Long Rides- 2009 Style

[Roughster]

I hear you on that one F'uceo.  I rode the Napa Tour de Cure yesterday.  Had a solid rain being driven by a nasty windy for the 1st half of the ride.  It sucked beyond just the conditions because it forced me to take my road bike, can't risk the P3 in that muck

Overall it was a great ride, and it was my 1st outright win for a century.  The next nearest century participant was a good 10 minutes behind me.  Considering everything, wind, rain, unfamiliarity of the course, road bike, etc... I wasn't too displeased.  I actually came in under 5 hours, but as usual forgot to hit the stop on the gps until I rode up to my truck.

[mynameismud]

Roughster,

Congratulations.

[F'ueco]

 Crazy!!!

 I would love to ride a 5 hour century! I think my fastest was in the 5:30 range (during Ironman). Perhaps one of these days I'll actually ride a straight century for time. 

I hear you on that one F'uceo.  I rode the Napa Tour de Cure yesterday.  Had a solid rain being driven by a nasty windy for the 1st half of the ride.  It sucked beyond just the conditions because it forced me to take my road bike, can't risk the P3 in that muck

Overall it was a great ride, and it was my 1st outright win for a century.  The next nearest century participant was a good 10 minutes behind me.  Considering everything, wind, rain, unfamiliarity of the course, road bike, etc... I wasn't too displeased.  I actually came in under 5 hours, but as usual forgot to hit the stop on the gps until I rode up to my truck.

[mungeclimber]

just going thru the bike stuff today and came across this...

the 121

someone's been living in So Cal

 

[Roughster]

someone's been living in So Cal

Guilty as charged! 

[Uncle Stinky]

Yesterday was my birthday so I decided to ride a century, however, to a add a bit of spice to it I did it on a work day.

At first light I took off and got in 19 miles.  Great sunrise, nice temperature and no wind made it a perfect start.  Got to work in time and was the first teacher out of the parking lot, which is a hard thing to do, at the end of the day. 

The wind kicked up and by the time I got on my bike to make the next 81 miles.  There was a constant wind at 10-20 mph, most of the time at 15+.  Most of the time it was a crosswind but that still wears on me. Near the end of my windy battle I saw I had enough day light  left so I decided to add a couple miles so I would do a total 2 miles per year.  So for my 51st I got in 102 miles.  The best part of the ride was when my wife drove my kids by to I could trade out my water bottles and take on a couple of snacks, without stopping, from the car using a Rock Racing musette bags, we got at the Tour of California earlier this year. The kids got a kick out of that. 

[mynameismud]

US Congrats keep it rollin

[F'ueco]

Good times, eh?

I rode all of 15 miles today and felt incredibly sluggish. To be fair though, I'm a bit under the weather and still recovering from Saturday. I'm allergic to something in the air!

Saturday was the Central Coast Double, which turned out to be my second slowest double yet (the only slower one was this year's Devil Mountain Double). I was plagued by foot problems (this was the last straw. I'm switching back to my old shoe/pedal combo until I can figure out how to make the Genius 5.5s work for me!) and a few mechanical annoyances (a flat, and a creaky bottom bracket -imagine that after riding 162+ miles in the rain the previous weekend!).

I felt good at times, but the rest of the time I was just in pain. I ended up swapping pedals and shoes with my dad at mile 150 (he had been sagged out from a previous checkpoint), so I rode the last 70 miles in mountain bike Sidis with Crank Brothers pedals. Much better!

Long story short... 18:05 is far too long for a ride that took 15:45 last year! 

[F'ueco]

I did the Mount Tam Double Century yesterday...

Except for a lot of rough roads and a few rude cyclists/drivers; the day went really well. This ride has a little more climbing than Central Coast, but the weather was so much better that it made the miles fly by!

I got to ride with my friend Josh for a while around miles 50-65; and later rode with my friend Jason and his posse for most of the second half of the ride. The best comment came from Alfie, who was amazed that I was pulling some wheelsucker along at 22 MPH into a headwind at about mile 150 ("That was amazing!").

The MTD is one of the better organized doubles out there, and the route is nice except for the bad stretches of road. Descending rutted asphalt at mile 180 is just plain cruel!

When I get to it, I'll post a full race report. My total time was 14:34, which is nearly two hours faster than when I did the ride in 2007 (16:30). Good times!

Joan also finished, but had similar issues as during RAO. Her back started hurting around mile 100. She came in about 50 minutes after I did...

[mynameismud]

Cool looking loop.  Congrats to both of you.  Hope Joans back gets to feeling better.  Look forward to the TR.

[F'ueco]

Check out my blog for the full report on the Mount Tam Double...

http://www.deitchman.net/blog/

[F'ueco]

Bass Lake Powerhouse Double done... 

Much suffering as  a result of soreness from last weekend. But I made it. More details to follow...