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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 06:31:27
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Distance:
102.65 miles
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Max Speed:
27.00 mph
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Avg Speed:
15.70 mph
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Route:
Flat-as-a-Pancake 2010
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Weight:
235
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Category: training: general -
solo
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Terrain: Road: Flat
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Bike: Fuji Roubaix RC Road
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Club: None |
| Weather Conditions: upper 60's to 86 degrees (feels like 88)
Wind: ENE8
Humidity: 50%
Fair |
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I don't know what it is about this ride, but most years I struggle to complete the 100 miles. One year I abandoned after lunch as I wasn’t feeling well. Two years ago, I didn’t have time to complete the afternoon route, go home, clean up and make it to my daughter’s HS graduation in time. Last year, it was the wind out of the south that just drained the energy out of my trying to complete the morning loop; the lunch stop helped refuel and allowed my to complete the 100 miles.
Today, it was about the wind again, this time out of the east, and the heat piled on top of that. Since the morning loop was fairly symmetrical north-east-south-west goes, the wind didn’t play a MAJOR role in completing the loop. The heat, on the other hand, drained me pretty good, and going into the last rest stop before lunch I knew I was on the verge of being dehydrated and wasn’t sweating hardly a drop. I limped into lunch, ate a sandwich, potato salad, a couple cookies and a few glasses of lemon aid, then headed out for the afternoon loop. A short jaunt west before turning north would be OK, then it was the turn east into the wind. Knowing the route, I knew what I was in for, but couldn’t remember how far of a leg we were looking at. I just knew if I could endure this eastwardly stretch, then I shouldn’t have much problem completing the day’s ride.
During that stretch, while working to keep my speed around 12-14 mph, I caught up and passed one guy. A couple minutes later he pulled back up behind me & asked to hang on my wheel. I said, "Sure. Drafting on this stretch would be the smart thing." We even road side-by-side for awhile chatting - he asked about my jersey, which led to talking about the camps I’ve been to and my transcontinental, and other things long-distance cycling related.. He sure didn’t seem completely interested in taking a pull to let me draft off him. I would slow down to allow him to pass, he slowed down too. Oh is that the way its going to be? I did this a couple more times - same result. I then slowed down and started adjusting the closure straps on my shoes – my feet were feeling a little cramped – and he finally rolled passed me. I then caught up and drafted off him for a little while. We finally made the turn to the south, getting out of that head wind.
The route was a little different this year, going little further east than before so we could come back through Germantown and allow folks to stop at the Shell gas station for refills. Before folks would go .2 miles east of the route to hit this stop then double back to get back on route – even though there is a scheduled rest stop a few more miles down the road. Well, today I would need this oasis. I bought a bottle of water & a bottle Gatorade to refill my nearly drained bottles. During the last few miles of that stretch I had also been dowsing my head & back with some of the water from one of my bottles to help cool me off – I still wasn’t’ sweating like I should be under these conditions. Before putting the purchased refreshments into my bike bottles, I empted them by pouring them over me – even as warm as that water was tasting coming out of the bottle, it was still cool feeling rolling down my head & body. I finished transitioning the fluids into my bottles, I headed down the road toward the rest stop, then the final few miles.
Well, I survived and am happy I was able to complete the 100 miles. One thing I kept reminding myself was two weeks ago I was riding in the rain, pushing myself to complete that century despite the elements,. Here today, it was a different elements, but I had to push myself to continue on. During the rainy century, there’s focus on not getting cold so as to avoid hypothermia and just being safe with the wet road conditions. The focus today was staying hydrated (which I wasn’t doing a good job at) and being safe with how the body is responding to the current conditions. The human body can deal with heat conditions like this, but it doesn’t happen overnight; it takes some time for the body acclimate to the changes There’s been a few warmer days like this in the past month or so, but those have been weekdays, so I’ve not been to heavily active outside. Well, again, I did survive, and my time/speed was better than last year’s. I know the complete elapsed time from start to finish was about 20 minutes quicker, and my stats show that my average speed for the day was about .4 mph faster than last year.
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