So, It Has Been a Year

September 4th....why does that sound so familiar to me?  It's not my anniversary, not a birthday, Close to a holiday, but not quite.  Hmmm, why does that date stick out in my head?  Oh yeah, I remember.  It was the first day that I got back on a bike after ten months away from cycling.  Now that I remember the significance of that date, I can remember that day so clearly now.  Man, it sucked!!!  I thought I was going to die....but I had survived and figured that was a good sign of things to come.  I had a lot of questions back then, and I really wondered what kind of progress I would be making on the bike over time.  Looking back over the last 31,536,000 seconds, I have most, if not all of those answers.

This part of my life journey began with a bang.  Go big or go home as they say.  Having sold everything cycling related at the end of 2013, I had to start anew.  So I hocked the house, and sold my first born (just kidding, I would never sell my first born.  I just rented with the option to buy) to buy a bicycle and some cough....cough necessary items to go along with it.  Why did I go all out you ask?  Toni made me.  That's right, you heard me.  My wife kidnapped me, and took me to the bike shop, forced me to fill out a credit application, and made me sign my name on the dotted line. Seriously.....ask her!!  Looking back on that day, she might be reconsidering her position on things though.  Oh well, whether she liked the outcome or not, I was back into cycling again.  Whether or not I would be a "cyclist" again was yet to be determined.

You never forget how to ride a bike they say.  I guess that is right, but when you rode at the level that I had, you really question if you can come back at a similar level.  What I mean is, when I stopped riding in 2013, I had become an ultra endurance cyclist with a double century under my belt, and a total of 11 century (100 mile +) routes over the year.  I had climbed a category 1 mountain, and ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway.  In the calendar year, I had logged almost 6,000 miles!  My average speed was in the high 18's and I was into the 19's for shorter routes regularly.  This was after only two years of cycling, and I was 39 years old.  As I was returning to cycling, I was nearing the end of my 40th year.  I was feeling old, and just didn't think that I had it in my body to repeat that kind of performance on a bike.

That was probably my biggest question as I gave in to Toni's wishes (demands) to get back on the bike.  What would be reasonable to expect?  I knew that I would be slow, and would not have the endurance that I once had.  That was a no brainer.  But, would I be able to improve enough to match what I had once been able to do?  I doubted it actually.  I had promised myself that I would be happy just being able to ride, even if my rides were between 25-50 miles each, and my speeds stayed in the 17-18 mph range.  At least I would be able to get exercise which was a very big factor in my wanting to ride.

I started to make goals for myself and tried to set reasonable expectations.  First among my goals was to get rid of the extra weight I had packed on which was making me feel very uncomfortable.  I had grown to a solid 205lbs, roughly 20lbs in 10 months.  This played a large part in making me feel like crud.  I also knew that when I was riding, I had no problems with acid reflux, which had worked its way back into my world.  This added to me feeling like crap, and was just no fun at all.  Lastly, I was feeling a little less mentally balanced than I had when I was riding.  I wasn't sure exactly why, but would soon figure that out.  I found that for some reason, cycling really helped me deal with my PTSD, and the stress from being a police officer.  I wanted all of these issues to be addressed by riding, and felt pretty sure that they would be.

The next part to think about was my aspirations.  What would I reasonably be able to do on the bike this time?  I had all but given up on endurance riding, and was looking at just fitness riding.  I wasn't going to really know what kind of expectations I would have until I actually got on a bike and rode it.  That's right, you heard me.  I had just paid a stupid amount of money to get back into riding, and hadn't even been on a bike in close to a year.  I'm impulsive like that.

The smile is just there because I was finished!

September 4th, was that first ride on the new bike.  It was an interesting ride.  It felt familiar and comfortable, yet terrifying and exhausting all at the same time.  Yes I could still ride a bike, but about 30 miles was all I had in my legs.  After that, I was struggling.  I was slow too, slower than I had ever been on a road bike.  But I now had my starting point, and could start with the aspirations.  I felt confident that I could get at least a portion of the endurance back since I had ridden 50 miles on my first ride (20 of that was just no fun at all).  I was sure that my speed would increase...I mean I didn't even shift out of the little ring for the entire ride.  I saw potential though, and figured it would be possible to build my speed back to close to where it once was.

For some odd reason, I got in my mind that I was going to actually think about doing the Double Down to the Beach ride again in 2015.  I must have been crazy, that is 200 miles in one day...FOUR TIMES what I had just ridden.  I guess that is just the kind of guy I am though.  I go big or go home.  The more I rode, the more I started to plan out my coming year.  Not only did I want to do Double Down, I also wanted to do the Assault on the Carolinas.  I had done both of these in 2013, and figured that they would be an excellent litmus test to see how I was comparing with my return.  To those, I added A Ride to Remember, a three day 252 mile ride across South Carolina, and finally the Carolina Century, which I had done in 2013.  For training purposes, I decided that I was going to aim for 12 century routes (one more than 2013), which was one per month.

I was aiming big, and I knew that I might not be able to accomplish these aspirations.  Honestly, I was OK with that.  I just needed something to motivate me to get out and "train" when I was in such bad shape.  While I was formulating all of these hopes and dreams for the coming year, I ended up in a crash with a car.  While this should have put the brakes on all that I was planning, it actually fueled my desires for some odd reason.  While my bike was in the shop to be evaluated, I tried running so I didn't loose the momentum I had started.  What I found out was I'm not a runner.  I don't even think I could run away from something.  Maybe my feet are too big and cause too much wind resistance.  Maybe its because I have the form and flow of an electrified basset hound trying to run with two legs tied together.  Either way, I ran for about a week and that was all I could manage without needing to be hospitalized.

To make a long story short, I ended up with a new bike, and my damaged one back in my possession for use on a trainer.  This was just in time for the "off season" and I was able to take my riding indoors with interval sessions.  Despite this self imposed hell (still better than running), I found that my fitness was increasing by leaps and bounds.  Hey, I might actually be able to participate in the different events that I was hoping for!  Recalling the correlation between speeds on the trainer and speeds on the road, I was starting to see that not only was I going to be able to match my average speeds from 2013, but was actually getting faster.  The weight was coming off as well, which was making me feel much better overall.  This was really working out for me.

Looking a little more comfortable in the saddle in November

By November, I had my new bike, and I was able to get out on the road again.  It was on this ride I saw the results of the time on the trainer.  I was back, and pretty close to where I had left off a year previous.  I was well ahead of schedule in my training, and that fueled me to go at it harder than ever.  As the warmer days came, I tried to get out and ride for as much time as I could.  Exactly a week after my first ride (a metric century), I actually rode a full 100 mile century on November 12th!  This was about 5 months ahead of my expectations.  It was really looking like I would be able to tackle the double century, as well as the three day stage ride across SC.

Goals and Aspirations Realized

A healthier me!

Lets start with the most important part of this...my health.  Mentally, I was much more balanced.  My PTSD was very much under control after getting back on the bike.  I was no longer having irrational panic attacks before going to work, and while at work.  I was sleeping better, thanks to a calmer mind, and the lack of acid reflux.  I swear, it was like magic once I started riding again.  I had only one attack of acid reflux shortly after I started riding, but after that, it was gone for good.  A full year later and I haven't had a single attack, not even a light one.  That alone was worth the price of admission to ride again!  I was feeling better about my body as well, having dropped down to a pretty steady weight of 165-170 lbs which was a bit lighter than I had been before.  This made my clothes fit better, made me feel better in my own skin, and made me feel younger to boot.  I felt like a 20 year old kid again, and that was pretty cool!  I'm pretty sure I have found the fountain of youth, and it is called a bicycle.  My knees no longer creek, I don't get out of breath near as easy doing simple things like climbing stairs, or pushing cars out of the road.  I'm just generally in much better shape than I have ever been in before.

As before, I became addicted to speed on the bike.  I am always wanting to go faster, not necessarily talking about bombing downhill sprints (actually, I don't care for fast descents at all), but average speed over the course of a ride.  My one and only goal of 2013 that I didn't accomplish was to achieve a 20 mph average over the course of a 50 mile route.  Well, I missed that mark by a wide enough margin in 2013, that I couldn't even say I was close.  Now, a year after having my slowest ever 50 mile route, I have seen metric century routes in excess of 20 mph regularly!  In fact, I consider my training speed to be 20 mph now, and I have done 25 mile routes well over 21 mph as an average speed.  I would have never considered that a possibility before.  For my training rides around home, I was seeing on average a 2 mph increase in my average speeds from 2013.  I was still able to do the distances as well.  As of the writing of this blog article, I have completed a total of 11 century (100 mile +) routes so far.  I'm planning on another century tomorrow, to celebrate my first full year back in the saddle which will give me a total of 12.  Hey, that was my goal for 2015!  Counting the November one from 2014, I'm looking at 13 centuries in a year's time.  Another record broken!

2015 Assault on the Carolinas

So, my health and fitness levels were surpassing where I was at my peak in 2013.  How did that translate into the real world of cycling?  Well, my first test came early in the season with the Assault on the Carolinas.  This 100K route though North and South Carolina would test my climbing ability more than my endurance ability.  There were two significant climbs on that course.  The first one was Walnut Hollow, a short, but intense climb pictured above.  On that climb in 2013, I had almost cracked and I barely made it over.  This year, I had no problem, and actually passed a bunch of riders as I made my way up spinning relatively easily.  The second climb was the category 1 Caesar's Head which was about 7 miles of climbing totaling 2000 feet.  It was still a hard climb, but I averaged about 2 mph better than I had before, and didn't need to take a break at the top as I had before.  While my average speed was about the same at 17 mph, I actually did much better on the climbs than I had done before.  It was an outstanding experience, and it proved to me once and for all that the stationary trainer is worth its weight in gold!

