Solvang Double Century (my first 200 mile ride!)
March 30, 2010
This past weekend Chris and I did something I thought, up until about 6 months ago, I’d never do in a million years — a double century. The idea of doing two hundred miles on a bike (that doesn’t have a motor) in one day seemed totally unpleasant and unnecessarily painful.
But it turns out that neither unpleasantness nor pain are required. Well…maybe a little pain, but once you’ve done a marathon with stress fractures, everything seems rosy!
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
Long story short: for those of you reading this because you’re thinking about doing the Solvang as your first double century, you’ve made a very smart decision! Solvang is a fantastic first time double. There is absolutely no crazy climbing, there’s plenty of food, the riding is nice (minus one friggin horribly nasty descent), and the location is fantastic. Don’t believe me? See my data in serious detail here. Please note the mileage is a bit low because my annoyingly incompetent Garmin turned itself off for a good half an hour. And, because it was like 6AM, I couldn’t see that it was off (because it was dark!)
But now to the real ride report:
Total Mileage: I believe it’s technically 193 miles.
Total Climbing: ~7500 feet (a bit of climbing at the start, and a shorter steeper climb near the end [right after the last rest stop])
Average Heartrate (bmp): 136 (me), 148 (Chris)
Number of Rest Stops: 5 rest stops (4 normal ones plus 1 lunch stop)
Total Time (including stops and everything): 13 hours 45 minutes
Ride Time: 11 hours 56 minutes
Average Speed: 16.1 mph
Start Time: 5:15AM
End Time: 6:59PM
Overall I don’t have much to say about the ride… it’s sort of just a big blur! We originally wanted to start at 5AM but didn’t get going until 5:15. In the end it looks like this was to our advantage — Chris read on the bike forums that the guys checking people out where late, so there were like a hundred cyclists waiting at 5AM with nobody there. But, by 5:15, it was all cleared for us!
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
We got lucky going into the first stop (mile 42ish) when two tandems zoomed up by us. We, like everyone else in the vicinity, made a dash for their back wheel and were lucky enough to catch on. Since my one and only crash, which landed me in the hospital (crying like a baby), I’ve been very reluctant to “really” draft… so I just sort of get near enough to the back wheel in front of me that I feel some benefit but not enough that if they put on the brakes my life would flash before my eyes.
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
Ah… but speaking of drafting, here’s my one giant pet peeve of this event: Moochers. Or dare I say, Wheel Suckers. These are the people who, as you pass them, speed up and try and grab your wheel for dear life and then, once they’re there, stay behind you and draft FOR-EVER. And they don’t say a word! They don’t ask, they don’t announce their presence — they just sit there and friggin draft off you.
FOR-EVER.
There were multiple people throughout the day who would get right behind me and draft for literally over an hour. But this one dude took the cake. This guy, no shit, probably drafted off us for over 30 miles! Without even a word!
Eventually the injustice of it was too overwhelming so I pedaled up next to Chris and told him to slow down so this dude could take his turn (I was still hoping this guy just didn’t know how to get in front of us to offer). So Chris slowed down, I slowed down, and we just sort of looked at him.
And what did he do?
He slowed down too. (!)
Finally, after a long while he decided to step up, be a man, and take a turn. But for how long? Oh… maybe four minutes. Actually, probably less than that. I thought he was joking!
Eventually we just got sick of it and pulled over… at which point he slowed down and said, “So…I just keep going straight then?”
To which I replied “Oh yep!”
To which Chris replied (to me, when the guy was gone): “W.T.F!?”
So yes, these moochers are really really serious on double centuries. It was sort of too bad, really. It’s a cool opportunity to meet and work together to reach a goal (of making it to the next rest stop), but instead these people just make me feel used.
Now I have to be fair here. Later in the day (I think it was mile 120ish all the way through Pismo) Chris and I ran into a really nice woman with a Furnace Creek jersey on and I probably drafted off her for a good 15 miles.
