Toughie

Yesterday's ride (Nov 1) was the second hardest ride I've ever done. The weather forecast was for cool temperatures with some clouds and possibly some sprinkles. Our head coach told us that we were going to work on speed and the the majority of our climbing work was behind us and that we were going to climb less than 3000 ft.

LIES. It was 90+ degrees with no breeze or shade and the climbing was more like 4,000 feet.

Only six of us again (Chad, Jeff, Brian, Ashley, Donna, Me) with Angel being MIA again this week. He's missed the last few training sessions. We started out fine and made our way from Carlsbad up to Oceanside along the bike path clocking and impressive average speed of 23+ mph. We turned inland and that's when it got ugly. Hills, hills, hills and it got hotter and hotter the further east we went. We keep a tempo and try to stay together but we are suffering. I'm doing poorly and Chad asks that I stay behind Jeff save energy until I recover. I swallow some pride and comply. Much better.

10 more miles and we are at our SAG stop. I wolf down a PB&J and slam a large Gatorade and then head into the Wendy's and soak my head in the sink. I plant myself in the shade of the building and the sidewalk just sucks the heat out of me. The next thing you know there are 10 people sitting with me cooling off. A few people are having a hard time. One rider was somehow having severe chills, most are overheating. Back on the road.

About mile 67 after a brutal, unforgiving climb up Champagne road, a few people abandon and get driven back to their cars. I strongly considered joining them but I found a bit of shade, removed my helmet and shoes, doused my head with cold water and just cooled off. My head was pounding but after about 10 minutes I felt much better. Only 10 more miles to the next SAG stop and less than 20 miles left in the total ride. Go for it. I refill my water bottles and even add some ice and we head off for the last 10 miles.

Back on the road and I immediately start to second guess my decision as somehow we miraculously started climbing again! Luckily, the climb was short and we were rewarded with a screaming downhill on Del Dios Highway. Beautiful countryside, Lake Hodges to the left and the breeze from the 30mph downhill made up for the lack of shade. I had soaked my jersey before leaving so got a very good evaporative cooling effect. We are heading back to the coast and it is getting cooler so I'm doing better.

Mile 75 and we are at our final support stop. We were jamming so fast that we beat the support truck and have to wait a couple minutes for it to show up. More water, more PB&J. Decision time again. Only 10 more miles to go but I'm not feeling that well. I make a quick assessment and decide to go for it. Only 10 miles, I've just refueled, the route is along the coast, it's cooled off. Off we go and all of a sudden I'm feeling like Superman. Unfortunately, two of my teammates are suffering. We slow the pace down a bit and let them rest by drafting off of us. Teamwork, you know. We make our 85 miles and blow right past our exit back to our starting point. It seems that the "fast team" as we are known are special and get to do an extra 5 miles! 5 Miles isn't that long of a distance but it's tough when you mentally prepare for the 85 and then have to do 5 more. Grumble, grumble and at long last we are back to the start.

Tough ride but we hung as a team.

Here's the route.














Totals were 91 miles, lot's of climbing and 5 hours and 43 minutes of ride time.

One more big ride next week then a backdown week and then TUCSON!