2006 Reach the Beach
Perfect day for a ride everyone. It had threatened to rain, alas not a drop was spilled from the Oregon skies. Having an easy pace helped to have plenty of gas in the tank all the way to end 102 miles away in Pacific City. Heck, I could have ridden for a couple more hours. It felt great. Awesome.
I love that it took less effort to power up the hills than how I felt seven months ago at Livestrong (my first century). What a difference these last five months of training have made. The racing had been a great learning experience too since it has taught me so much about what it’s like to be fast and keep tempo. It all made this moderate pace today highly rewarding (and a welcomed break from HAVING to go fast).
I had premixed my two bottles of Hammergel and powders last night and even went as far as weighing the contents on the scale to perfect the caloric requirements for the day. For those who care, a guy my size at 154 pound can assimilate 225-280 calories an hour, meaning it doesn’t pay to take in any more than that. You’re body ends up spending to much work digesting, instead of sending that much needed blood to your legs where all the work is being done. I calculated that I needed to mix in 1,500 calories worth.
One thing’s for sure. If you commit to a liquid diet for an event, stick to the plan, Stan. In Grand Ronde 75 miles into the ride, lunch smelled so good that I innocently ate a boiled egg and a small bowl of chicken noodle soup. Well, that put solid food calories in my tummy AND exceeded my recommended caloric requirements for that hour. As a result, I had some gastric distress for miles after leaving Grand Ronde. Man Alive!
I thought I blew it. I felt horrible and couldn’t spin my legs no matter how hard I tried. There was a major loss of power. No wonder the guys at Hammer don’t want you mixing different foods while taking supplements. Luckily, after about forty minutes my stomach finished processing that food and I was back in business. I took another swig of water and a little gel and rode tempo into the wind. I need that rush of speed to end the day.
Props to my buddy Mike who had a successful first century. He worked really hard to make it to the end and he did it. Congrats my man! Tom and his group rode a phenom 18.6 ave mph. Good grief? Yup.
What else? Oh. Stats! See the GPS download here. If you don’t feel like wading thru the data, here’s the pertinent info. 102.02 miles; 15.5 ave mph; 6,780 ft of elevation gain; HR max 167, 132 ave.
p.s. I woke up extra early to ride the 9 miles to the start line. Perfect warmup to start the day.
May 23rd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Excellent!
June 21st, 2006 at 2:11 pm
[…] The hours in the saddle are paying off. My hams, glutes, quads, hands and feet are used to the distance. It’s a great feeling. I did some climbing on this route but it’s still considered a flat route of 4,100′ elevation gain over 100 miles.. I will make sure that’s right when Motionbased is back online, but the prelims from the Garmin showed just that. The pace was slower than I wanted, but in my defense it was cold and windy in the morning and hot and windy in the afternoon. Also, these type of rides along the highways have too many stop lights. Not as good as the organized centuries I’ve been doing out in the boonies. 98.51 miles. 6:07:51 time. 16.1 average mph. Hmmm. A little faster than Reach the Beach. Not bad. I’d say I’m getting better. If I can get closer to 17.5 average solo I think I’ll be able to make goal at STP with the group. […]