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
So how is this different? Well, we traded pulls in the beginning (until it was my turn and I went too fast up a mini-climb and accidentally dropped her) but it became pretty much overwhelmingly clear that she could kick both our asses and still make it back in time for tea. And once that was cleared up we all just chit-chatted and she led the way (with Chris confirming directions) for a nice chunk of the day. Eventually she saw some other faster sexier riders (who I’m telling myself she knew) and she dropped us like a bad habit.
But anyways, to future riders: Don’t be a bad person. If you’re going to draft, take your friggin turn! Or at least say “dude…I’m dying here, I can barely hold on… can I draft for a bit?” To which I’d say “ah, I feel your pain my friend — draft away”
And we’d be good.
But moving on!
The ride was definitely harder for Chris than it was for me and I think that was a nutrition thing. By mile 110 Chris was looking forward to a break and food (which would be lunch, mile 118) whereas I was just pedaling away. And for the rest of the day it was sort of like that… but getting worse. Chris would feel better leaving the rest stop but after a while would just be miserable. And this is in contrast to me who really has a hard time getting going after stopping (and thus is not a big fan of it!)
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
So in the future Chris is going to drink two bottles of full dose (2.5 scoops/bottle) Perpetuum per ride segment (usually around 40ish miles) instead of one and a bottle of Gatorade Endurance. The Gatorade just doesn’t have the calories and nutritional benefits (we think) he needs. Oh, and we’ll get some endurolytes (basically salt pills.) At the end of the day I think doubles are really a test of willpower, patience, and proper nutritional planning and execution way more than a test of physical strength. If you can do a century comfortably, you can complete a double like Solvang — with the caveat that you figure out your nutrition and stick to it.
So for the last 90 miles we did our best to keep our speed “up” but definitely had to chill a little to make sure Chris didn’t break up with me. It was touch and go for a while. 
The last stop was the best. My booty was ON FIRE and I was oh so happy to get off my little seat (Chris’ butt was just fine… so unfair). And what did we find at this rest stop? Cup o Noodle and our friend Ryan (Ryan also did the AIDS ride last year.) So we all talked and ate for a bit before doing the last 16 miles of the day.
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
So…the final climb. It’s the thing you’re worried about (you future Solvang-ers, you!). And I’m here to tell you it’s really not that bad. No honestly, it’s not.
Granted, you’re going to be tired. Your legs won’t be baby-fresh. In fact, you may want to just fall over and go to sleep. But no matter what you can do this. It’s a bit steeper (it’s about 2.3 miles of 6% average but there are some parts that steeper than that [like 11 or 12%]) but it’s doable. And, whatever — take your time! Enjoy the sights! You’re a biking machine!
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
But with all that said I would recommend you get your monster-self to that climb before nightfall because the road is horrible. Going up the climb isn’t so bad because you’re going so slow, but the descent is objectively awful! It’s way worse than Tunitas before it was repaved. We are talking seriously bumpy, seriously pot-hole-y, and just plain painful. My bike was rattling so bad down that thing… I just kept thinking “If I fall, at least it’ll be slightly more glorious doing it on a double than doing it back home!”
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
So yeah, the hardest part of the ride is staying mentally aware and physically loose on that god forsaken descent.
But after that it’s a super smooth shot to the finish — so go fast! Chris found his last wind and we definitely picked it up (averaging over 20mph).
And that was it! We rolled into the finish, cheered for our own victory, got a glass of water, and vowed we’d never be that crazy again.
The End!
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
…So when’s Davis? 
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| From Solvang Spring Double Century |
Bike Training 2010: First Pescadero Loop
January 16, 2010
I’ve decided to write up little posts about my bike training this year since it’s useful for tracking progress and, mainly, because I find it fun to look back at all our awesome rides.
For 2010 so far we have two big rides scheduled for sure:
Solvang Double Century (March 27th)
DeathRide (July 11th)
We’re also toying with the idea of going for the triple crown, which means completing three double centuries in the season. If we end up doing that (which is in large part contingent on me not dying during the Solvang double at the end of March) we’ll likely also do the Davis Double and then one other.