2015 Double Down to the Beach

My second aspiration of the year came in June, and it was another repeat from 2013.  This was the Double Down to the Beach ride, the double century from Alamance Regional Hospital to New Bern.  I had really set my sights high for this ride, thinking that I would make it at an average speed of 20 mph.  With record heat that day, (my Garmin recorded a high of 113*F) I had to slow it down, and even then I was showing signs of heat stroke at the finish.  But finish I did, for a total ride of 201.62 miles at an average speed of 19.4 mph!  Even though I missed my 20 mph mark, I still blasted my 2013 pace of only 18.1 mph, so I consider that a win of the largest magnitude!  With the completion of this ride, I was comfortable calling myself an ultra endurance athlete once again.  I had proven to myself that I was still capable of riding that kind of distance in one day, and that had been very important to me.  To have done it at the pace that I did, in the heat I dealt with, was just amazing to me.  I love this picture because it shows so much in the expression of my face.  I was so close to passing out here, and I was in tears for having finished the ride with absolutely nothing left in the tank.  I had given it my all, and pushed myself to the breaking point which I had never done up to that point.  I knew exactly what I was made of, and what I was capable of.  It was much more than I had ever imagined.  There is something very emotional that happens when you reach that point, and quite literally meet a "you," that you have never known before.  I found out I'm a badass by the way!

Day 3, 2015 Ride to Remember

The next item on my bucket list was the Ride to Remember in South Carolina.  This three day stage ride across the state totaled 252 miles, with the 100 mile ride on the last day.  To be honest, this ride had me worried.  Not so much because of the distance, because I knew I could do the distance.  What worried me was the demands I would put on myself to ride hard each day, knowing that if I pushed too hard, I would have a miserable time in the latter segments.  This was a new ride for me, but an important one that I really wanted to do well with.  You see, it benefits the Alzheimer's Association, and Toni has a family history of this disease.  I was fortunate to be able to raise over $2500.00 throughout the year for this cause.  The ride itself is more or less the party at the end of the fundraiser, but I was going to make it into a personal challenge to push myself through.  The first day was pretty spectacular, not so much in distance (only 65.38 miles), but in my average speed.  I finished the day with a 20.9 mph average which was extremely strong for a metric century, with a fair amount of it done solo.  The second day was a longer day, at 88.49 miles and it was a bit hillier.  I made some bad decisions that left me out in the wind for pretty much the whole day as I refused to ride with any of the groups.  My average speed dropped to a moderate 18.9 mph largely due to me cracking in the last 20 miles or so.  I had been around 22 mph for most of the first half.  I regrouped, and returned for the last day which was just over 100 miles in length.  I rode like a man possessed that day, and had an average speed of 22.3 mph!  Not only that, but I ticked off my fastest 40K time ever at 59:46, an even 25 mph!!!  Only in my dreams would I have been able to accomplish that in 2013.

While training for these different events, I started to realize something.  Each month, since April, I had been riding over 800 miles a month. This was further than my longest month ever before, and I was doing it monthly now.  From April to July, I had ridden over 800 miles each month, and had done at least one century each of those months.  August started out as a recreational/fitness riding month and I concentrated on riding shorter, more fun routes mainly.  That was until I decided to start training for the Tour to Tanglewood in September.  Then I started adding distance routes again.  By the third week, I had set yet another goal for myself.  I was going to ride over 1000 miles in the month of August.  With a day to spare, I had logged a total of 1,004.02 miles in a single month with only one century ridden!

I don't know where I am going from here, but I can say that I'm now almost 42 years old, and I'm in the best shape of my life, and feel better than I have in my entire adult life.  Cycling has given me so much, and has introduced me to the coolest version of myself I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  I can't say enough positive things about cycling.  It is my fountain of youth, my therapist, my doctor, my church, my sensory deprivation chamber, and my safe place to blow off steam.  How something so simple can do all those things is beyond me, but there is no reason to try and figure out the why behind it.  I just bask in the results.

A year ago today, I had no idea where buying a bike would lead to.  Now that a year has passed, I can't imagine where I would have been without it in my life.  I am truly a cyclist in all respects.  I knew it would be a lifestyle change, but I never knew how much it could change my life until I saw both sides of the coin.

Now I have to get to sleep because I have an anniversary century to ride tomorrow!

Fueling Your Ride

OK, so this video might be a little more based in humor than actuality, but it does illustrate a valid point...The more you ride, the more you should eat.  I was asked a question not that long ago dealing with what I ate on a century ride.  That really is a simple enough question, until I started thinking about all the variations of food that I have gone through over the years.  When I really sat down and started to think it through, I realized that the answer was rather lengthy, with lots of caveats thrown in for good measure.  I figured that simple question might just be a great jumping off point for this blog entry.

I have alluded to my eating plans occasionally in different entries here dealing with my century pointers, and training plans for various rides.  They all have said slightly different things based on what I was needing for specific rides, or what I was currently doing with my diet.  That is part of the confusion when trying to answer a simple question like "what do you eat on a ride?"  I would like to break things down into three stages for this entry.  The first stage is what to eat before a ride.  This is pretty straight forward and there is a lot of documentation to be found.  The second part will be some different approaches while on the bike.  This part will get a little involved.  The last part will be what to eat after a ride. Think of this as the dessert to your day, and it will be just about that simple to explain.

Pre Ride

Filling the tank

One of the things that cyclists often forget is the need build up your fuel reserves for your muscles before the morning of the ride.  By fuel sources, I mean your glycogen levels.  Glycogen is defined by Dictionary.com as: "A white, tasteless polysaccharide, molecularly similar to starch, constituting the principal carbohydrate storage material in animals and occurring chiefly in the liver and muscle."  Simply put, glycogen is how carbs are stored for later use as energy.  Before you embark on a ride that would be considered "long" for you, you should beef up these glycogen stores.  The easiest way to do this is by eating pasta.  There are so many ways to prepare pasta that you shouldn't have a bit of problem finding the one that works for you.  For me, what I have found is just simple Linguine pasta served nice a firm.  This gives me my base for carbohydrates.  Since the other two energy sources in your body come from fat and protein, I will add some grilled chicken on the bed of pasta and top with some shredded mozzarella cheese.

This dish has served me well every time I've needed to carb up before a big ride.  Typically, I'll eat this the day before the big ride, but in the event of a REALLY big ride, I'll double up, and eat it the two preceding days before the event.  When I've compared how I've felt on the bike between carbing up and just eating normal, I have always felt like fatigue has hit earlier without the fuel stores in my body.  I consider this stage to be of the utmost importance for a long ride!  Without it, you will be relying heavily on what you are able to consume during the ride, and you won't be able to keep up with your body's demands playing catch up all day.

When you are in a depleted state

To show you how serious I am about carbs and the role that they play in long rides, I'll borrow a story from my recent experience with the 2015 Ride to Remember in South Carolina.  This was a three day trip across the state with increasing distances.  The routes were 65 miles, 88 miles, and 100 miles.  The first day I had no problems because I was prepared for it.  That night, since I was away from home, we had to get creative for dinner.  I wasn't able to get my typical carbs in, but I felt that I would be OK without them.  Well, I was wrong!  I suffered for much of that 88 mile ride, and I knew that I was in a huge calorie deficit from the first two days leading into the longest ride.  I needed carbs, not only to prepare for the next day, but to replenish what I had burned in the first two days of riding.  We were close to a Cracker Barrel so I created a carb platter consisting of chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and okra to round things out.  Normally, this plate would turn my stomach with all the heavy foods, but I was so happy to see it sitting in front of me when we sat for dinner.  I have no idea how many carbohydrates were in this meal, but I'm pretty sure it was no longer measured in grams.  After eating this meal, I felt instantly better, and more ready for the next day.  The next day, I set a record speed for a century route, and still felt pretty good at the end.

I credit the glycogen stores for that performance more than anything else.  Like I said, I can tell when I have enough carb stores before a ride, and when I have a deficit.  If you are into riding long distances (typically measured at 62+ miles), this stage is going to set the tone for your whole ride.  It can also help on shorter rides, but keep in mind that you need to keep your carb intake reasonable to your ride distance.  If you overdo it, you won't burn all the carbs for energy, and they will be converted over to fat which is harder to burn.  This can result in actually gaining weight while riding during the season.

During the Ride

This is where things get a little wonky for me.  I have gone through many different stages of what I eat while riding.  I've tried to stick with the rule of thumb that after the first hour, you should be consuming about 300 calories per hour.  Now, this is not hard and fast, and depends on how fast your are traveling.  The faster you are going, the more calories you are burning per hour.  It has been said that an average sized rider, riding at 15 mph will burn approximately 500 calories per hour.  As the variables change, so does the caloric requirement.  Just for conversation sake, I am 5' 11" tall, 165 lbs, and I ride between 19-21mph for an average speed.  With those variables in place, I typically burn between 800-1100 calories per hour (based on Garmin's estimates).  Obviously, you can't replace all of those calories every hour.  There just isn't enough food out there to do that.  Plus, you would get so lethargic riding would become increasingly difficult.  What I've found is that you start with the 300 calories per hour and adjust for what works for you.  If you are burning 350 calories per hour based on your weight and speed, then you can probably look to replace 100-200 calories per hour.  If you are burning at the rate that I do, you will need a good bit more to keep your legs moving happily.

Something to keep in mind is how the body uses your food as fuel.  Intensity, and duration have a lot to do with what is burned and when.  Here is an article that explains this concept in detail.  Essentially, you start out using your glycogen stores.  This is why carb loading is so important before the ride.  What will fuel you at the beginning is what is already in your body.  This will last for 30 minutes, or more depending on how much is stored, and how your body metabolizes these stores.  After that, you will start burning fat which is a slower burn than the glycogen.  This will only last a certain amount of time before your body will then turn to protein, and ultimately, it will start feeding off of your own muscles for fuel.  Think about that for a minute.  You ride to get healthier and stronger, but if you don't eat properly while riding, you body will start to consume the muscles you are building.  That is rather self defeating wouldn't you say?

