From my house to the first Chevron gas station in Whiteriver is 50 miles round trip. I haven't ridden 50 miles since I took time off the bike 2 years ago. The weather was gorgeous so I was going to make the most of the sunshine. The ride started off really well. I had a head wind going down, but it wasn't too bad. About 2 miles past Hondah there's a pretty good downhill. Of course going down this is a blast. My hope, was that I would save enough energy to get back up. I didn't take any food, but had made up two waterbottles full of Perpetuem. Perpetuem is an energy drink made by Hammer Nutrition. I used to have my "dosage" memorized on how much powder to mix in my bottle but it had been so long, just mixed one scoop in each bottle.
At 25 miles, my legs were a bit tired but not too bad. I stopped at the Chevron to buy one bottle of water to replenish the one that I had drank on the way down. After a few minutes of stretching, I started my trip back up the mountain. About 5 miles after leaving Chevron, and without much warning, I was starting to feel really hungry and very tired. At this time it was about 12:30. All I had to eat was a bowl of oatmeal around 7am in the morning. I obviously had misjudged how much Perpetuem to mix and I had no food with me. To a cyclist, this is called Bonking or Hitting the Wall. Your body has no more calories to use as energy. You start to feel lackadaisical and really weak. I had no choice though but to pedal on and I was still about 5 miles away from the climb back up the Whiteriver Hill. It was going to be slow going for the remaining 20 miles. It was a gorgeous ride, but I was hurting too bad to really enjoy the views.
At the bottom of the climb, I just told myself I was just going to pace myself all the way to the top. Ya, easier said than done. My back was starting to get tired so I attempted to get out of the saddle and stand up to pedal for a while. As soon I did that, my legs said, "no chance pal, sit your butt back down". I thought my legs were going to cramp as soon as I stood up. If you've ever had this happen, it is a miserable and painful experience. Once your legs cramp, you are only left with trying to survive and finish the trip.
By the middle of the climb I was really hungry. I was craving a granola bar and of all things a Bit O Honey. My goal was to make it to Hondah and spend the 3 bucks I had left on my sugary sweets. All I wanted was some energy to make it home. I made it to Hondah without my legs giving out. I bought my snacks, visited with some lady outside the store and then got back on the bike to head the remaining 10 miles home.
The best part about the last 10 miles was that I had a great tailwind. Pedaling became almost effortless. I took the back roads by the Smoke Shack in order to avoid the crazy traffic. My legs were now on auto pilot. Anytime I had any sort of uphill, they just burned like crazy. My quads were shot. I was doing all I could to keep them from cramping. 3 hours and 33 minutes later I made it home. Two years ago, what took me 3 hours now took me and extra 30 minutes. I was wiped out, my back was burning with pain, and my legs were shot. To think that this used to be super easy for me. I've got so much work to do before my trip to Colorado. I really need to get to the point where 70 miles is fairly easy because right now, I'd never be able to finish the Ironhorse.
But.... I guess you gotta start somewhere. It's about half past 10pm right now and I'm surprised I'm still awake. My legs are sore, but overall I feel pretty good. I'm on call this weekend so I'm not sure what kind of riding I'll get in, if any at all. My lead driver had to leave for a family emergency so I'll be doing double duty at work. I'll just have to squeeze in some workouts somewhere.
Well that's it for now. Nighty Night.
1 comment:
Holy crap man !!! I am impressed. Not bad for an old man :)
Spuds
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