It's just a training blog bro

Pearl said:
for me i think it would have taken longer, i feel like if i stopped at mile 100, i would have felt like i did at mile 180 trying to get started again. also, the heat would have been that many minutes/hours hotter lol
Click to expand...
I haven't done anything quite that long time wise, but I always felt stopping for more than a few min in the second half would result in not being able to start up again.
 
Pearl said:
I'm starting to run out of things in this cycling game. I think I've gotten as fast I can get without drastic increase in hours to my riding, drastic changes to my eating habits, or drugs. I needed to find something to keep myself interested in riding more. Many moons ago, I drew up a loop from Charlotte to my parents house in Wilmington. I spent way too much time tweaking it and adjusting it to be the fastest, smoothest, and have enough gas stations to stop at to refuel. Never knew if I was going to do it, but I like maps, so I kept tinkering. Well this past weekend I had the chance to do it, as my parents were driving up to Charlotte on their way to Nashville, so I had a free "reverse shuttle" back home. The route I settled on was 201 miles, 5,400 feet of climbing, with 4,400 or so coming in the first 90 miles.
View attachment 245774

I'm far from an ultra ultra endurance junkie, but I have enough stuff dialed into get to at least 8 hours. After that, who knows what is going to happen. I packed enough sugar for 8 hours, two front lights, two blinkies, fully charged headphones, cash/credit cards, some co2/tubes and we were all packed for success.

I ate breakfast the night before at like 9pm and went to sleep, which was kind of useless because I don't think I ever fell asleep. Alarm set for 3AM and smash a Celsius, kids Clif bar and I'm pedaling at 3:30AM.
View attachment 245770
The bike all set to go.

I decided to raw dog the riding in the darkness to save my headphones for when I really needed them. It is really amazing how peaceful it is at this hour of the day. I scared many racoons and deer in the dark on my way east. I had a pace/effort I wanted to hold the whole time (the fastest way from point A to point B is a steady effort) and it almost seemed too easy in the beginning. I kept with it. The first 40 miles until my first stop were roads I knew, which made time fly by pretty quickly. I planned to have a spot to stop every 3 hours or so at the 17mph pace I wanted to do, but apparently gas stations in Norwood do not open at 6am. Which was fine, I could milk my last bottle another 30 minutes or so until my next stop. The cooler temps/no sun helped that.

View attachment 245772
Heading east means I got to see the sun come up right in front of me, which was pretty cool.

I see some eyes glowing in front of me and with the rolling roads, unsure if it's up farther ahead and a deer, or right in front of me and a racoon. As I get closer, I realize it's some crackhead dude walking in the street smoking a cigarette and scares the shit out of me, thankfully I hit him with a good morning and he was just as excited to see me. The sun comes up and the garmin switches from dark to night mode, phase 1 complete.

I knew the hardest part on paper would be mile 60 or so on Route 73, has the steepest and longest "climbs" on this route. I know it doesn't even register as a bump most places and is laughable. The biggest one is 250 feet of climbing or so? I knew I could push a little harder over those and coast/big gear it down the back side. It was a nice change of pace to have a steady effort uphill, kind of. This eventaully ends and I reach my 2nd stop on my map in Ellerbe.
View attachment 245773
Mile 68, 4 hours in.

I feel pretty refreshed, keeping my effort in check is really going well. Grab some water, a snickers, hang out for about 5 minutes. Take a pee on the side and roll out. These old towns are so strange, theres nothing in them, but tons of people around.

Next stop is 38 miles away and nothing too eventful here from my memory. It is starting to warm up and I'm enjoying the mostly rolling downhill towards the beach, cruising at the same power as before and now doing 18mph. Eating and fueling good. Thankfully the roads zig zag a little and makes things easier, only focusing on the road until the next turn. End up doing the first 100 miles in 6 hours elapsed, which is kind of confidence inspiring. Spirits are still high.
View attachment 245775
Get stuck at a train for what felt like 10 minutes (probably only 5) but felt the heat from the road warm me up.

