300k bike ride--crazy cyclists only.....

At the end of the triathlon season this year I will be competing in a full distance ironman race in Florida. For those of you not familiar with the distances involved, that includes a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and then a full 26.2 mile run. I am most concerned with finishing the swim at this point but a close second in concern has been the bike leg. One hundred and twelve miles is a long way to ride for me and in fact, prior to 2009 I had only completed one century ride (100 miles) last year that seemed incredibly far. The thought of trying to run a marathon after biking 100+ miles would have been laughable last season.

However, I have been working hard expanding the boundaries of what my body can accomplish so I have been going on longer runs and of course longer rides. There is a local series here (St. Louis brevet series) and across the United States that sponsors long distance riding and on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 I completed a 300k ride (187 miles) but there was a shorter 200k option too. These guys and gals are hardcore folks who habitually ride such distances though the rides themselves only attract about 20 or so cyclists. The course winds through the farm country of Illinois and most of the roads are flat with little to no traffic and perhaps a scheduled stop every 30-50 miles. Essentially we started riding at 6:00 a.m. and with a few stops to pick up snacks and water, gatorade etc and a 30 minute lunch we kept riding all day until 8:05 p.m. for this rider. By the way, these events are totally self supported with no truck or other help on the course if you get in trouble you are either on your own or at the mercy of strangers or whatever your fellow cyclists can do for you.

I was riding with another guy for the first 150 miles and we were flying. At the 145 mile mark I finally had to drop off his pace of 20-22 mph on the flats with wind at our backs because my legs just felt dead. We stopped at a gas station/convenience store at mile 150 and I bid him good luck and opted to sit down and rest for about 10 minutes. I just couldn't maintain that pace although I was sure I could finish the ride. Nevertheless, if someone offered me a ride back to my car I may have jumped at the offer. Just after I left the gas station I ran over a rock and my tire popped. Not a good sign. Changed the tire with CO2 for the first time. Easier than expected. My butt was hurting at this point so I tried to switch positions every few minutes or stood up on the bike to stretch the legs. I slowed down for about 20 miles but still probably averaged 15-16 mph on my own.

No one passed me but as the sun started setting around 7 p.m. I started worrying about riding in the dark. I had bought lights for the front and rear of my bike but somehow the clear plastic cover on the rear light fell off on the back of my car on the ride over and then one of the batteries fell out somewhere in the first 20 miles of the ride. You have to have batteries to start the ride according to the rules since we were starting before the sunrise and then in case you don't finish the ride before sundown too. Anyway, that meant I had no rear light and I was worried about getting hit and not being able to see obstacles on the road. I then picked up the pace for the last 25 miles and finally finished the ride just after 8 p.m (it was quite dark by that point). Throughout the ride there are a few checkpoints where you take a card given to you by the organizer to sign acknowledging you reached that point and also listing the time you arrived. Presumably this is to prevent cheating but I find it inconceivable that anyone would go to the trouble to cheat. Anyway, the last checkpoint down the street from where my car was parked was the police station in Edwardsville, Illinois. You actually sign your own card at the police station and drop it in a plastic box left at the waiting area of the station listing the finish time for the entire ride including all your stops and whether you would like to receive a finisher's medal. I think a lot of riders try to beat their time from previous rides since the 200k, 300k course stays the same for multiple events each season and I am guessing for several years too.

The guy I was riding with initially was trying to arrive before 7 p.m. to beat a previous personal record I think. He missed his goal and finished at 7:20 p.m. I completed the "short" distance 200k ride on March 14th in 9 hours 35 minutes and on this occasion April 4th completed the "long" 300k in 14 hours and 5 minutes. So, those are my personal records to beat for the next ride in the series. After finishing the 300k I vowed to myself never to ride that far again (or at least for quite some time) though the 200k seemed much easier. To be fair I ended up riding with a much faster guy on the 300k rather than a fellow rider who was not nearly so speedy on the 200k who I felt comfortable with pace wise. So, I may revisit my 300k ride again this season. However, I may need to find someone a little slower to ride with or maybe just get faster between now and the next ride in the series. So, that was my Saturday.

Sunday I woke up fairly early to go out to Chesterfield to run with the Ghisallo group--the group organizer had sent out an email asking everybody on their team to try and show up since someone from the local pbs affiliate was going to be doing a documentary piece on runners preparing for the Go St. Louis marathon in two weeks. So, I felt somewhat obligated to try and show up--I arrived about 5 minutes late and there was only one other runner present--a young lady named Jennifer who I am sure I had seen at events but had never met before. Anyway, she arrived only 1 minute late and said no one was there (only cars)--so we ended up running together for about 8 miles at 9:07 pace per mile. It was a good recovery run and a nice conversation with a fellow runner.

After the run, I drove over to St. Charles with the intention of meeting up with St. Louis triathlon club members to ride a Trailnet sponsored ride of 48 miles in the flats of St. Charles. Common sense might suggest to an outside observer that I am overtraining(weekend warrior come to mind?) but I think it is important to try and push my body to do more than normal to prepare for some of the long distance races I have on the race calendar later this season. Plus, usually some of the riders who show up aren't that fast and I figured if I implode on the ride I could just tuck in with the more normal riders who aren't out to push the pace. However, my mapquest directions were wrong and I drove to the middle of nowhere! Fortunately I had the race flyer which helped me locate the ride start 20 minutes late.

Bottom line is that I missed my friends start time so I ended up riding the 46 miles solo in 2:53. The wind on Saturday was moderately challenging but on Sunday it was downright punishing--I felt lucky to average 13-14 mph on the flats with a headwind kicking my butt 1/2 the time (with the wind at my back I averaged 18-22 mph). It was a good gauge of my fitness and gives me some indication of what my half ironman bike leg might look like at the Racine half ironman race in July which is allegedly flat too. The Sunday course was 46 miles I completed in 2 hours 53 minutes at a brisk but not fast pace with a headwind. So, I hope to ride around 3:15-3:20 for the 56 miles on the half ironman course--maybe faster if the weather cooperates but I have to make sure not to ride too fast and save something for the run.

Coming up this Saturday is the Shakespeare's duathlon--a 2.5 mile run, 15 mile bike and a 2.5 mile run. I completed this race last year and though it was tough I enjoyed it immensely. So, the time to beat from last year was 1 hour 44 minutes. Stay tuned for a race update after Saturday.