The first 30 minutes to an hour of a ride, you are going to operate off of your own stores, but after that time is done, you need to start to fuel your body and replace the carbohydrates which are the simplest form of lasting energy.  Since your body will burn different things at different intensities though, you also want to consider adding in some fats which are great fuel sources, as well as some protein.  Protein is an interesting thing though.  Some riders swear by it, and go with a protein rich diet while riding.  This is a fast burning fuel and gives a lot of bang for the buck, but because of that, it is depleted quickly while riding and must be replaced constantly.  This is why I shy away from the protein diet while riding.  I much prefer the slow burn of carbohydrates and fats to fuel my ride.

When I first started riding, my snack of choice was a crunch granola bar.  They are easy to find in the grocery store, cheap, and easy to pack in your jersey.  They made for a great snack and I was getting about 160 calories per package.  I was able to last on about one of these packs every 10-15 miles or so.  As I got faster, and my rides became more intense, I found that granola bars were not enough to keep me going.  I experimented with slim jims to add in protein, fat, and salt (you need electrolytes in the heat).  These seemed to work well.  They tasted wonderful when I was hot and losing salt through sweat.  The protein gave me energy, but I found that they made me thirsty, and the energy didn't last long at all.

In the Summer of 2013, I did my first Ultra Endurance ride.  This was a double century, in a single day.  I had been working very hard trying to fine tune my diet for this ride. This was what I packed for each of the rest stops along the way.  Each of these piles represents about 30 miles worth of riding.  As you can see, I have my standard granola bars (I was getting so sick of these things!) and slim jims.  I had also added some variety in the form of Honey Stinger cookies, Cliff Bars, and a couple of Bonk Breakers.  I think I was looking at between 300 and 700 calories per leg to consume.  On the last leg, you see a slightly different package labeled Perpetuem.  This was something that I had gotten from my bike shop to try out.  I wasn't sure how it would work since I had never tried it before, but I had it just in case.

When I posted this picture before starting the ride, I was met with a comment from one of the other riders I wasn't expecting.  He said something to the effect of "that sure is a lot of sugar!"  I didn't really think much about that then, but I've since given it more thought.  Before I did this double century, I pretty much thought that carbs were carbs, and sugar was just fine for a ride snack.  I was proven wrong on this ride though.  With sugar comes an eventual crash as we all remember from those Halloween nights as kids.  Sure, the sugar was giving me all sorts of energy at the beginning, but after around 130 miles, my body was starting to crash from the sugar highs, and no amount of sugar would bring me back.  It's pretty sad when you eat something called a "Bonk Breaker" and all it does is make you feel bloated and does nothing for your energy level. In fact, by this point in the ride, I was having a very hard time consuming solid foods at all.  In order to finish, I had to experiment with the sample package of Perpetuem which goes against everything I've always said....Never experiment with food on a long ride!

Well, it was experiment or abandon the ride, so I tossed all my hope into a water bottle mixed with the Perpetuem powder and water.  Combined with the caffeine from a can of Coke, I was able to complete the ride under my own steam.  When I unclipped, I had ridden a total of 212.24 miles.  I had eaten about 2/3 of the food that I had brought with me.  I had very little energy left in me.  I knew that I needed to work out a different eating plan because what I had wasn't working at all for long rides.

I started to do all sorts of research into different theories on eating.  One thing that kept coming up was references to Skratch Labs.  They not only make food to sell, they have recipes for making your own food at home.  What they stress is natural ingredients and less processed foods.  This made sense to me, but I really wasn't able to convince myself to order their foods online since I couldn't find them locally.  Without seeing the recipes, I didn't feel comfortable purchasing them either (yeah, I'm cheap sometimes).  But I did take the natural ingredients to heart, and focused my search in that direction.

I pretty much ditched my granola bars since they just didn't have the umph I was looking for any more.  They were replaced by the Cliff Bars which seemed to work pretty well.  I also decided to get rid of the slim jims and stocked up on Gatorade for electrolyte replacement.  The Honey Stinger cookies were ditched in favor of Fig Newtons which were supposed to be very good sources of fuel.  They had lots of carbs in the cookie part, and the figs inside were full energy packed nutrients.  They tasted pretty good on a ride as well, but they tended to get crushed easily in a jersey pocket.  I found that bananas were pretty good to take on a ride as well.  They are easy to store, loaded with potassium which is one of the electrolytes that gets depleted when you sweat.  For the rest of 2013, this made up my staple for solid foods on a ride.

By the end of the year, I had started a sabbatical from cycling after a crash.  It was nearly a year later before I returned.  One of the things that I thought about early on was what would I do for fuel on the bike this time.  I wasn't all that happy with my choices from earlier, and knowing that I would be participating in the double century ride again in 2015, I decided I would really look into sustainable energy sources that were mostly natural in ingredients, and designed to burn slowly over a long ride.

Food for 2015 Double Down to the Beach

What I came up with after a good bit of research was a pretty good mix of options.  I went back to the Hammer Perpetuem that I found to be so beneficial at the first Double Down.  This is actually marketed as "endurance fuel" and is designed to be easy to digest with no stomach problems, providing a nice mixture of slow burning fuel.  You can mix it with water in a bottle, or as a paste.  When mixed in a bottle, you can do it as an hour supply of fuel, or as a multi hour supply based on your weight and time needed.  It is very flexible, and I liked that about it.  The biggest, and only downfall for this product is once mixed, it has a short shelf life.  Ideally, it needs to be consumed in less than 2 hours before it starts to spoil.  In cold weather, that can be stretched out to about 4 hours, but not much longer.  Beyond that point, it will start to sour quickly and will smell very, very bad!  This makes the Perpetuem difficult to use on a self sustained distance ride.

I would typically mix up a 2 hour bottle, which is three scoops of powder in 25 oz of water.  This has about 400 calories, consisting of primarily carbohydrates, but adding in fats and proteins as well.  The hotter it is, the quicker I have to drink it so it doesn't sour.  When I ride a century, I'm gone well over 2 hours, usually about 6 hours total actually.  With that kind of time, I just can't live on the Perpetuem alone.  This is where my solids come in.

I've found that the Cliff Bars still work well for quick energy if I start to get into trouble with bonking on a ride, so I have kept those in place.  I don't rely on them as primary nutrition anymore though.  For my main caloric intake, I have adopted a sandwich that works out really well despite it sounding very nasty.  I take two waffles and spread Nutella between them.  Since the spread doesn't need to be refrigerated, it works well in a jersey pocket.  With the waffles toasted, they tend to hold up pretty well also.  It is very sweet, but for some reason, it just tastes right to me on a ride.  There are plenty of carbs as well as fat in these sandwiches, and they tend to last quite a while in terms of energy.  One of my other favorite ride snacks is an idea that I got from Bicycling Magazine.  They call these macaroons "Power Puffs" and indeed they are.  They are easy to make at home with all natural ingredients like coconut, honey, and eggs.  You can make them in a variety of shapes and sizes, but I've found that using a muffin tin works perfectly.  Toni has about perfected making these treats for me and has found that if you double the cook time, you will get them nice and firm which will maintain their shape in the back of a jersey.

I've come a long way since eating granola bars every 10-15 miles.  With this grouping of food, I was knocking out century rides early in the year with a two hour bottle of Perpetuem, two macaroons at the 30 mile mark, the waffle sandwich at the 60 mile mark, and two more macaroons at around 75-80 miles.  This was all that I would need over the course of a 100 mile ride.  In preparation for Double Down I had to consider my dietary failures from the first time though.  What worked well for 100 miles fell short after 130 miles.  I needed options.

Knowing that I stopped being able to eat solids in the last half of the double century, I had to consider that as a possibility once again this year.  I knew that the Perpetuem worked well for me, and caused no stomach issues at all.  I started to look into sustaining myself completely on Perpetuem bottles for the entire ride.  All my research said that it was possible, and that this product was designed for just that use.  Since Toni would be sagging me all the way down to the beach, and there would be water stops at every 30 or so miles, I felt that this was a strong possibility.  I could change my diet plan if needed because she would be right there at each stop, and I could make fresh Perpetuem at each stop which would be no longer than the 2 hours it would last.  For the first time, I packed two complete diet plans for a ride.  I had a full liquid diet with the Perpetuem, and then a full solid diet with the waffle sandwiches and macaroons.  I could live on either, or a combination of both.

As it turned out, I was able to pretty much do the ride completely on the Perpetuem.  I used it on all but the last stop when I just went to plain water.  As far as solid foods, I ate two macaroons at the 60 mile mark at Toni's request but I didn't really need them.  I also ate a sub sandwich at the lunch stop which hit the spot for sure.  The rest of the ride, was all liquid in the form of water, Perpetuem, and GU Brew electrolyte tabs.  For the most part, I kept the Perpetuem bottle in the front cage and the electrolyte bottle in the back cage.  I would drink primarily from the front bottle so I would get my calories in, and do it gradually so I didn't experience the dreaded bonk from the previous time.  As I needed a different taste, or became thirsty, I would swig off of the rear bottle.

I'm happy to say that this worked flawlessly and I had no issues at all...well, other than the heat we were dealing with.  With my Garmin registering a high of 113 degrees, food wasn't the issue, it was heat stroke.  I didn't bonk, but I did about pass out from the heat.  Regardless, I consider this experiment to be a resounding success.