This section between miles 100-130 is fairly built up before it goes into the country again. I have a 1 full bottle (90 minutes per bottle) but decide to stop and cool down a tad.

View attachment 245776
This pit stop I grabbed some caffeine for the mental boost that I'm hoping it brings me.

View attachment 245777
Beer caves are amazing. I browsed some beer as I had my snacks. Total life saver.

Every time I see Jim do these epic rides, I always laugh how he gets flats all the time. Like, what is he doing? I swear sometimes he is flatting the tire on purpose. Well, going through Lumberton I go over a set of railroad tracks that were made for tanks to go over and get a pinch flat in the rear. Thankfully it was right next to a abandoned gas station so I had some shade to make this repair.

View attachment 245778
Mile 129.

Swap this out pretty quick and was a welcome forced break. Going forward the roads were more popular, which meant long miles on straight stretches of roads, but also kept my speed closer to 19mph. Cool.

Between here and my next stop I'm mentally cracking. It's hot, the straight roads are mind numbing. Legs and body feel okay, but brain, not good.

At Mile 135, I don't need to stop but I see a hole in the store and stop for water. These stores are like seeing a mirage in the middle of a desert, I just get drawn into them and want to get something. Kind of breaks up the ride. I'm sort of doubting myself at this point, but I'm over halfway on my route, in the middle of nowhere where I would not want to hang out for a ride back home, so I keep pushing. I just keep moving forward and hopefully the miles keep rolling off on these flat, straight roads.

View attachment 245779
Mile 144, ~9 hours.

My Garmin 520 (yes it's that old) Is finally getting tired of navigating and gives me the low battery alert. I switch to my Fenix watch and it may have been better. Before I was staring at the purple line on my 520, watching time click by. Now I just see that I am on the line, no other info besides how many miles are left.

I have one more stop on my cheat sheet after this one. I grab a cup of ice and dump it down my back. I forgot to mention that the last 50 miles or so, I've been messaging Lou, AKA soulchild. Some of you may remember him. He lives down in Wilmington now too. I coaxed him into meeting me on the road and giving me a mental boost on the way in.

Mile 153. My stops are getting more often and not as long, but I'm really taking advantage of the beer caves. And $1 cups of ice that melt in 10 minutes. People at the gas stations have been asking me where I was going and obviously think I am crazy. Everyone is super friendly though.

I've been on this road 211, for the last 35-40 miles and it is draining on me. I see my last stop ahead and think one more cup of ice and some ice cold water would really hit the spot right now.

IT'S FUCKING CLOSED.

I have enough Formula369 to finish this, but really wanted some cold, refreshing water. I find a spicket on the side of the building and dump my helmet, rinse off my arms, all the things to cool my body down. Sadly it's so hot that the water isn't really cold, kind of like, the ice melted and sat in the sun for 30 minutes temperature. It was really a let down emotionally and put me in a bad spot.

I'm dying to see this left hand turn onto another road, Where I should run into Louis. Around 173 I see him riding at me, excited to have a person to talk with. Sadly my brain is excited to chat with him, but my legs and body are on fumes. Garmin says the temps are now in the 90s and being 10+ hours into this thing, my body is completely confused on WTF we are doing. It's only been about 10-15 minutes since i ran into him and I'm hoping we pass another store or anything with water. I keep looking around each corner and see nothing. Suddenly, what seems like 2 hours (but only 30) we see a church and I do the same thing, trying to get as cool as possible. Mile 180. I just need to keep moving.

About 12 minutes later we see a gas station and you know ya boy is stopping at it.

View attachment 245781
Lou looking for refreshments even though he looked very fresh.

