I want to ride my bicycle

The windmill

Today was the last team ride before next week's Death Ride. It was a lovely flat ride that everyone else said was easy. My legs were heavy and tired, so I still struggled. I'm hoping I'll be rested enough for the big ride. After the ride, there was a pool potluck awards party. I received the "Endurance" award, not because I have endurance, but because this season was a lesson in endurance for me. I basically did everything an endurance rider could do wrong (not pacing myself, trying to ride with the boys, poor nutrition, bonking, dehydration, etc).

This was the most challenging ride of my life...so far. It was clearly named well. The day started at 4:30am as most of these rides do. As I was driving out to the start, I heard a heat advisory for all of the counties in The Bay Area. The ride was inland with exposed climbs and few trees to hide under. The start was in Livermore at 6am when it was already 75 degrees. We climbed Mines Road for a good long warm up before reaching the bottom of the back side of Hamilton. It's a grueling 6 mile climb to the top (that's 2 hours for me at my pace of 3 miles per hour). During this climb, one of the guys on our team threw in the towel and hopped in an air conditioned SAG vehicle. We were so happy to see the top when we finally arrived.

Mt. Hamilton - Lick Observatory

The SAG stop at the top of Hamilton was an oasis. They were making virgin mojitos as we arrived. And they fed us Thai chicken satay, homemade cookies, fresh pineapple, and more. Not long after we had started in on the buffet, the coach from the group behind us rode up yelling about how her group was scorching halfway down the mountain. They had run out of water and needed ice. A few of them ended up being sagged up to the top. By then the morning clear skies had turned to thunderstorms. I never felt a drop of rain, but watched the lightning in the distance wishing it would rain on me to provide some relief from the 105 degree heat. After descending Hamilton, we turned right back around and climbed the famed Sierra Road. It's one of the hardest climbs in The Bay Area and even the guys doing Tour of California complained about it.

New York Times article about Sierra Road and the Tour

The climb started at mile 65, so we were tired and suffering under the mid-day sun. The bottom third was stair steps with section after section of more than 16% grade. I made a new personal record: my slowest speed ever...2 miles per hour. I thought I was going to fall over, throw up, and that my head was going to explode. It seemed that my legs could not carry me up the impossible steep mountain, but that my willpower possibly could. I was determined to not stop until I got to the top. I have successfully done this throughout the season. I get to really hard parts in the middle of a long climb and feel like I just can't continue. I dream of getting of the bike for a couple of minutes. But I don't. I just keep going, no matter how slow, and somehow I start to feel better and find myself at the top. Before this season I thought it a crazy idea to recover on the bike while climbing, but have proven that it is possible enough times that I really believe it now. So I wanted to keep my record of not stopping on climbs for the season, especially since Sierra Road was the last hard climb of the season (with taper starting when I get back from Seattle). I very slowly passed some guys from the fast teams who were struggling (and ended up being sagged to the top) and when I saw a water stop on the side of the road, I just kept going. I've never passed up a rest stop before and was very proud of myself for riding past it since it took every last drop of determination to ride past the shaded cold water (remember it was over 100 degrees). It was as hard as everyone said it was going to be. Here we are at the top.

Top of Sierra Road

You can see Lick Observatory at the top of Mt. Hamilton in the distant background if you look really hard. Thankfully most of the climbing was over with at this point in the ride, but we still had 40 miles to get back to our cars. There were some really fun descents, but the last 10 miles was a mental game. I had been on the bike for 12 hours already and my body was totally shot. I had a rash on the top of my thighs from sitting in the sun for so long, saddle sores, a sunburn on my back, and every single muscle in my body was crying out for me to stop. I had burned 4,800 calories and was hungry and needed more fuel, but was also sick of eating.

Overall it was a good ride and great Death Ride training. 3 weeks to go!!!

Today I got my dad back out on his bike. He hates road biking, but in the name of training, I got him to ride with me to the river and almost back in 90 degree heat. It was a lovely ride, though I should let him get me back by taking me out mountain biking.

Bridgeport with covered bridge

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kbeeley/

This weekend we checked out the Death Ride route up in Tahoe. It was just gorgeous with many stream crossings and blooming flowers. We saw some snow, but it was really hot. I caught a cold a week ago and was still struggling to catch my breath from being off the bike for a week (the altitude didn't help).

I've recently discovered that I'm "overtrained". I know it sounds like a good thing, but alas, it's not. Overtraining "is the result of many weeks of exceeding the athlete’s physiologic limits and can result in weeks or months of diminished performance". So basically, the harder I train, the worse I perform. I would love to say this was caused by riding every day and not letting my body recover. Honestly, that is not the case. I rode 3 days a week all season (5 months). So it's not that I rode too much. Instead the problem was that I didn't ride smart. I am clearly not a natural endurance athlete because pacing is my biggest challenge. All season I went out too hard (yes, I had a heart rate monitor telling me to slow down, but I didn't listen to it) and burned myself out. I wanted to ride faster (I always do) and to ride with the boys, so I stayed in a high heart rate for way too long and not only payed for it on the last painful 20 miles of the rides, but also I'm paying for it now. This cold has slowed me down and alerted my coaches that I'm in trouble. Some of my other team members are having similar problems. So I'm going to take it easy for the next 5 weeks and hope that with 16 hours I can complete the Death Ride at a snails pace.

So this weekend I was dropped down to a slower group, ok, THE slowest group. My coach was really supportive. She kept asking about my heart rate and telling me to slow down. I've switched out my 12/25 cassette for a 12/27 cassette to help me keep my heart rate down at an endurance level. Basically for endurance events like the DR, people say "start out slow, and then slow down". This is not what I naturally do, since I'm used to riding with strong riders, like Josh. When his heart rate is in zone 3 (a decent endurance zone), mine is in zone 4 (too high to stay in all day). I swear I learned this lesson when I was in kindergarten. I am the hare, but I need to be the tortoise.