Food for 3 days of "A Ride to Remember"

A month later, I found myself in another endurance event, but this one would be slightly different.  Instead of 200 miles in one day, it was 252 miles over three days.  It was a stage ride, with no "home base" so the food that I took would have to be able to be transported across the state in hot conditions.  This effectively eliminated my macaroons from my choices.  Since they are supposed to be refrigerated, and are only good then for about a week, I didn't want to risk the egg ingredient in the heat for three days.  While training for "A Ride to Remember, I tried Hammer Gels for the first time.  I had gotten a sample at Double Down and figured I would give it a try.  I liked the peanut butter one, and it seemed to give me a decent amount of energy as well.  A caffeine content was a bonus in my book too!  I went ahead and stocked up on these gels, expecting to use them in place of the macaroons.

As with Double Down, this was going to be a supported ride with water stops along the way.  This meant that I could use my Hammer Perpetuem again like I had done with Double Down.  This would allow me to consume my fuel while riding since to eat solids, I have to stop the bike or risk crashing.  I planned on doing the liquid diet once again for all three days, but wanted to make sure that I had enough solid food available for variety, or if the Hammer didn't work out for me.

In the picture above, I have the food divided up into the three days, 65 miles, 88 miles, and 100 miles.  The first group had one bag of Perpetuem which should last the majority of the ride.  In my training, I have not been consuming many calories at all on rides of this distance, so I wasn't all that concerned with caloric intake, but I wanted to keep from going into too much of a calorie deficit with longer rides right around the corner.  I kept my emergency Cliff Bar at the ready as well.  The Builder's bar is a protein bar which was bought to replace my standard protein shake after the ride.  Without access to milk, I wasn't going to be able to make my shake, and I needed that boost of protein for recovery.  When I was done with the ride, I had finished the Perpetuem, and ate the protein bar afterwards.  I didn't need the Cliff Bar.

The second day, I have noticeably more prepared with two bags of Perpetuem which should last me about 60 miles of the 88.  My standard Cliff Bar is back, and I've added a waffle sandwich with a couple of gels.  When the second day was done, I had finished the Perpetuem, ate my sandwich, and one of the gels.  It wasn't enough food based on how I felt at the end though.  The protein bar helped my muscles recover right after the ride.

The last day was going to be the full century, and I pulled out all of the stops since I knew I would have a caloric deficit going into the day.  I had three bags of Perpetuem which should be good for 90 miles worth of riding.  Four gels, two Cliff Bars, and two sandwiches.  When I was loading up, I realized that this was more food than I could carry in my jersey so I ended up keeping the powder, and both sandwiches.  I stuck a couple of gels in my pocket as well.  Since Toni would be at the 75 mile rest stop, If I needed to add to my supplies I could do that then.  As it turned out, I made the 100 mile ride consuming only the Perpetuem, one gel, and a can of Coke at 75 miles.  Of course, I know that I was able to do this because of the large glycogen stores from the carb rich dinner the night before.  It was nice to think that I had done a full century without eating a bit of solid food for the entire ride.  I really do like the freedom of not having to stop to eat.  With the Perpetuem, I just reach down and grab my bottle and take a swig.

Something to keep in mind about fueling during the ride is everyone will be different in their needs and tastes.  I've been conditioning my body for years to do endurance rides.  My metabolism has been "trained" in a way to operate on much less caloric intake than it once needed.  The key is to spend time training for the distance rides and paying attention to what your body is doing and what it is craving.  Over the course of a season you will find that you can fine tune your nutrition to what tastes good, and keeps your energy level stable.  What you want to avoid is the ups and downs of sugar.  Each dip of the roller coaster will go further down, and you will need more sugar to bring it back up again.  Eventually, your body will crash as mine did on the first Double Down.  If you avoid sugar, and go for better carbs, you will find that your energy level is much more linear without the spikes and dips.  This will allow you to perform at a consistent level while not feeling overly taxed.

Post Ride (Recovery)

This is the part of the ride that people often forget about, but it can have one of the biggest impacts on the next day of riding.  In addition to stretching out the muscles while they are still warm and pliable from your workout, you will also need to consume about 24 grams of protein at a minimum to help rebuild your muscles.  All of this needs to be done within an hour of completing your ride while the benefits are still at their greatest.

Post ride stretch

My routine looks a little like this.  When I am done with a ride, I come in and start to stretch immediately.  I will stretch out my quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, and IT bands while my legs are still very loose.  When I neglect this routine, I can tell within a couple of hours that my legs are sore and stiff. The stretching keeps this from happening almost 100% of the time.  This makes it much easier to get back in the saddle the next day and ride again.  The stretching takes me around 20 minutes or so to complete.  After that is done, its time for the dessert segment of my food consumption for riding.

I look forward to my protein shake at the end of my rides.  It is cold, smooth, and creamy.  Everything about it is yummy to me when I'm hot and sweaty.  That being said, I don't always get my shake.  It is loaded with protein, and calories which is great when I need it, but over the top when I don't.  For those situations where my ride doesn't warrant that much, I rely on Greek Yogurt which gives me the perfect minimum protein (in two servings) without a heavy calorie intake.  So how do I determine what my effort warrants when it comes to recovery?  I read an article not that long ago from Bicycling Magazine which provided  a pretty good guide for that question.  In short, this is what they said about protein recovery needs:

2 hours or less with at least 20 minutes at maximum effort

2.5 hours with at least 30 minutes very hard

2.5-plus hours with at least 40 minutes hard

4-plus hours with at least 40 minutes moderately hard

Realistically, this translates to most of my rides under 50 miles just get yogurt, unless I have been hammering the pedals for the whole time in a time trial approach.  Most of my rides over 50 miles will have some very hard segments where I'm working my muscles, and on my long rides, I usually gauge my efforts as being consistently "moderately hard" for the duration of the ride.  For those 50+ rides, I get my shake at the end of the ride.  I have noticed over the years that when I started doing this recovery routine, my riding ability started to increase very quickly.  My legs got stronger quicker, and I was able to ride much more often.  When I started out, I would have to take several days off between long rides so my legs would quit being sore.  These days, I can effectively ride 65 miles, followed by 88 miles, and then 100 miles on day three without having any leg issues at all.

Conclusions

So, what does this mean for you?  Obviously, what I've written about here is what works for me.  Your needs are probably different in many respects.  I'm also not saying that my method is even the best for me, its just what I've found that works the way I want it to.  Take what you have read here, and try some things out.  There are a lot of sources on the Internet for cycling nutrition that will give you other options.  The main thing that you should take from this is the awareness of the three phases of nutrition.  The pre ride phase will have a huge impact on how well you will ride the following day.  What you consume while riding will dictate how far you can go, and how happy you will be at the end of the ride.  The post ride recovery, will help you gain the most benefit from your ride, and will determine how quickly you are ready for your next ride.  It all works together to keep you a happy cyclist and one who will be able to constantly improve their abilities.

While looking at your nutrition plan, keep in mind whether your ride will be supported or self sustained.  This can have the biggest impact on the foods that you choose.  As you have read, I'm a big fan of the Hammer Perpetuem, but it is just not practical on a self supported ride since I can't really ensure that I will have fresh, cool water available to make a new bottle every couple of hours.  Instead, I use an initial bottle for the first part of the ride, and then transition over to solid foods for the second part.  This allows me to keep three bottles of electrolyte water on the bike for pure hydration.  Supported rides make things much easier in all respects, and should allow you complete control over how you handle your nutrition.

Enjoy your ride!

It Was a Ride to Remember!

Intro to the 2015 Ride to Remember
Training Update: 2015 Ride to Remember
Recap: 2015 Ride to Remember

The Packing Phase (Wednesday, July 15)

Just some of the basics I need with me when I'm riding.

All of my event rides start with some sort of packing, whether it is just loading up a bag for my cycling gear or loading up cycling gear and what I will need for a hotel later on.  Logistically, this has always been a straightforward task and one that I typically over think.  For the 2015 Ride to Remember, I'm adding a bit of stress to the packing phase.  You see, this is a stage ride that will last three days.  The only other stage ride that I do is the Tour to Tanglewood, and for that, I'm based out of the house, so no problem at all with that.  The Ride to Remember is a bit different since it takes place in South Carolina and starts about two hours away from home.  That will mean a hotel room for Thursday night in Simpsonville, SC, before I even clip into my pedals.  The first stage will end after 65 miles in Newberry, SC, which will dictate another hotel.  From Newberry, we head to Orangeburg, SC, covering 88 miles before staying at another hotel.  The last day begins where we left off, and travels 100 miles to our last stop at Charleston, SC, and another hotel.  If you have been keeping track, that is four different hotels in as many nights.  I will have to pack for each night, as well as having all the associated items needed for the rides during the day.

The miles covered, a total of 252 will also dictate another slight change in my normal packing plans.  Historically, I have not had to worry about prepping the bike for another day's ride while staying at a hotel.  Since we are talking long miles, I will have to keep in mind bike maintenance and stay on top of that for each of the three days.  For my own peace of mind, I will be doing at a minimum, a chain cleaning and lube after each day.  This means that I will be bringing along a few items from my tool box.  There is also the possibility that I will have to make some adjustments at the end of each ride, so there will be a few other tools.  With the distance involved, it will probably be a good idea to have a spare tire or two, and a few extra tubes along as well.  Speaking of tires, I'll be airing them up each day, so there is the need for the floor pump.  At this point, I might as well bring the whole tool box!  In order to make cleaning the chain easier and less messy, I will go ahead and bring the work stand too.  Anybody got a spare team truck that isn't being used?  I know that this is a lot of over packing, but I don't like to risk mechanicals on important rides like this.