Lou would be chatting and suddenly look around and see I am 5-10 bike lengths back, he found this humorous. At this point I'm pushing like 100 watts but it being so flat, we are still moving forward at around 16mph. A couple of overpasses, some more built up traffic and I finally see some single digit "miles to go" numbers. I keep rattling them off 1 mile at a time. I turn into my parents neighborhood, miss one of the pedestrian bridges and have to turn around, which was a chore in itself with my body being dead, but eventually I turn around and get to where I need to be. My folks welcome me and Lou with some cold water, an air horn and some chairs.

3:30AM in Charlotte to 4:30PM in Wilmington.

13 hours elapsed, 11:40 moving time. Pretty surprised with that.

This is probably something I won't do again, especially since I would either need to do it in a cooler time of the year, but would have less daylight to do it. Certainly wouldnt to Wilmington to Charlotte. But I can say I did a massive A to B ride, didn't die and I think I did it pretty well.

Surprisingly the next day I didn't feel completely dead. My body was certainly sore, but I didn't feel like I got hit by a train. I guess keeping the effort in check the whole time really went a long way.
Click to expand...
Impressive AF - especially in the heat!

Solid write up.

The longest I ever rode was 134 miles - on a fat bike. But, after 105 mile if I got off the bike and stopped it would have been over!

IMG_2733.jpeg
 
This was a weird day for me; Love Valley Roubaix.

I did this twice, so I have a good idea of the course and expectations. They moved this event from March to September the last couple of years to get some better weather. It drizzles overnight and promised the gravel would be perfect, and it was. Not dusty at all.

Arrive with plenty of the time to roll around and get going. It seemed like the field was thinner this go around, but enough familiar faces (either from YouTube or I've raced before) to know that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. 2019 was the last go at this, I remember my power meter was getting serviced and I was flying blind. I was basing everything off of my memories of that race and feel like I should be able to do better... seems fair enough?

We roll out and the first climb is short and muscle memory kicks in, but suddenly I'm very comfortable, very comfortable. I'm able to climb the first short pitch and I'm not hanging onto the back and dying, so either we are going slow, or I'm feeling good. Bomb some gravel, group stays together. I figure if I can sag climb the bigger ones and keep the Project Echelon and CTS jerseys in sight, I will be good.

My bike seems to be rolling really well on the roads and keeps rolling, so at times I'm coasting and closing gaps or even advancing on the left side of the rotation, which I use to my advantage to catch some breaks. Eventually we come to the second climb, which stair steps up on gravel. I'm the first 2 wheels, which is perfect. I get over the first one sag climbing likea boss, and see maybe 10 people in front of me or so? Cool. It descends on some gravel to just go back up again, and I try and move up on the downhill to prep my sag climb again. Well I somehow mess this up and either miss the split or am too far back and get gapped off. You can't really stand up and launch an attack/chase on steeps gravel roads, so I just hope that I can keep the wheels from spinning out on me. I have one younger kid on my wheel and with the gradient being this steep on gravel, I don't think he's getting much of an advantage. Plus I'm not riding harder than I want to, knowing this climb should take closer 20+ minutes.

Climb turns to pavement and young kiddo comes around me and chases the solo rider up the road, and I just keep doing my own thing. My brain thinks, if I'm just going to do my own thing, why do I even sign up for races? I know what I can do and just do that, why not push myself? I start counting the gap to the two guys up the road by mailboxes/shadows and realize I have about 15 seconds or so to close. The road points down and is super twisty/flowy. I either recover and do my own thing, or try and close this gap. I decide to chase. I slowly make up ground on the descents and since I can see them in front of me, I can pick my lines a little more aggressively. A car eventually passes me and normally that would mean I get a draft, but on a twisty mountain descent (2.5 miles -700 feet @34mph) it actually doesn't help. Either the two of them see me, or I'm a goat descender and close the gap to them on the next flat/rolling section of the road.

