Ride Report: Great Escape
Distance: 88.55 miles(!!)
Total time: 6:42
On-bike time: 5:54
On-bike avg mph: 15.0
Avg. mph, incl stops: 13.2
High speed: 26.3 mph
OPEN WIDE for the recap.
This ride was longer than advertised, which I figure is karma coming back around for the short Continental Airlines ride. Luckily, this route was flatter than Kansas, and laid out perfectly for a southeast wind...all the tailwind was on the last third of the route, so by the time the wind started to pick up, it was at our backs.
I was a little worried about hydration at first...since I didn't drink enough the last time I used my Camelbak, I decided to try bottles on this ride. I had two 24-oz bottles ready to go, but forgot that the big bottles are too tall for my seat-tube bottle cage. After several attempts to cram the second bottle under the top tube, I gave up and left it behind. In retrospect, I think this turned out to be a good play, since having only one bottle made me hyper-aware of how much I was drinking. Since the rest stops were super close together, I had already decided to only hit every other one, so I gave myself a goal of emptying the bottle between them and refilling. If the bottle wasn't empty when I got to a stop, I finished it before I refilled.
Fuel wasn't a problem...I brought two packages of shot bloks, and the rest stops were well stocked with fruit and girl scout cookies. I even managed to snag the last Samoa at mile 39. Woo! :)
My biggest issue on the ride was with my feet. I took advantage of the monthly club member sale at our sponsor shop to buy a new pair of shoes, and I made the mistake of breaking them in on this ride. My cleat placement was okay, thank goodness, but I cinched the velcro WAY too tight initially. By the first rest stop, my toes were screaming at me. Once I loosened them a little, my feet gradually got better, but they still bothered me for most of the ride. I've no doubt the shoes will be great once I've worn them a few times, but making their maiden voyage my first 80+ miler? Probably not the best idea I've had.
My shoulders were better on this ride than the last one...I made a conscious effort to keep my shoulders down and back, and I think it made a huge difference. My back's still a little sore between the shoulder blades, but not nearly as bad as it was last week. Maybe the flatter course made a difference as well, who knows.
The other thing that made a difference in my overall enjoyment of this ride...my ipod. Since I knew I would be riding alone, I decided to flout the rules and bring my headphones. I mean, I love me some me, but spending seven hours with nothing but my own thoughts for company? No thanks. I figured they weren't going to bust me as long as I kept the volume low and one ear free, anyway. It did work really well to keep me motivated, and I think I'm going to have to figure out some way to take music on the MS150 without feeling guilty.
I didn't end up riding the whole ride by myself...most of it I did, but on the second time through the nastiest part of the headwind (the 68-mile & 84-mile routes had a loop at the southmost part of the route--the 68 milers did it once, the 84-milers did it twice), I got passed by a group of three bigger guys that weren't going all that much faster than I was. Since I had had enough of fighting the wind by myself, I upshifted after they passed and latched on to the end of their paceline. Ah, relief! I stayed with them until the next rest stop, and made sure to thank them for pulling me along back there.
That would have been the end of it, except that we were some of the last riders on the course, so some of the corner marshals (volunteers who sit on the corners and direct the riders where to turn) had already packed it in. These guys were all from the area, so I decided to tag along with their group and let them figure out where we were going. Plus, I wanted to practice my paceline skills and maybe take a pull for them, since they helped me out earlier (whether they were aware of it at the time or not).
By the time we got out of the rest stop, I was feeling really good. I had been careful to pace myself conservatively in the first part of the route, so now that we had a tailwind and I was riding with a group I was feeling like a superstar. Still, I stayed in the middle of the group for a while, until I happened to get through an intersection first. I got out in front, and one of the guys called up in a joking way, "So, you gonna drag us along for a while now?"
"I'm gonna try...I don't know how long I'll last, though."
And so I started to ride. The wind was pushing us along, and I didn't want my joining of their group to slow them down, so I set the fastest pace I could comfortably keep...about 17-18 mph. This went fine for a while, then a couple things happened at once: we turned into the wind, and Here It Goes Again (itunes link) came on the ipod. I matched my cadence to the beat of the music and threw all my concentration into maintaining a respectable pace for my adopted group.
By the time the song was over, I was starting to get tired. I slowed down the pace a bit, figuring that I had made decent go of it and someone would come up to relieve me any second. Didn't happen. I slowed a bit more, tried to control my breathing--still nobody. Finally, I chanced a look back as I rounded a curve.
There was no one there. The closest guy to me was a good 50 yards back. In trying to not embarrass myself by being too slow, I accidentally dropped the lot of them. Crap! Well, at least now I didn't need to worry about backing off. :) I was, however, of two minds about it. On the one hand, I felt like a shitty paceliner, since I didn't bother to check that my group could keep up with me. On the other, I RULE. Even after over 60 solo miles, I was TOTALLY stronger than these guys. :) They caught me again at the next intersection, and the same guy was all, "Where'd that burst of energy come from back there?" All I could come up with was, "Dude, I have NO idea. I thought y'all were right behind me...sorry about that."
The next time I took the lead, I was careful to maintain the same pace of the guy who was leading before me. Even then, though, a different guy from the back came up almost immediately and pushed the pace up a couple mph. Huh? Do I offend?
I shrugged it off and stayed with him, again figuring that the other two were right behind me. They weren't, but caught up at the next rest stop. So was that dude just going off the front on his own for a while, or was he expecting everyone to keep up? I don't know. By this time, I was kind of unsure of myself re: the whole group dynamic, but I still wasn't confident I could find my way back to the start by myself if the signs were gone. I also wasn't sure whether it would be more rude to just leave on my own at this point, or to continue to tag along with them and take turns at the front. They didn't seem to mind me, but I didn't want to be that weird girl that wouldn't go away, either. So I stayed back toward the tail end of the group for those last 7 miles, then ended up first through a light and beat them to the finish by about a minute. I waited to thank them for letting me tag along with them, smiles and waves were exchanged, and that was that.
So, yeah...sore feet and paceline etiquette questions aside, it was a good ride. I paced myself well in the beginning, the wind situation went mostly in our favor, the ipod was a godsend, and my overall average speed was exactly where I like it to be. Also, now I know I can do an 88-mile ride, which is just about equivalent to an MS150 day. If there had been hills, it may have been a different story, but I'm still more confident of my readiness than I was last week.
Posted by Joy at March 18, 2007 04:34 PM