In this little saddle bag I fit two tubes, tire lever, patch kit, and multi tool

A fully stocked tool box, pump, cleaning supplies, and a spare tire

Another thing that I normally don't have to consider is my electronics.  It's a flippin' bicycle, what kind of electronics could I possibly have?  Well, there are more than you would think, and all of them have a limited battery life that won't last for 252 miles.  The Garmin Edge 510 is at the heart of it all.  I am fortunate that it will connect and sync via the bluetooth connection with my phone, so I will not only be able to upload my rides at the end of each day without a computer, I will also be able to offer live tracking for those who want to follow my progress.  The battery will probably last the entire 252 miles, but I don't plan on pushing it, so I will be bringing a charger for it.  Along with the Garmin, I have three different sensors (cadence, speed, and heart rate/power) that all require batteries.  I'll have to bring along spares for those, just in case.  My head light and tail light are rechargeable via a USB connection.  I typically hook them up through the computer after about 100 miles to recharge.  Not wanting to bring the laptop, I've realized that the wall adapter for the Garmin will also charge the lights...COOL!!

Another issue that I have to face is food for the three days worth of riding.  It's easy to get up in the morning and prepare my snacks, but doing things two days ahead of time for a three day ride is a little different animal.  I've learned from Double Down that a powder mix that is added to my water bottle called Hammer Perpetuem is a wonderful source of calories, and essential fuel for my ride.  I can pretty much sustain my energy levels with this drink mix in lieu of solid food.  Since I won't really be able to maintain the freshness of macaroons, I won't be taking them, which  brings me to my waffle and Nutella sandwich as the base for my solid food.  I'll be taking along a Cliff Bar for extra fuel, just in case. Since I've found that I actually like Hammer gels, I'm going to take a few of those along for the ride as well as a source of caffeine and quick calories.  The Perpetuem will be my staple though, and I will have a fresh bottle mixed up at the beginning of each ride, and with the longer rides, extra ziplock baggies to mix up fresh bottles along the way.  I'll stick with my Double Down formula of one bottle of water with GU electrolyte tabs and and the other bottle with a two hour mix of the Hammer.  I should be good for about 40-50 miles with those two bottles, even in the heat.

Three days worth of cycling kits, knowing that one more kit was waiting to be picked up

As with the AOTC in April, dressing myself was a bit of a chore.  I wasn't going to have the luxury of getting dressed before heading out of the house....mainly because it was still almost a full day away that we would be starting.  Also, this was going to be three days of riding so I was just going to have to pack the clothes.  I went through all of the kits that I have (I'm turning into the Imelda Marcos of cycling) and tried to figure out just what I wanted to wear.  My main considerations were deep pockets in the back, breathable fabrics, and comfy chamois.  I knew that the best jerseys that I owned were my Double Down jerseys which are as close to wearing nothing as it gets.  The pockets are also cavernous in the back for lots of food and gear.  My AOTC kit is not as breathable, but I have a special reason for wearing this one.  The first day rolls out not too far from the section of South Carolina that I visited for this very event.  Since I would be in close proximity, I figured that I would pay homage to my first official event ride since I returned to cycling at the end of last year.

As with the AOTC, there was a slight wrench that was getting thrown into the mix when it came to clothing.  You see, thanks to a bunch of very generous friends out there, I was able to reach all of the fundraising marks that were set up by the Ride to Remember organizers.  That meant that I had earned a full kit (jersey, bib shorts, and gloves) thanks to my fundraising efforts.  Due to some shipping issues from the supplier, this kit was not sent out to me as early as planned.  In fact, there was no time to ship it, and it would only be available for pickup Thursday evening at the hotel.  That works out fine, but I wasn't sure the quality of the chamois, which put into question whether or not I would be able to wear it for the century.  The idea that has been presented was to paint Charleston, SC purple as we came in on the last day, so it was recommended that we all wear Alzheimer's related kits on that last day.  With the bibs in question, I wanted to have a pair that I could count on for a century, and just in case there was a problem with the jersey, I wanted to have an extra one...hence the three days of kits, for three days of riding, knowing that I was going to have another one waiting on me when I got there.  Yes, OCD....the struggle is real!!!  Don't get me started on socks...I have my matching ones for each jersey, even the one that I haven't seen yet....and they are supplying socks with the new kit.  Don't worry, this is all being recorded for my sanity hearing later on in the year.

With the list checked and double checked, the bike cleaned, lubed, and ready to roll, it was time to focus on getting to the Starting point in Simpsonville, SC, where we would be staying until Friday morning when I started pedaling my way to the coast, once again.

Let the Road Trip Begin (Thursday, July 16)

With a little shuffling of the interior, everything fit just fine for the trip.

The bike might be the most important thing to remember for this trip

This was probably the first time I've ever been able to set out for an event ride without waking up well before dawn, and sometimes, closer to dusk the night before.  Since the ride doesn't actually get started until Friday morning, Thursday morning was a low stress kind of day.  I woke up at a reasonable time and started to get the truck loaded up and organized.  As it turned out, it was just Toni and me going which made it very easy to fit everything in the truck.  This was a nice turn of events because I really did have a lot of stuff to bring so I could be prepared for the unknown that was the next three days.

My day actually started at 9am, which was like sleeping in for an event like this.  I got my breakfast made, finished the food prep for the weekend's fuel needs by making my waffle sandwiches.  Then it was time to pull the cover off the bed of Toni's truck to put the bike in and lock it down on my Rocky Mount.  Then I flipped the rear seat down and made room for the tools, and luggage that will be with us for the weekend.  I actually kind of like not having a mad dash out of the door on the morning of an event.  A man could get used to this lazy existence.

By 1pm we were ready to head out, but not after having Toni do the honors of writing some very important names on my bib number.  You see, had I done it, there would have been a question about what the scribbles meant.  This way, everyone has a fighting chance of reading the names.  With that done, we plugged in Simpsonville, SC into the GPS and put the truck in drive!  Here we come South Carolina!!!!!


July 17th, Simpsonville to Newberry, 65 Miles

What can I say, the first day was supposed to be the easy one out of the weekend.  There was going to be no stress, and the ride was going to be short and sweet.  Well, that wasn't quite the case.  First of all, I woke up an hour early at 4am.  I could no longer sleep, and by 4:30, Toni was awake.  We were planning on getting up at 5 since we needed to get the truck loaded for the road trip to Newberry, and we needed to get breakfast done, all before check-in at 7:30.  To add to the considerations, the start of the ride was a couple of miles away.  While normally, I would just ride out to that point, I wasn't sure about the best way to get out there at that time of morning by bike, and since Toni would need to be there with the truck we just loaded it all up and headed out to get registered.

Of course, we got there early as we normally do.  It worked out well since we both had booths that we needed to get to.  I had to do the rider check in and Toni had to do the volunteer check in for her duties at the third rest stop of the day.  We were busy for the hour and a half that we were there before the ride got started.  After I got registered, I put some items in the truck and finished getting the bike ready and all my gear on.  There is just so much to do before the pedaling starts!  At about 7 or so, I was ready to make my way to the start line, and stopped by to get a kiss from Toni who was having to head out early for her duties.

While walking over to the starting line, I was still having a debate with myself about my predicted pace for the day.  I had all but decided to ride solo since the wind, albeit was going to be a head wind was not going to be overly bad. I just needed to know where in line to start out.  I figured that my best bet was to start with the A group so that I could drop down and ride between the A and B groups all by myself.  I went ahead and secured my place on the back end of where the A group would be starting, recalling that there wasn't that many who had signed up for it. This would provide an additional benefit of giving me room to get rolling since I really don't like group starts in close quarters.  I picked out my space and started to talk to one of the volunteers.  It was a nice conversation and helped to pass the last 20 minutes or so before the announcements started to happen.  While I was talking, I started to realize that everyone was filing in behind me....Wait, I was in the lead?  This wasn't good, and not what I was planning on.

Well, I was here, and apparently nobody wanted to go in front of me.  I had a guy squeeze between me and the curb, and another one start out on the sidewalk, but neither wanted to go in front of me. At this point, I realized that I didn't even know which way we were going out of the parking lot.  In other words, don't follow me, I'm lost!  I got a call from Toni  who had gotten the email for my live track and she was concerned that I had left out early.  This was a problem, because the route was just now starting to get marked.  I assured her that we were still sitting in the starting gate, and they had time to get the signs out....I hoped.

The announcements started with about 10 minutes left to go before the start.  I was still out front.  We found out that thanks to all of the donations raised by the 300 riders the Alzheimer's Association had over $300,000 from this event so far.  That was incredible!  We were also told that the start would be right on time because there was going to be a live feed for the morning news on Fox.  Nothing like being out front for the news to film, in the most unstable condition I can be in on a bike.  Oh well, it was what it was.

45 seconds.....

That was the warning that we got to let us know we were about ready to roll.  Of course, with that everyone who was already very close to me, got even closer.  In case you haven't figured it out by now, I don't like group starts at all.  Then there was the countdown and we were off...well, kind of.  I started out and as I was trying to clip in with my left foot, the rider to my left started moving close to me, I missed my pedal, got unstable, made contact with the rider to my right who somehow stayed upright...as did I.  It was sloppy, but we were all upright, and I was able to get clipped in.  We started moving forward and followed a police car out of the parking lot onto Main St as we started in earnest.

I'm a big fan of warming up in the little ring for the first 10 miles or so, and that was what I did. The route was mostly on a slight decline so our speeds were very fast right out of the gate.  It wasn't long before we were averaging over 20mph which was great!  The problem was I found myself getting pushed out of the way as everyone behind me was jockeying for position.  I was told that this wasn't a race, but here we were, I was getting pushed out to the side so that others could get closer to the front.  There was no trading pulls, and we were rolling in a double file line.  I wasn't liking this at all.  I figured that I was in a small group, and I would let them pass and fill a void right behind them...