I tell myself it was worth it and happy to have some people to rotate with. At what cost? We will find out on the next climb. For now we take some tempo pulls and try and recover where we can. The next climb is paved (Ball Mills Road) and starts out around 10% and slightly lets up towards the top. Kid is eager to smash it, while the other 40+ guy I am with is more of a slow burn. Eventually the two of them leave me to be and regroup up the road, but I'm cooked at the top of the first pitch here. The sun is hot and I'm really wondering WTF I'm doing here. I trying to stay motivated but gravity/the steepness of the road and realizing I'm 2 hours in and thought I'd be done in 2:45 and just about out of water really is messing with me.

I see a neutral support car on the side of the road and ask if they have water, it's ice cold and very refreshing. I get a small mental boost knowing I won't shrivel up on the side of the road and keep pressing. Maybe I can just roll in without bleeding anymore spots? The road flattens out before the next gravel descent, which is the best one, Vannoy Ride Road.

I hear some conversations as I turn onto the gravel road and sure enough, I see two green jerseys. I pick up my pace just a little bit but it's no use, they slowly pull me in like a alien ship picking up it's humans to experiment on. I know one of the guys, raced cross and some other gravel stuff with him. I kick a tad to stay with the group but when it pitches up, I get gapped. When it pitches down, I'm descending better than them. Since this goes mostly downhill, that is good. We get down Vannoy Ridge at different paces, but at the bottom we are all together. I joke that I would love the day to be over here, as the best part of the day is done and we could easily just go straight back to the car, but we have a couple more little bumps to get over.

I eventually get dropped for good and again, negative vibes kick in. I'm glad this is only a 48 mile race and have maybe 20 minutes or so to go. As I climb the last gravel pitch, I'm caught by another rider, local to Charlotte, who is just in the zone, climbing quickly, legs spinning smoothly, just everything I wish I felt at the moment. but I don't. I would have loved to jump and catch back on, but it just isn't in the cards. With only a couple more minutes of climbing, I'm pretty sure this spot is locked in. I get over Fox Mountain, grab the drops and bomb down the next gravel descent, hitting 40mph straight back to Love Valley.

I finish is 3:05 and I'm really bummed about that. I can't believe I could go 20 minutes slower than in the past. Grab a soda and water, hot dog, change and chill for a tad before rolling back home. I didn't see where I finished in the results, but can imagine they front fast dudes at least beat my goal time. I wonder why I do this and how I could not make any progress from the last time I did this. Fast forward to when I see the results, and I start to feel better about myself.

The winner this year did 2:42. to my 3:05. I was 23 minutes off first.
the winner of 2019 did 2:26 (on 28mm tires, too funny) to my 2:38. I was 12 minutes off first.

If I was 12 minutes off of first this go around, I would have been 7th overall.

I finished 14th overall (says 15th overall but the include an e-bike in that? wtf) and 6th in 30-39, behind a Project Echelon rider Tim Savre, 2x US Road Champion Matthew Busche (I think he makes the BWR NC course?) and a few other local goats I know.
I'm going to say the heat made the course slower, doing this in the 40s has to make it slower, right?

I start to feel better about myself, but can't help but think maybe all the fighting/training I'm doing is not to get better, but to not LOSE anymore fitness. It's like fighting an uphill battle and doing all the work is just to not get slower. Are the gains over? I can't be the only one to feel this way at this age/point in their cycling journey.

This may seem like a pity party and Sunday I was really bummed, but as I'm writing this I feel like I'm in a much better place mentally. Sadly the weather looks like it will be shit the next couple of days, so I really need to get my head on right. I have one more race on the calendar which reminds me a lot of SSaP, 2 hour race at around 13-15mph on flow trails. I'm going to try and sandbag the SS group, hopefully get a pre-ride in the next 3 weeks to see what gear to run...
 
jShort said:
@Pearl Do you do any gym work ? That seems like the answer here.
Click to expand...
I did in the winter but once the weather turned nice I got away from it. I did the full fascat offseason lifting piece and got some good weight up. Looking forward to doing that again oddly enough...
 
Wondering about the condition of the dirt last time in March compared to now. Obviously heavily dependent on the amount of rain, but the dirt roads I ride are excellent in March and completely blown out right now. That has to have an impact.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom