NOTE: Barring death or dismemberment, Part II of the road bike shopping saga will be posted tomorrow. I will get them all up by the end of the week for sure, because I'll actually have my new bike by then. I'm sure I'll be dying to prattle on about it. :)
If anyone was interested in that story, I hate that I'm leaving you hanging like this. I should have written all the parts of the story yesterday, but by the time I was satisfied with the first part, I needed to get some sleep before the KFC. Which, incidentally, is what THIS post is about. So, forgive me this little interruption, and I'll put up Dances with Idiots tomorrow. Promise.
Well, the KFC has come and gone. My metric century was cut short due to thunderstorms, and I ended up only doing around 47 miles. My total ride time was 3:22, for an average of just under 14 mph. My total time with stops was just under 4 hours, though I can't say for certain exactly how long it was...I was soaked to the skin when I got back to the parking lot, so in the rush to get out of my wet clothes I forgot to check what time it was. I know I left the parking lot at around 11:30-11:40, and I was mounting the bike and changing clothes for 5-15 minutes, so...we'll say 11:20. Since I started at almost exactly 7:30, 4 hours is close enough. When I look at the pictures from the finish I'll have a better idea--I'll probably be in the 11-11:15 group, since the pictures were about 10-15 minutes before I got to my car.
The first part of the ride went really well, and it looked like it was going to be a great riding day...partly cloudy, relatively cool. I was maintaining between 14.5 and 16 mph pretty consistently for the first 22-23 miles or so, then the storms started to roll toward us. About that time, I turned onto this road that was that kind of pebbly pavement (Buller Rd), and right into a headwind. Those two factors combined to bring my top speed down to around 11 mph, and also to piss me off royally.
I stopped at the 2nd rest stop at ~27 miles, and the volunteers were recommending that the 100-milers take the 60-mile route instead because there were lightning storms to the south. Sure enough, looking down our remaining stretch of Buller from there was like looking into the sky in hell--huge dark clouds, lightning, thunder. Holding onto a faint hope that I would somehow miss the storm, I set out from the rest stop as soon as I could.
The good news is, the wind changed to more of a crosswind after about 2 miles, and I was able to pick up some speed again. The bad news is, it was a headwind again a mile or so later when I caught up with the rain. I was probably only riding through the rain for 10 minutes or so, but it felt oh, so much longer. I mean, at first it was kind of cool, in that "woo! Riding through the weather! Hardcore!" sort of way, but that wore off quickly once I could no longer see through my glasses. By the time the sky started to lighten up again, I was drenched and my shoes were totally waterlogged. But I soldiered on, because hey--only 30 more miles to go! And what else could I do anyway? I was in the middle of nowhere, and I'd be just as wet waiting for the SAG truck. AND I'd feel like an wuss.
As the weather stayed clear and the road conditions improved, I started to entertain the hope that I could do 60 miles after all. I was mostly dry by the next time the next round of drizzle hit me, and this time it wasn't even blowing directly in my face! Woo! I was back up to a 14-16 mph pace by the time I reached the Brookshire rest stop (37 mi), where I nearly missed the turn. I took off my wet gloves there because they were chafing my knuckles, and was getting my drink refilled when the head volunteer advised that they were strongly recommending that everyone take the 30-mile route back to the finish line. There were storms all over, particularly south, and they wanted everybody in safely.
I considered. It wasn't raining at the time, but I had puddles in my shoes and every inch of me was soggy. I decided against another two hours of thunderstorm riding. I called Rob and told him that they were recommending that we take the short way home, and to go ahead and stay at the house (He and Noah were going to meet me at the finish) because I would be back at the mall before they could get there. I put on my wet helmet, tried in vain to drain my shoes, and stuffed my wet gloves in my back pocket.
The next 6-7 miles were actually quite pleasant, except that I missed my gloves. Unfortunately, there were about 10 miles left of the course, and the last 3 of those were utterly miserable. Essentially, a replay of the storm on Buller, only on the I-10 feeder (frontage road, for the non-Texans). I was able to average nearly 14 mph, though, due to the better road surface, and an intense desire to get the hell off the road before a wayward car creamed me or I sprouted gills. I was also singing a litany of kid's songs to pace myself(She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, Right Field, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, etc.), which was surprisingly helpful.