Well, as I pulled out of the line and moved to the back, I realized that this group was rather large, about 30 or so riders at least.  There was no end in sight.  This wasn't good at all.  I went with plan B which included pouring on the coals and passing this group.  That is harder to do that it sounds.  There is power and speed in a group, I was out in the wind, mainly because I couldn't find a place to call my own in this group.  In that vulnerable position, I made my way past the group and saw two riders well up ahead drafting the truck that was leading us out.  I was going to work my way to them.  Nope...

I am just over the shoulder of the rider to the left

Here I am breaking free from the pack

They were just too fast, and I wasn't able to catch them.  However, I was able to hold my own and I was matching a pace with them which was pretty cool considering they were being pulled by a motor vehicle.  I found my happy place all by myself and figured that I had dropped the peloton behind me.  I settled into my ride, but it wasn't long that I sensed a presence behind me.  Sure enough, a bridge had caught up to me and was on my wheel. This bridge grew in size and it wasn't long at all before I had a group on my wheel.  Well crap, I was setting the pace out front and was now part of a group again.

We came up on a stop sign and I was motioned to stop by a volunteer which I was about to do, when traffic stopped and we were motioned on through the intersection.  It took me a second to transition from stopping to going, and I lost my pole position.  I was passed, and found myself trapped next to the shoulder.  I figured that I would just hang out there and let the peloton pull me around for a while.  Keep in mind we were still well under 10 miles, and there had already been all this drama.  The group seemed to have very little organization and there was still a lot of moving around for position. Once again, I was getting pushed out as riders wanted to get up to the front and stay with their friends.  I somehow made it to the left side so I had some breathing room.  I decided it was time to move into the big ring so I had a fighting chance to keep pace without having such a high cadence.

I found a hole to move into, and I thought that I was finally in a place I could maintain.  I was keeping the wheel ahead of me, but for some reason the folks behind me would split the two columns of cyclists, effectively pushing me out of the paceline.  This was getting ridiculous!  To make matters worse, we were doing the accordion thing really bad by this point.  It was a matter of "slowing" followed by a sprint it seemed.  I was really getting nervous and was waiting on a crash.  I opted to see where the rear of the group was.  It was a lot closer than it had been before, so I found my happy spot at the back. I had yet to see the lead riders change out, and there seemed to be no rotation at all in the paceline, just a lot of moving around within it.  I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I didn't really care for it.

On the bright side though, our speeds were incredible.  I saw an average speed of 22.6mph at one point, which meant that my discontent was not going to last all day because we would be making it to Newberry in a serious hurry.  I made peace with being at the back and just did my best to keep from running over the rider in front of me, while passing those who were getting dropped.  I was starting to think that this group wasn't going to make any stops at all which worked well for me, because at 40 miles I was going to stop to see Toni, and that would give me a good opportunity to let this group move on down the road.  However, it seemed that everyone wanted to visit the PB&J stop, so we all pulled in to see Toni.

It was very nice to see Toni, and even nicer to have a bit of a respite from the fast pace so I could get some hydration in me, and consume some more of my Hammer drink.  I was 25 miles away, and it felt like I had just started out. I was feeling really good which was surprising considering I was still averaging over 22mph.  After a few minutes, Toni told me that it looked like my group was leaving.  After about a split second of thinking, I let them roll out. There were some smaller groups that set out shortly there after as well.  After a couple of minutes, I gave Toni a kiss and clipped back in.  I was back on the road...solo.

I was in my element, slower than I had been, but much happier.  I was facing a headwind at this point, not a terrible one, but enough of one that I could tell it was slowing me down.  Without the protection of the peloton, I was going to be on my own dealing with this.  That was fine by me because my stress level was now way down, and I was able to ride my own ride.

Surprisingly, I started to see other cyclists in the distance.  We were getting into the hills, where I have started to become quite strong, here of late.  It seemed that on each hill I closed the gap until I would pass them.  I was picking off single riders at first, then I was overtaking groups of two or three at a time.  This seems to be one of those fun little things that I do when I am solo riding and see a rider in the distance.  I play fetch...and I'm pretty good at it.  By the time I hit Newberry, 25 miles after going solo, I had overtaken a total of 11 cyclists who had left out of the rest stop before me.  This wasn't a race, but doing that sure did put a smile on my face.  I felt a little bit of redemption for being pushed out of the paceline so many times over the first 40 miles.  It came at a cost though, I was getting tired, and I could tell that my legs were more stressed than I had hoped they would have been at the end of day one.  Remember, I still have an 88 mile day and a 100 mile day ahead of me.  Oh well, that was what they had rest for, and I was going to take advantage of my rest and relaxation time.

When I arrived at the Hampton Inn, in Newberry, I found a handful of riders already there...not many, and I was impressed with my personal finish.  It had been a hard ride, but I had knocked it out of the park compared to my expectations.  I let Toni know that I had made it safe and headed inside to get checked in.

There are times that we overlook the most basic of things.  This was one of those times.  I was trying to check in at 11:52...over three hours before check in time. Oops...that was an unfortunate oversight on my part.  I had not considered that as a possibility before.  Well, the staff at the Hampton did an amazing job and getting the rooms prepped for us and called us on a first come, first serve basis.  I thought that was a great compromise, and the rooms started to get assigned in about an hour.  I had plenty to do to keep me occupied until the room was ready.  I found a spot on the floor and started to do my stretching so I would have a fighting chance at a fast recovery for tomorrow.

It was kind of odd doing my stretching routine in the lobby of the hotel, but for some reason, I think I actually fit in quite well with everyone else.  While I was stretching, Toni joined me since it was getting much too hot for her outside.  In typical fashion, she grabbed a bagged lunch for me so I could start replacing the 3000 calories I had burned.  I had a nice sandwich along with my protein recovery bar (in lieu of my protein shake) for lunch.  It was quite nice.  When I got up though, I found a funny surprise below me....

Yep, I left a big ole wet spot on the floor from my sweaty bibs.  I just had to smile!

With the room still not ready, we decided to go out to the parking lot so I could get the bike tended to.  This was going to be the first time I had cleaned and lubed the bike in a hotel parking lot, and it was very strange considering I am a creature of habit.  Every step of the way, I had to figure out where things went, how I would do things, and what the most efficient method would be standing out in the parking lot.  It all worked out just fine, and I was able to do a full clean on the bike in preparation for the next day.

Just as I was getting everything put away from cleaning the bike, I got the phone call that the room was ready.  Perfect timing.  I was getting very tired, and Toni was about to pass out from being in the heat. We got registered and went up to our room.  It wasn't long before we were both showered and resting before dinner.  Day one was finished, and I had managed to do 65 miles at an average speed of 20.9 mph which was very respectable considering the last 25 miles were into a wind and with similar climbs to my home terrain.  The fast portion was due to the group dynamic and the fact that it was primarily downhill.  I knew that I had held my own in the rollers at the end, and I was very happy with the day!

Garmin data from stage 1

July 18th, Newberry to Orangeburg, 88 Miles

The warnings about this day started weeks ago on Facebook.  Day 2 was the hardest day by far for the whole weekend.  Looking at the elevation profile, I could see that it was hilly, but I really didn't think that it would cause me any problems.  After a stellar first stage, I was all ready to go for the second day.  My plan was to ride this one solo since I had such a good time with the last 25 miles the day before.  My goal was to average between 19-19.5 mph which I thought was reasonable going alone and dealing with the climbs of the day.

The start was earlier than the first day by an hour and a half since there was no check in and announcements.  This time, we just lined up at 7am and rolled out.  I was again faced with the question which group to start with.  Seeing that the parking lot was uphill, and had a major dip before entering the road, I opted to start near the front....well, actually out in front at the road.  I just don't trust myself starting in large groups.  When we were released to roll, it was a very low key start and I went right on out into the group.  Just like yesterday, I found folks squeezing in to find position in the front of the peloton which brought back bad memories from the day before.  I wasn't looking forward to 88 miles of this, but here I was in a group that I wasn't going to outrun, and couldn't see the end of.  I had to suck it up and play along.

As the warm up miles started to click by, I had moments of thinking that I could make this work since the riders had calmed down a good bit from yesterday.  However, each time I settled in and worked with the group, somebody would squeeze me over to the right and push their way into a spot in front of me.  I just wasn't happy with this at all, but I was on the inside, next to the curb.  What's a boy supposed to do?  I was essentially trapped, so I figured that my only workable option was to allow myself to get dropped off the back.  I slowed, and moved over to the right and had a half dozen or so riders pass me, then there was one rider who told me that I could move over and fill the space in front of her.  How nice...she didn't know I was looking for the exit.

A hint of a smile on my face as I am freeing myself from the group

With 8.3 miles in, I had had enough of the accordion nature of the group and saw a hole to my left.  I took it and saw that the opposite lane was clear.  I went ahead and started a sprint from about 20 riders back.  I actually impressed myself at how quickly I moved out and past, which was good because there was a car coming from up ahead by the time I got close to the front.  It all worked out, and I continued at a much higher wattage than I had wanted to produce on this ride.  Not wanting to get overtaken by the more powerful group, I kept it in the wind for a total of 10 miles, picking my average speed up from under 19 mph to nearly 22 mph...solo!

In this ten miles I actually overtook some other riders that had apparently fallen off of the lead group early on.  In one case, I happened to catch a shadow and saw that the last one had grabbed a hold of my wheel.  OK, no problem, I was riding my ride, and told him what I was doing.  He was fine with that arrangement and stuck with me.  As we started to get into the rollers again, I slowed up, and didn't fight the speed since I figured I had a decent lead on the group.  The other rider took the pull and I stayed on his wheel until another rider came up behind me.  Well, this was getting a bit much.  I worked my way to the back again and let them move ahead of me.

