|
|
I rode in the Taylor House Century in 2003. I remember
some good climbs at the beginning, then a relatively flat course that
stayed at high elevation with some rough riding on the shoulder along
I-40. So I brought my 5.9SL expecting to stay in my aerobars most of the
day enjoying a nice flat ride at altitude. That wasn’t going to happen
because they completely changed the course. I don’t think it would have
been too bad had I looked at the route before we started and actually
took the time to see where the climbs were and how much climbing there
was. I was planning on doing a fun ride and was at the back of the pack
when they were making the ride announcements and handing out maps for
the new route. Turns out the ride started in the opposite direction, so
I was actually at the front of the group.
There was a guide truck that took us through town and I pretty much
paced off it for 20-25 miles or so. It was kind of fun and nice not to
have any wind, but I did let my heart rate get up a few times when we
hit some hills. The new route had a short stretch along I-40 but the
road wasn’t as bad as I remember it from 2003. As we approached one hill
that looked pretty long, I decided to drop back in with the group behind
me. I knew I had burned a few matches keeping pace with the truck, but I
was having fun and didn’t really worry about it since I didn’t have any
time goals for this ride. I didn’t realize my mistake until we started
up SR89, or rather I should say down SR89, taking us completely off the
mountain to the Wupatki turn. The descent was way longer than I expected
and I knew we would have to climb back up at some point. I also didn’t
stop at the first SAG and didn’t realize how few SAG stops there would
be on the route. When we finally turned onto Wupatki Road I was almost
out of fluids and the temperature was going up quickly. At one point I
checked my polar and it said 95 degrees. When I run low on fluids I drop
my effort to try to conserve energy, but with the heat I was sweating
like crazy and quickly became dehydrated. I wasn’t feeling bad at that
point, but I knew I was falling behind on my hydration and would be
paying for it.
There was a SAG at a picnic area along Wupatki Road. I stopped to fill
my bottles, but they had no ice. There’s nothing worse than warm
accelerade on a hot ride. I drank a bottle before I left and had a
popsicle (that was packed in dry ice – couldn’t add that to my
bottles!). I was still sweating heavily and I’m sure the temperature
cracked 100, but I didn’t look. I made pretty good time to the start of
the climb. I tried to focus on maintaining a good spin going up the hill
and one guy who passed me even complimented me on my spin (“Nice spin
you have going!”). At that point I had an epiphany – the guy who went by
me was probably a good 40 pounds lighter than me. I was maintaining a
good spin, but he went by me because he was carrying way less weight.
Wait a minute… I had a good 30-40 pounds on all those guys who passed me
on the Death Ride too. All of a sudden I felt better about how I did on
the Death Ride. But now I was starting to feel the effects of the heat
and the dehydration. I started alternating sitting and out of the
saddle. My legs started to give me that warning feeling like they want
to start cramping. That warm accelerade was terrible, but I drank it all
before I got to the next SAG. I was really glad when I started to see
pine trees again. I could also see clouds starting to build up on the
mountain. Of course there were none where I wanted them blocking the
sun.
I was out of fluid again when I hit the next SAG. It was still hot, but
I could tell the temperature was dropping. When I pulled in the lady
offered me an ice cold bottle of water. I eyed her ice chest and asked
if she would mind if I filled my bottles with ice, then I took her up on
that bottle of water. I really appreciated that cold drink! I didn’t
stay too long at the SAG because I knew I still had a way to go and
didn’t want my legs to think I was done. The next section was all uphill
and it was tough. I kept getting those little twinges like I was going
to get a cramp, but it never happened. It was a slow climb to the top of
the hill. Any time I got a twinge I’d ease off my cadence. I made pretty
good time once I finally got to the top though. I stopped at the last
SAG before getting back onto SR 89 and sat down and ate a banana. The
clouds had gotten pretty thick and I could hear thunder in the distance.
Before I left I felt a few drops of rain. I hit my high speed of the day
at 51.4 mph on the descent back to Flagstaff. There were spots where it
looked like it had rained pretty hard, but I thought I was going to get
lucky and stay dry. Nope. Just as I got back on the outskirts of town,
the sky opened up and it absolutely dumped rain on me. The bike lane and
half of the right lane turned into a river, so I claimed my lane. Like
the 600k I had to take my glasses off to see because it was raining so
hard. I saw several riders stopped on the side of the road. I figured if
I was going to be rained on, I might as well be making forward progress
and just plowed through it.
Somewhere along that section I missed a turn. Not surprising since I
couldn’t see much and I was 15 feet from the edge of the road riding in
the middle of the lane. The rain finally eased up and I kept expecting
to see my turn. Instead I saw Lockett Road, a road I knew I was supposed
to hit at some point so I stopped and checked my map. I don’t think it
made any significant difference to my mileage, it just meant that I had
to ride in traffic a little longer. The temperature had dropped
substantially and it was now in the low 60’s. Arm warmers at that point
would have been nice. When we started the ride I think it was in the low
70s and it got close to (if not over) 100 when we were at the bottom of
the mountain. My Polar shows a low temperature of 61 and a high of 110
(probably when it was sitting in the sun at one of the SAGs), so I think
there was a 40 degree temperature change over the course of the ride.
My legs actually started to feel better when I got back into town. I
don’t know if it was the extra bottles I drank at the last two SAGs or
just the mental realization that I was almost done with the ride. But I
didn’t have any more warning twinges about cramping the rest of the ride
in. So this time weather, hydration and an unfamiliar course got to me.
My Polar shows 4600 feet of climbing, but it sure felt like a lot more
than that. I averaged about 22 mph during the first half of the course
and about 12 for the second half. I was happy with my cadence this time
and felt like I was maintaining a good spin throughout the ride. But for
next week’s 200k brevet in Colorado I’m going to take my time and enjoy
the Colorado scenery! :-)
|
