Final Prep

Saturday was final prep day. We did much shorter mileage with the ride just a hair under 40 miles. This week was a backdown (taper) week. Our bodies are trained to do this ride and now is the time to rest up before next weekend's big event.

The ride was a pretty standard out and back route from the LLS offices in Kearny Mesa out to Mission Bay and back. The only thing that was different is that we had a little "anarchy" the last mile. Anarchy means, abandon the pace line and race each other in to the finish. We hit the previously agreed upon start line and took off. Chad is the fastest but he really isn't in the race since he is the mentor. I was able to latch onto his wheel and follow his lead out. He was going pretty fast at over 25mph. I hung on his wheel for a while and then he rotated off and got behind me and I powered on trying to keep up the blistering pace. A few hundred yards from the finish, I came out of my left pedal and had to scramble to reclip in. Races are won and lost based on things like this and Jeff and Brian were able to take advantange and pass me up. Great fun.

Back at home base, we wait around for a bit for the rest of the Team to arrive and then we move indoors for our Final Prep party. Food and drinks, kind words from our mentors and coaches and final instructions on what to expect at the ride.

Some helpful hints

1) Expect cold weather as we will be starting somewhere around 5am.
2) Bring something to clean the dirt out of you shoe clips as crossing the river beds may gunk them up.
3) No bike riding the entire week! Rest the legs.
4) Get lots of sleep and hydrate the entire week.

Less than a week to go and I'm both excited and nervous. Excited to do the event, but nervous because it means going further and faster than I have ever gone before. There are some race conditions that we weren't able to simulate during our training that I discussed last week including the increase speed we will have from riding in a large group. We will also be "tapered" (i.e. rested).

My team is shooting for a sub 6-hr finish. This means 109 miles at an average pace of 18.1 mph. We are planning exactly one 2-minute stop to replace (not refill) water bottles at the midpoint. I'm planning on having a nice ham sandwich (with mayo!) and a Dr. Pepper (non-diet!) waiting for me at the stop. Stuff my gullet and then head out and do the last 50+ miles to the finish.