I’m also very much thinking about doing the Super Tour this year. The Super Tour is a two-week biking extravaganza up in Northern (like really Northern) California. You can see their proposed route here (it’s a pdf). To me this sounds epic and unforgettable, but the problem is Chris can’t get that much time off work so I’d have to do it alone. And biking for two weeks hardcore by myself doesn’t sound nearly as fun as doing it with Chris. So we’ll see…
And other than that we have loads of weekend adventures planned, including a two-day event biking to Monterey and back, a one day Santa Cruz-and-back ride, and lots more!
Anyway, back to Pescaderoaasd! On January 16th Chris and I dived head first into our training with our first Pescadero loop of the year!
Summary:
Distance: 60 miles
Elevation gain: 6,463 ft
Average Speed: 11.1 mph
Max Speed: 39.7 mph
Average Heart Rate (HR): 132 bpm
You can see all of my stats here. And all of Chris’ here. If you get bored, it’s sort of fun to compare our heart rate and watts at different points in the ride.
Overall the ride went way better than I thought it would. Granted, I don’t think we physically could have gone any slower up old la honda and tunitas, but I wanted to be extra cautious with our first longer climbing-filled ride. My legs felt ok and the food in Pescadero was, as always, friggin fantastic. Worth the ride right there!
2010 season, here we come (slowly but surely!)
ALC8 Day Six: Rain and a Knight in Scion Armor
June 5, 2009
Throughout the night between day five and six the rain was just pounding on the tents. I’m talking waked-me-up-it-was-so-loud pounding. Granted, I think being in the tent amplified the sound (and thereby amplifying our concern) but still… it was raining. Now I came prepared for rain. Chris and I did the Pon Memorial ride with the Positive Pedalers (a group comprised mostly of HIV+ cyclists) and that two-day ride was so bad they had to cancel the second day and sag us all home.
(sag = when for whatever reason you can’t complete a ride so the organizers pick you and your bike up in a vehicle and drive you the rest of the way. Also see loss of all glory for more information)
Anyway, through the Pon ride I had purchased a waterproof jacket, full fuzzy finger gloves, toe covers, and wool socks. So when I woke up on day six I was ready to have a Pon repeat. I even had toe warmers I put in my bike shoes!
Originally the plan was for a group of us to get out early, hit a coffee shop, and then wait around until they opened the 101 section for us. Basically all riders were going to be held at rest stop one (I believe) until 9AM because we had to cross this bridge on the 101 that had no shoulder, so they were going to close a lane for us for a specified amount of time. And obviously they weren’t going to let you go over it before they closed the lane. So me, Michael, Topher, and Ryan all started together in search of coffee. And in the cold drizzle we made our way to the start of the gradual climb to rest stop one and, hopefully, coffee.
Unfortunately, it was a full-blown war zone out there. Bikers left and right were getting flats and the rain wasn’t going anywhere.
You may be wondering why the rain would cause soooo many more flats. The answer (as best I know) seems to be that generally there’s a lot of crap on the side of the road. Pieces of glass, nails (you’d be surprised how many nails I see…where do they even come from?!), sharp rock shards, etc. Over time those things are sort of covered in dirt and more bike friendly crap. And, because of cars, most the really heavy evil stuff gets pushed to the very right of the shoulder. However, the rain seems to uncover all those nasty sharp critters and pull them up a bit from the far right side. Thus, you get a LOT more flats.
Well the Google crew was not immune from such a horrible flat fate and it seems I was picked, nay chosen, by the flat gods to be the Google sacrifice. Right on the first descent I felt like my back tire was a little funky. I slowed down, lost the Google guys, and as some random guy was passing me I yelled “Excuse me, could you please look at my back tire. Is it flat?!”
And, sure enough, I had a flat.
Now, I’ve never actually changed a flat on my own (don’t judge me) – so I was pretty nervous. With a zillion bikers nervously wobbling by me in the rain and flats happening right and left (there were three people about ten feet away from me trying to fix one), I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. So I started taking my back wheel off while sticking my thumb down (which is the sign for “I need help!”)
Now in theory a friendly biker was supposed to see my thumb, pull over, and help me… but alas, no luck. I think people were too flustered to really grasp that my thumb was down. And then, after grasping it, to actually decided to pull over. Luckily, soon enough a sag vehicle saw me and pulled over. I explained that I could use a bit of help with my flat but the nice woman said she wasn’t a mechanic and could only sag me to the rest stop. I was NOT interested in sagging (see definition above) so I started fixing it myself. As I was working on it another biker came out of the sag vehicle and tried to help me. We got it all set up, went to pump the tire, and nada. Nada. Apparently I had a bad tube. So there was really nothing for me to do but sag. They reminded me we did what we could and that it was only a few miles to the rest stop. So I got in and right away the nice guy asked if this was my first time sagging. Right when I went to say yes I started crying (which I think gave him his answer) so he gave me a hug.
Once I was dropped at the rest stop (at the rest stop there are bike techs set up that have extra tubes and whatnot) I saw my very friendly bike tech dude! So I went up to him told him what happened, got all teary again, and got some big giant bear hugs. Really, the hugs help. He then told me that all bikers were being held at the rest stop because there was (according to rumor) a big accident on the 101 so they couldn’t close a lane for us. There were loads of bikers all using those emergency blankets waiting for news.
I told him I’d be right back and called Chris crying. “Hunny?? Something terrible has happened [insert sobbing]” I then explained how I had to get sagged to the rest stop and how my world had pretty much ended. He tried to be supportive but I think he was so relieved to hear the “something horrible” wasn’t a bike accident it was a bit difficult for him to take me too seriously
But, to make me feel better, he told me what was going to be a surprise – he started driving down at 7AM and would be in Ventura in time to see me roll in! But, at that moment, I found out they had cancelled the rest of the ride (CHP shut it down) and we were either to wait at the rest stop for a bus or bike back to camp (15 miles) to wait there. I decided to bike back and Chris was to meet me there and be my personal sag vehicle to Ventura!
Soon enough Chris arrived and picked up me, Michael, and Ryan. We stopped by Carl’s for lunch and then made our way down to Ventura… to our hotel rooms!!
The rest of the night consisted in a big group of Googlers going out to a nice steakhouse for our last dinner together and then everyone hitting the sack pretty early. I was sooooo happy to see Chris and finish up my week long adventure!
ALC8 Day Five: Red Dress Day and Mixing it up a bit
June 4, 2009
After the long quasi-century yesterday, today was to be a shorter, and you’d think, much easier day at 60-some odd miles (once again I couldn’t charge the Garmin properly). However, I’ve noticed that the harder days for me aren’t the long century days but the day after them! Though the difference between today and day three (the last post-century ride day) is that today is red dress day! Basically that means that pretty much everyone dresses in red, and preferably a red dress, for the ride!
However, while in years past the red dress day ride was a super mellow 40 miles, this year the course was changed to be a bit over 60 miles – and to include, I’m told, a bit more climbing. Knowing that, I was curious to see if people would be as dressed up and ridiculous as years past! I mean 60+ miles is a non-trivial ride! Are you really going to want to do it in a giant dress and heels?
The other difference between this “recovery” day and the last one was that a group of us (Ryan, Baris, and Topher) decided to do it together. Ryan wanted a real recvoery day and I figured if I pushed hard enough, I could keep up with that!
So after getting dressed up in our red day best, we got moving. The first rest stop was about twenty miles long and it was relatively chill-going. But, after looking at the route map a bit more I realized there was some significant climbing between rest stop one and lunch. And, while it’s possible for me to stay with Ryan on flats (when he’s in recovery), there’s no way in hell I can stick with them on the climbs. So, to avoid the stress of watching them zoom off into the distance, I just said we should split up and re-group at lunch for lunch and a stop in Solvang for some yummy pastries. So everyone agreed and we split up.
