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This past Saturday was a 200k (126 mile) Brevet that
started in Castle Rock, Colorado (between Denver and Colorado Springs).
What a hard ride! This was the last ride that I have scheduled until
October’s Cochise Classic, unless I decide to do that 200k that is
scheduled in late September…
Mike
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I stayed in Durango Thursday night. I know there wasn't a ride on my
schedule but it was gorgeous out Friday morning and I wasn't in a hurry
so I did a quick 28 mile ride before heading to Castle Rock. I turned
back after completing the first significant climb on the way to
Silverton. Nice cool morning ride, kept it in z1/2 except for that
climb. In Castle Rock I planned to swing by the hotel on my way out of
town after the ride on Saturday for a shower so I requested a 2pm
checkout. It was a nice morning for the ride, but the temperature was
expected to get in the 90's which had me rightfully concerned given the
elevation. I left at 7am with the group. The initial pace wasn't that
bad (the first 10-15 min), but my heart rate seemed a little elevated.
The first 'roller' was a fairly significant climb! Colorado folks
definitely have a different definition of rollers than I do! :-)
The group pushed the pace on that first climb and my heart rate went z5,
maxing at about 189 -- way too early in the ride, so I dropped off the
group (along with several other more sensible people). I joined two
other guys and we rotated pulling. There was a bit of a wind, but I
didn't think it was too bad. I tried to stay z2/3 or NML, but the
'rollers' were pretty tough. We lost one guy, but two of us still made
pretty good time to the first checkpoint. Unfortunately I forgot my
little emergency money holder in the car (again) but Ron (the guy I was
with) was nice enough to loan me $5 to get some water for my accelerade.
I had finished both bottles and drank another bottle and a half before
we left the checkpoint. We did stay at that checkpoint quite a bit
longer than I would normally stay. But we met up with John Lee Ellis and
a lady rider (didn't catch her name) at the first checkpoint and started
off together for the next checkpoint. The temperature was really
starting to warm up by then. We were making good time, again rotating
the lead, and turned onto a road with another significant roller. I was
in front at that point and I popped. Completely blew up, couldn’t
maintain the pace. I thought I was keeping up with my hydration and
nutrition, but the elevation, heat and pace were definitely getting to
me.
I fell behind the others, but was still feeling ok. I caught up with
them at the second checkpoint and drank two bottles before we all left
together. There was another climb right after the checkpoint and I
immediately fell off the pace. Not because I was feeling bad, just
because I thought it was too fast of a pace for me to climb. But within
two miles or so I started getting warning twinges in my legs. At the two
checkpoints I thought my jersey looked like it normally would after 80
or so miles of riding with some salt lines where I normally see them.
But when I got those twinges it was like my body went into perspiration
overdrive because my jersey shoulders turned white, I noticed salt lines
running down my shins, the tops of my socks were white and the changes
seemed to happen pretty suddenly. Definitely not good. I dropped my pace
off, but about 88 or 89 miles into the ride I started getting bad muscle
spasms. No real warning with just one muscle cramping – this was very
intense, sudden locking of my hamstrings and calves on both legs. This
was worse than Cochise was three years ago because there was still a lot
of climbing left and very few places to soft pedal or coast through a
spasm and both legs were having spasms at the same time.
For the first time ever, I had to walk up some hills. Any time I tried
to pedal, even softly I'd get a muscle spasm. So I'd walk up a hill, get
on my bike and coast as far as I could down the hill and as far up the
next as I could with minimal pedaling. I was able to complete about 9
miles that way, then ran low on fluids. At that point I knew there was
no way I was going to finish this ride and decided to abandon (a first
for me). I could barely move my legs at that point without a spasm. My
polar shows a low temperature of 67, average of 91 and a high of 134
(that would be close to road surface temperature from the one time I
laid my bike down during the first muscle spasm). 97 miles into the ride
I called the number on the ride tip sheet to report that I had to
abandon and to request assistance getting back (I still had 25 miles or
so to go). I believe John's wife Pat answered and she said she would
call John. Not two minutes after that call a Park Ranger passed me and
stopped to make sure I was ok -- I wasn't and told him so. He asked if I
needed medical assistance, but all I really needed was a ride back to my
car, which he provided. I called Pat back and let her know I was ok and
had a ride back to the start.
Once I was sitting in the truck the spasms went away, but I felt a
little light headed a couple times. The ranger asked again if I needed
medical help, but I think I was just really dehydrated and needed some
fluids (which he also had). Back at my car I rested for 20 minutes or so
in my back seat with my feet up. My calves were twitching like crazy and
I had one more spasm in my left leg. When the twitching slowed down, I
put my bike on my bike rack, put my sandals on and walked over to the
Safeway to get some drinks for the evening. Walking seemed to help. I
drank a bottle of Propel at a picnic table outside the store before
going back to my car to head back to the hotel. On the way over to the
hotel John called to check in on me. He knows about my goal for getting
the Super Randonnuers medal and mentioned that they are doing a cooler,
lower altitude 200k brevet that’s scheduled in late September. Hmmmm...
When I got back to the hotel parking lot (at 4:30ish) I called Annette
and let her know what happened. We decided it would be best to spend the
night in Castle Rock instead of trying to start back home, so I stayed
an extra night to recuperate some. I’m disappointed in not finishing but
surprisingly I really don't feel that bad about abandoning. I know that
if I had tried to continue any further than I was at that point I would
have been in for an ambulance ride for sure. It was the right decision.
Death Ride, followed closely by the Taylor House ride, took a lot out of
me and doing another pretty hard ride in the same month was too much. In
hindsight I shouldn't have done Taylor House since the 200k was my real
goal. But I didn’t know about the course change and had expected it to
be a much easier ride than it was. I guess I'm still learning my limits
and got a very painful lesson!
“Memento te esse mortalum!” – Remember you are mortal! That’s the latin
phrase on the web site for the “Son of Death Ride” -- It had been
postponed, but I just looked and it’s back on! September 10th… http://cyclingescapes.com/TheRide.html
Maybe next year! ;-)
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