Well, this only worked for a bit as they started to slow, or I got done with my active recovery, or both, but I was back on the wheel again.  I opted to get around and do some pulling to see if maybe I could move on ahead.  Well, that didn't work out, I just didn't have the gas available in the tank for that, I knew that I had been red lined far too long for this route.  I had to back it down so I just allowed them to drop me.  We had picked up a fourth rider by this point, and he had just come off of a pull.  He came back and looked like he was bridging the gap between me and the other two riders.  Thinking this was his plan, I let him know that I was fine being dropped and that he should continue on with the group.  I got a response that I would have never expected on a distance ride like this...He was doing intervals!  He was on his three minute recovery and was going to end up where he ended up in line.  You know what?  He gets total respect doing intervals for any part of an 88 mile ride.  He actually fell behind me shortly after, but I would see him several more times before it was all said and done.

As we started to get into some of the mid distance rest stops, the two riders which were out in front of me stopped off for a break and I found myself back in front again.  Hey, this wasn't too bad at all.  I continued at a comfortable pace and eventually heard cyclists behind me.  Expecting to see the group I had left a hour or so before, I was surprised to see my three comrades who had been back and forth with me off and on.  Mr interval was moving again, and left us all in the dust...much respect!  I was again off the back and happy with my solo existence.

Then the hills started in earnest and I found myself back on the wheels of the two guys.  I figured I would just stay here and let them go on after we crested.  Well, that wasn't going to happen.  They started to break up and I saw a gap forming.  Since I had plenty of legs, I went on around and offered my wheel to help pull him up the climb.  He either didn't want to take it, or couldn't, but he dropped.  I eventually caught up with the lead and told him that the other had dropped back.  I continued on around and went up to the top of the climb.  I have to admit, it felt good to be able to outclimb a couple of guys who appeared to be a good bit younger than me.

I continued on with my forward progress until I saw Mr Interval coming in the opposite direction.  I admit, I didn't know what his workout was for the day, but I was pretty sure it didn't include retracing steps along the way.  I asked if we had missed a turn, and I thought that he said yes...so I did a quick turn and caught up with him....as he was turning around.  He was just looking for the other two.  I let him know that they had both dropped on the big climb and I wasn't sure how far back they were now.  He asked if he could grab onto my wheel for a bit and I gladly obliged...after doing another "U" turn.

I settled into what I thought was a moderate pace and turned to ask if that was good for him.  Well, he was falling back, and was already about 25 yards off my rear wheel.  Oh well, I had places to be, and I wanted to get there.

Things were pretty uneventful as I ticked off the miles with the exception of a soaking wet road.  I wasn't exactly sure what was going on with that until I got closer and saw an irrigation boom over to the side.  It had apparently just done its rounds and soaked the road. I slowed a little bit to try and keep the spray to a minimum on the bike...that really didn't work all that well.  Oh well, it was for the best because a very short distance ahead I found another one that was actively spraying the field.  It was like a rain shower under completely blue skies.  I went ahead and embraced that one and let the spray do what it would do.

On the other side of that, I heard what sounded like several dogs barking and getting closer.  I caught a glimpse of about 7 hunting dogs coming down a driveway at full speed toward me.  I was going too fast to stop in a controlled manner, so I kicked it up a gear and did another sprint.  I was at nearly 30 mph and looked over to the right to see that one of the dogs was still even with the wheel.  He wasn't gaining, so it was going to be an endurance battle with him.  I won, but it took about 100 yards to do, and that was another large withdrawal on my energy bank account, which was running much lower than I wanted at this point.

The good news was that it wasn't long before I would enter Pelion where Toni was stationed at the 50.8 mile rest stop.  This was going to be my first stop and I was looking forward to seeing her.  In typical fashion, she took great care of me and filled my bottles with new Hammer and electrolytes.  She also snagged me a Coke which was pretty good timing considering my energy reserves.

It wasn't long before other riders started to take advantage of the aid station. A whole lot quicker than I had expected, the main group I had gotten away from earlier showed up.  I opted to just wait until they left before moving on with my ride.  I let them have a good lead, and when I was about to leave, another group was coming through the intersection.  Not wanting to get caught up in that group either, I gave Toni and quick kiss and put it in the wind again.

Pretty much immediately after leaving the rest stop, there was the really big climb of the day.  It wasn't all that long, but it was pretty steep.  In the interest of keeping my energy levels in good shape, I dropped into the little ring, for the first time since my warm up.  I found the climb to be no big deal thanks to the low gearing, but it was enough to catch my attention for sure.  I could see the other group in the distance and I had no interest in chasing them at all.  I just used them to scout out the turns more than anything else.

By this time though, the wind had shifted from a side wind to a head wind, and it was significantly higher speed than the 2 mph that was forecasted this morning.  This was the worst part of solo riding, but a part that I am all too familiar with from all of my solo training rides.  I just kept pushing through, but I could feel the stress on my legs catching up with me.  It wasn't a surprise at all.  I had planned on a moderate paced ride, but had been well into my threshold zone for much of the beginning half, and then had fought the climbs, and now the wind.  All of this was 100% my work load as opposed to sharing it among a group.  It was the tradeoff, and one that I was happy to do in order to avoid a crash with how things had been going.

I was starting to get overtaken by several groups at this point.  While I didn't like that, I can't say it wasn't expected.  The power of a group is hard to ignore, and this was the proof.  I could have joined in, and I actually did try once.  It didn't last long because once again, I found myself being pushed over to the side so that somebody could move up in front of me.  Screw this...I dropped off the back and let them move on down the road.

I was going to do this ride solo one way or the other.  With about 10 miles left, I needed a refill on the water and stopped at a quick rest stop to refill.  As I was getting ready to pull back out, I noticed a rider who I recognized from this morning.  He was riding solo, and asked if I was about to pull out.  He suggested that we ride together, and considering he was solo also, I agreed.  Hey, it was only 10 more miles or so.

As we rolled down the road we both talked about our experiences from the morning.  Surprisingly, he had had some similar experiences as I had and was more than a little displeased with how things had been going.  I also found out that he was in worse shape than I was and was having some difficulties.  With this information, I threw my own personal goals out of the window, which I was about to achieve with an average speed of 19.2 mph.  I decided that one way or the other, I was going to help him complete his ride.  This was the cyclist bond that I was familiar with, and I didn't want to let my earlier experiences change who I am as a cyclist.  We moved on down the road at a comfortable, conversational pace, and even though we got passed by a few cyclists, we were not passed by the next big group, even though they were getting close.  Had it not been for a train in the last few feet of the route, we would have stayed away from them completely.

In an ironic repeat from yesterday, I arrived in Orangeburg, SC at noon, three hours before check in.  The difference today was, Toni was on top of things despite not feeling all that great.  She had called ahead and gotten an early check in, but the room was still not quite ready yet.  She had already scoped out where I could sit inside without being in the way, and knew where the food was.  I got my bike propped up against the window on the inside while she went to get me food.

While I should have been stretching, I realized that I was having problems with the upload on my Garmin.  For some reason, even though it was connected to phone, it would not upload the ride at all.  I restarted both the computer and my phone, but it still wouldn't go.  After getting overly frustrated with it, I gave up and got my stretching done.  Toni got the word that our room was ready and she went to get the registration taken care of while I ate lunch.  Then it was time to get up to the room.  She grabbed our bags and I carried the bike and the assorted crap that went with it.

Once in the room, the A/C felt really good, and I didn't really want to go back outside, but I had to get the bike cleaned up, especially since I had been over very wet roads earlier.  The chain also had to be lubed for tomorrow's ride.  I had planned on going outside and doing it like I had the day before, but with a heat index of approximately 111 degrees, this was not a fun option at all.  Toni suggested that I just bring the stand and my tools up to the room to do it.  Well, there was room to work, and we could put a plastic bag on the floor to catch any drips.  I was sold...it was a very good idea.

Unlike yesterday, the bike needed more than just a wiping down.  In order to get to everything that I needed to, I had to pull the wheels off to get all the spray cleaned off.  It took about an hour, but in the end, the bike was all cleaned, lubed, and ready for the last 100 miles tomorrow.  The question was...Was I ready?

In order to be ready, I needed to address a big calorie deficit and the fact that all of my carbohydrate stores were depleted.  We could have had baked chicken for dinner with the rest of the crew, but we opted to go next door to Cracker Barrel for dinner.  I had plenty of protein for lunch, but not near enough carbs.  I knew that I would be having the chicken and dumplings, but I never expected to get the plate that I did.  I opted for two of my three veggies to be mac and cheese and mashed potatoes.  Of course, biscuits came with the meal.  Yeah, I have never eaten quite like this before, but it hit the spot and filled a huge void in my belly.  I'm hoping that this replaced what was missing and gave me an excess for tomorrow.

With dinner done, it was time to rest and relax, then time for bed.  Tomorrow would be the longest day, but the day with the least amount of climbing.  That's good, because my climbing legs were done at this end of this day.  Time would tell what tomorrow would bring, but I was hoping for my fastest century to date.

Garmin data from stage 2

July 19th, Orangeburg to Charleston, 100 Miles

I will admit, I was not feeling good at all about yesterday's stage.  I was not happy with my numbers at all, and a little bit down on myself for burning myself out early in the ride.  I know better, and I should have played the day different.  Trying to move past that kind of feeling is hard to do for a cyclist.  We are a strange bunch, and tend to base our abilities on our last ride only.  My last ride, was sub standard for what I was capable of, and I had essentially thrown a hissy fit on the road which I payed for dearly by the end.  That was how I defined myself as I went to sleep on Saturday night with thoughts of the third day, and the century ride ahead of me.