About a mile from the finish, I passed the picture guy. It was still raining pretty hard, but the songs had cheered me. I still didn't feel like smiling, though, so I just put on the most pleasant face I could manage as I went by. I'm sure it's going to be pretty grim, but it can't be any worse than any of my other ride pictures.
UPDATE: Yep, pretty grim.
The rain had pretty much stopped by the time I found my car...which also took longer than I would have liked, because I was late coming in and forgot to make any kind of mental note of where I had parked. I changed everything but my sport bra in the driver's seat of my car, totally not caring who might see me half-naked in the parking lot. I figure all of the cars around me were fellow riders anyway, and they'd have their own problems to worry about.
After I was in mostly dry clothes, though, I started to feel really good. I drove home singing along with the ipod (FM transmitter) and car-dancing. This energy stayed with me until about 34 seconds after I ate lunch, and I've been fighting to stay awake (and not bitchy) since. I'm mostly succeeding.
So, while 47 miles is not the 60 I wanted, it's still the 2nd longest distance I've ever done. I'm really happy with my average speed, and my cadence and HR were better than usual, too. Part of that can be attributed to the course being so flat, but I can't deny that I'm also more fit this year than I was last year at this time. Even with the rain, I was able to ride about 14 more miles this year in the same 4-hour timeframe. Rock.
Posted by Joy at July 17, 2005 07:18 PMYeah, I was lucky and finished before the storm blew in. Took a wrong turn and ended up riding 45 miles, instead of my planned 43. Oh well, more races on the Horizon. BTW, the Trek Pilot 2.1 is a nice looking bike. I saw it Saturday picking up race packet.
Posted by: Jarrod on July 18, 2005 08:41 AM
yeah, I heard you missed the rain, you lucky bastard. :) One of the advantages of starting on time, I guess...and being able to ride 20 mph, of course.
Posted by: joy on July 18, 2005 09:00 AM
found a group doing about 24 mph and stayed with them til the 43 and 60 mile split. In hindsight, I shoulda stayed with that group. Nobody else turned with me and I was on my own into a stiff headwind for the next hour. Not fun. I will do at least 60 on my next ride
Posted by: Jarrod on July 18, 2005 09:09 AM
yeah, one thing I cut out of this post because of length was a complaint about the route signage. It's so easy to make wrong turns, because the volunteers don't even know which color arrow is which. I asked at every rest stop which color arrow was 60 miles, and no one could tell me.
I finally just asked which way I needed to turn at the next split, and they could usually decipher that from the map. Even then, the turn from Buller onto 1458 wasn't very clear. I had been told to turn left, but the T was more of a Y, with options of continuing straight or turning right. I went straight, which turned out to be correct, but it's frustrating to not know for sure. Especially when the difference between the two routes is an extra 40 miles.
From what I could gather from the half-dozen other times I heard the question asked, the reason they don't mark the signs with numbers is that they use the same signs for all their sponsored rides. You'd think that they'd at least tell the volunteers the color coding, or put stickers on the signs with the mileages, or SOMETHING. Yeesh.
Posted by: joy on July 18, 2005 09:21 AM
Well, I decided to attempt ChampionsFit again this year. I dont have delusions of finishing it - but I would like to get my long runs up to 10 miles. Man, ran with them this past weekend and the total number of runners seems much smaller than years past.
Posted by: Jarrod on July 18, 2005 10:09 AM
I'm not surprised at the lower turnout. I don't know about the running groups, but the walking group coach was terrible last year. She was late when she showed up at all, and resigned halfway through. By that time, I was done, but it was still frustrating enough to sour me on the whole program. I did entertain the thought of joining Woodlands Fit this year, but then my foot problems started to get worse and I stopped running altogether. Maybe next year...
Posted by: joy on July 18, 2005 10:16 AM
