on target for. every time we stopped, i forced myself to eat something and i think that's what kept me from just toppling over.
we were tired and our crotches were sore, but that was to be expected. what was unexpected (to me) was my calves. always the most cramp-prone part of my body, they'd sent up some warning flashes and then for about 10 miles they started writhing! i felt like i was that dude in the animatrix, or maybe that guy in alien...anyway, there was definitely stuff wriggling around under the skin and some on-bike quick-rub of the wriggly areas only served to put off the writhing for a few minutes...and then they'd be back. both legs. not boding well...but we were less than 10 miles from the end, and the sun was trying to set, and so we were pressing on, hoping to beat the dark and cold and cars more likely to run us over.
every time i get a cramp, it's almost scripted. i feel it start, which hurts a little, and groan/moan/scream in anticipation of the upcoming pain. usually, cramps happen to me in bed, a-la charley horse, when i'm doing my morning yawn-stretch. i've mostly stopped yawn-stretching in avoidance :(. so usually, i reach down and rub the cramp as it's happening and reduce the duration of the pain/lockup and it seems to improve recovery time as well. that worked out for me well on a ride a month or so ago, when i cramped before i was clipped in, but it cost me a minute worth of gap on the peloton that i never managed to close, try though i did (and hard!) for at least 20 miles. i could see them when terrain was flat, but i never got any closer than a half mile.
i was riding behind Jim and another fellow whom we'd seen on and off when i felt my right calf cramp, hard. i was really angered by the cramp's arrival, and my "aaarghnoooo" was shouted loud enough to turn Jim around. later, he says "i thought you were objecting to the rider ahead not making a turn", and was turning around to assure me this was the right direction. but then he saw me coming to a stop and unclipping just in time for my leg to completely stop working. lesson learned? next time, unclip both feet...since i was unable to straighten the cramping leg to find the ground, and when my left calf also cramped about 2 seconds into my tornado of legpain, i wasn't even thinking straight enough to worry about unclipping, staying upright, or gravity in general. and so, one-cramped-leg unclipped, one cramping leg clipped in still, i toppled over unceremoniously in the street. i guess i'd managed to stop, since i didn't turn up scraped, but i was certainly still attached to my bike and unable to move my legs even if they hadn't been tanlged up in my ride. and it was starting to get dark. and the road we were on had a speed limit of 50mph. and there was a car coming up. and i was in the lane going its direction. none of that really occurred to me--my thought being more OWCALVESOW on a tightly repeating loop. but fortunately Jim had the presence of mind to turn on his ultrabright bike light and point his bike into the driver's windshield, which saved the day until Jim convinced me that i was capable of detaching myself from the bike and hobbling to the ditch at the side of the road.
we were only about 8 miles out, and there were still at least 5 hours until the course officially closed. i would have walked that last 8 if i'd had to, but it turned out that my legs were still ok for biking. i slammed all my remaining electrolyte juice and pills, and turned in a steadily-increasing-but-never-taxing pace all the way to the finish. we didn't quite beat sunset...but we made it in before i was unable to read my cue sheet in the failing light. i was happy for my head and tail lights and should have been wearing my reflective vest, but every second not pedalling was a little more crotch agony, so i played it slightly unsafe and cruised in barely legal (by the rules of the organization sponsoring the ride...of course i was all lawful with my lights as far as the cops were concerned =))
kdaisy721 was waiting for me at the finish with congratulatory hugs, muffins, and pampered me all night, forcing food and stretching upon me and no doubt vastly improving my recovery time. despite all my dilly-dallying (which i think was essential to finishing the ride in as good spirits as i did), i made decent time on the bike: 186 miles in just under 12 hours of riding. of course, there was 2:45 of not-riding in my total course time. and that's a-ok.so. in the future, i shall eat and drink more, and more regularly, and from the start, and i shall probably not attempt over 300k until i've got some more long rides under my belt. which is a shame since there's a 600k in 2 weeks that i would have loved to do...