So after we split I had some rough goings for a bit. I think the grade was seriously only 2-3% with 4-5% rolling for a long time but ddaaayyuummm I felt like a slug. It wasn’t until the real steeper bit showed up that I finally felt like I had some energy. Oy!
Soon enough I arrived in oh-so-adorable Solvang to find Baris and Ryan eating lunch. And, soon after that Topher arrived, too. We ate quickly and then made our way to downtown Solvang in search of some cycle-friendly cafe Ryan had been to. Eventually we found it, ordered some drinks and a scone (guess who ordered the scone) and hung out for a while.
It was actually kind of nice to spend time riding with people. And, more than just that, to have people to actually eat with!
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Near the end Ryan and Baris pushed a bit ahead so Topher and I rode together. Poor Topher, his friggin ankle was so swollen!
That afternoon/evening the group took a shuttle into Lompoc to eat Thai food to prep for 80+ mile Friday.
Oh, and after all the eating, we went back to camp and decided to actually go to the town hall-esque meeting that happens every night. I ended up meeting a guy who got his PhD/JD and is about to start as a professor of political science at Santa Cruz! So we talked a bit about what that’s all like (since I’m interested in the PhD/JD track). I also got to hear some great speakers explain a bit more about what the SF AIDS Foundation and LA Gay and Lesbian Cener do. Pretty amazing.
And after that I am totally wiped out and must hit the sack!
ALC8 Day Four: Evil Twins and Riding Solo
June 3, 2009
Sadly today my Garmin died before lunch so I can’t give you my super fascinating data. But, suffice to say, the ride was supposed to be 94.1 miles, I got lost for a few miles, which means my ride was somewhere between 96-98 miles.
Basically I got lost because I’ve not had to look at my route sheet one single time on this ride – there are roadies at pretty much every possible stop you could get lost at, so it’s just not necessary! However, there was this one point near the end of the day where there was no roadie and the turn was .1 miles after the previous turn, which means I totally didn’t see it! But anyway, that’s getting ahead of my story…
So Michael and I did a better job today and got out by 6:40-6:45. And that was the last time I saw him until we were both back in our new camp.
So today is known for the “evil twins” which are two back to back climbs that start at (if I remember correctly) mile 10. I didn’t really know what to expect because when I hear “evil twins” I think of something like friggin Tunitas or worse… page mill! (because let’s face it… page mill is a friggin BIATCH). But I was happily surprised – both hills maxed out at around 7% but were very steady.
Oh! But before that! So remember how yesterday I said I felt sort of “blah” with food and stuff? Well today my super special monthly visitor decided to show up a week early! So that was a happy surprise this morning. So biking from camp to the climb was really uncomfy because oh god my cramps were bad. So I decided to stop at that rest stop and ask the medic for some Vitamin B (IB that is) . A little while after that I felt a lot better.
Anyways, the rest of the ride was pretty solo. Climbing really separates people out a lot more, so it’s not surprising to be solo for ten or fifteen mile stretches.
The only complaint about the whole solo thing are the freakin headwinds and crosswinds! Oh dear gods they were strong today! I definitely missed having Chris there to take the worst of it
And I also missed Chris a bit because when heading into the last fifteen miles I smelled the MOST delicious cinnamon rolls. But, by the time I smelled them I had just passed the little restaurant and, being alone, couldn’t get myself to turn around for them. But I just KNOW that if Chris smelled them he would have stopped us in our tracks and turned our booties around! And oh boy it would have been worth it! When Topher got into camp tonight he mentioned that he stopped there and I sure was jealous!
When I got into camp Michael and Ryan PC yelled to me from their chill spot in the grass. So I went to say “hello” before my shower (PS: since Michael gets in soooo way before me he actually lugs my luggage to our tent for me! Isn’t that awesome?!)
After dinner the three of us went to Burger King so they could get their ice cream fix and I ate my fair share of fries.
I just heard them say that tomorrow is 67.7 miles – and it’s red dress day (the day when everyone gets all dolled up in, yeah you guessed right, crazy red dresses).
Now it’s time to get ready for bed – I mean it’s already 7:45!!