My thoughts as I went to sleep were full of self doubt.  Would I be able to ride the century as well as I knew I was capable of, would I opt to do it solo and settle for a hard day in the saddle like my previous day?  Would I crack half way there because of the current state of affairs with my legs?  I didn't sleep that well at all.  When I woke up, my first thought was to make sure that the parking lot was dry since we had experienced storms all night long.  Fortunately the pavement was dry, so I wouldn't have to worry about rooster tails from other wheels which tend to taste like a combination of 10W-30 and road kill.  My next thought was about the wind, which was minimal for the day.  It was going to be hot, but not as hot as yesterday.  Everything was in place that I needed except for my self confidence.  I just wasn't feeling this ride today.

Airing up the tires first thing

Regardless of my personal feelings for the day, I still needed to make myself go down to the start line to roll the dice and ride the full century route...it was to be my 10th century for the year!  I still had to figure out where I was going to start.  I was feeling like the B group would be the best choice, but when I seriously considered adding myself to the C group, I decided that I wasn't being fair with myself.  I figured that I would go ahead and roll out with the A group once again and get dropped early on if needed because, quite frankly, I wasn't wanting to mess with any groups today.

As I was standing up at the front waiting on the line to form, one of the organizers got Toni's attention and had her hold the A group formation sign.  Hmmm, I am a fan of seeing signs in my world, and this was too obvious not to pay attention to.  Here I was at the front of what was going to be the A group while Toni had just been selected to do a job that had not been assigned to her previously...doing what?  Holding a sign...the A group sign.  As they say, "There's your sign."  For some reason, I felt calmer about things and a lot of my self doubt dissipated.  I still wasn't completely sure how the day would play out, but I knew I was in the right place at this moment.

Toni holding her sign for the morning

As taken from Toni's vantage point

I started to work out my plans for the day.  When would I get dropped, where would I position myself within the group so I would be the safest?  I wasn't sure of any of those answers right off, and I was out of time.  Again, things happen for a reason that sometimes I don't particularly understand.  The MC said a rather unceremonious "Andale" which left us all scratching our helmets.  There were comments like, "I think that means go????" and all of a sudden, there was Toni yelling out..."Ready....Set.....Go".  And just like that, we were off.

As in the past, I pulled out and got swamped by folks wanting to get up front. Here we go again.  Then all of a sudden, I got the crazy idea to form my own column.  Hey, we had a police escort, there were already 2 different lines going, and it had not been uncommon for there to be 3 across the lane on the last two days of riding.  I'll take a page from the SC cyclist's handbook and I just made a third line.  I moved up to the front, right next to the two lead guys.  This could work!

Funny story at this point, we were rolling out pretty fast, and I was clicking through the gears while keeping it in the little ring for my customary warm up.  My speeds didn't really look like I was warming up though, and while I was clicking up gears I could hear some chain noise.  I thought that something was out of alignment which would have dictated that I pull off to address the issue.  Before I did that though, I took a quick peek down at the rear cassette.  I had to laugh at myself because I was trying to shift into a higher gear than it will go quietly while still in the little ring.  I downshifted twice and the noise stopped.  My cadence was well over 110 rpms and I was comfortable with that...in fact, I was very comfortable with my existence.

Then it happened, a bunch came in fast from behind me and took a place on the front.  Dammit!!!!  here we go again with no organization.  They were moving down to a single paceline and I saw my opportunity to move up again and make a double line which I did.  The pace was a little higher and I was starting to get a little bouncy in the seat with a cadence way up there, so I opted to go ahead and shift into the big ring prematurely.  That slowed my cadence down, but I kept it over 100 so I was still warming up at least.  All of a sudden the bike came alive and I started to pull ahead of the neighboring rider.  I gladly backed down on my power and matched him.  This was going to work out nicely!

Unfortunately, after a turn, I lost my position and was moved back further in the group.  It was a calmer group that I had seen in the past so I decided to stick it out as long as I could to conserve energy since we were talking about 100 miles.  I had moments of not being happy, but I moved myself to the left side of the road where the blacktop was a bit smoother and managed very well.  I happened to look down at my Garmin and saw that our average speed was 23+ mph.  Holy Cow!!!  This, more than anything else motivated me to hang out with the group.

There was the typical accordion effect with lots of slowing and sprinting.  I also noticed that there was not much movement up front other than they had moved into a single file line once again.  I started talking to my neighbor about that observation and she said it was because nobody wanted to lead at this pace.  Hmmmm, I could do it, but not from here.  Well, I decided to move on out and work my way up near the front. I wasn't able to make it to the front, but I did get into the single file line which worked out great for me.  I planned to work through the rotation up to the front.

Before I had that opportunity though, we came to the second or third rest stop, I really have no idea because things were happening so fast at this point.  It looked like we were pulling in for a break so I slowed, downshifted and started to turn in....but wait, there were several guys who didn't turn and had started talking amongst themselves.  I heard that they were planning on continuing on with a smaller, more manageable paceline.  Now, that was music to my ears.  I was about stopped, but I did a quick check of my situation...

Did I need any water?  Nope, hadn't had time to drink anything.

Did I need to eat?  Nope, hadn't had time to get hungry.

Did I need to stretch?  Nope, haven't been in the saddle that long.

Was there a reason I needed to stop?  No reason in the world.

I corrected my path and did a quick chase on the handful of riders out front.  It took a little doing, but I caught up to them as the front man was coming off the front.  We both took our places at the back of the line.  Funny thing about this group was, they actually rotated out the work, and it seemed that most of them would pull for about a mile and go to the back.  This was what I knew, and understood.  I liked this group.

I then looked at my average speed as we were coming up to around 50 miles.  We were averaging 24.1 mph.  An average speed of 24.1 mph is beyond significant to me.  My fastest average speed on a ride has been just a tick over 21 mph, this was quite a bit more.  What was more important was I was not exhausted, in fact, I was feeling pretty good, even considering I had done my share of the pulls out front keeping the pace between 23-25 mph, even up the slight inclines.  I was now drinking my Hammer, and hunger was not an issue, and neither was thirst.

At the mid point, we stopped for a quick rest stop to refill our bottles.  I went ahead and refilled my Hammer with fresh water, drank some electrolytes, and we were back out on the road again.  The average speeds dropped down to about 23.8 mph, but that was still crazy fast, and I knew that we were the first group out of all the riders today, which motivated us all to keep plugging along.

It was shortly after that rest stop that I started to have an inner debate with myself. You see, Toni was stationed at the 75 mile stop which was a small scale water stop, just 6 miles before a mandatory stop at 80 miles to pick up a police escort.  I knew that none of these guys would stop at that stop because it didn't make any sense with our pace, and strength.  I wanted to see her, and I didn't think that it would be appropriate at all for me to blow past her waving just to keep with this group.  As we started to get closer to it, I told myself that I would bow out and visit with her briefly.  Then I started to let the group know I was going to be leaving, and I thanked them for the pulls.

The group that I called home for many miles

Pulling in to a stop at 75 miles

As I was slowing to a stop Toni told me to continue on.  She knew the speeds that I was holding with that group and didn't want me to miss out.  I thought about it for a second, and I decided that I wanted to visit more than anything right now, so I stopped.  We had a good little visit and I got a couple of Cokes and got my liquids refilled, so now I had cold and fresh Hammer and electrolytes.  I also realized that so far, I had not eaten anything at all solid.  I have to admit, that Hammer is awesome...if only it didn't turn sour after 2 hours.

While I was talking with Toni there were two more riders that showed up solo which had dropped off the back of the group I was with.  Both were cramping so I got them hooked up with electrolytes while Toni got them each a Coke.  We were just about ready to move out and we saw another group moving down the road toward us.  We decided to leave with them and make our way with a slightly slower group than we had been with earlier.

This group was not too bad, and behaved similar to my last one, but the speeds were a little slower.  After being used to the previous pace, this seemed to be rather relaxed.  Oh well, I was still having a great time and doing my pulls.  We only had about five miles until the mandatory rest stop where we would meet the police who would escort us down Hwy 17 into Charleston.  I was hoping that my old group would still be there, but knowing they were the first there, I was sure they had already moved on....I was right.

Since I was still well stocked from Toni's stop, I waited on the opposite side of the road under a shade tree as everyone refilled and joined us.  We had been told that the police would be shuttling us out every 30 minutes so we figured that there wasn't too much more time before they came to get us.  Boy were we wrong!

As we waited, we were joined by several other riders and the next large group behind this one.  We had about 35 or so riders and we were all waiting on the police.  After about 45 minutes of waiting, which is a lifetime for a cyclist who still has to ride another 20 miles on legs that are starting to get stiff from lack of movement, we were told that the police were actually waiting for us on Hwy 17.  What????  We could have been on our way a long time ago.  Oh well, the time had passed and we couldn't get it back.  We moved on toward the highway and found several marked cars waiting to escort us safely into Charleston.

I was looking forward to drafting a motor vehicle and had been told that this section was really fast.  I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with the speeds we were traveling.  It seemed to be between 18-20 for the most part and that felt like we were standing still after my earlier pace.  It was still pretty cool to have intersections blocked, lights, sirens, and the whole nine yards.  It wasn't long and we were entering the town of Charleston, SC, and the escort broke off as we entered the tangle of bridges leading into the heart of the city.  At this point, speed was no longer a concern, it was just safely navigating the roadway.  This section was not marked as the rest of the routes had been, so we were essentially feeling our ways through town based on assumptions and memories from previous year's routes.

This was the part of the ride that had several warnings issued earlier in the day.  This section (as photographed by Toni) was a metal grate that spanned about 100 feet or so.  We were warned not to ride on the grate because several riders had crashed on it in previous years.  When we got to it, I had to do something that I have never had to do on a ride.  The verbal information from the front of the peloton went a little something like this...."Slowing"...."Stopping"...."Dismount".  Yep, we were off of our bikes and walking them now.  It was a beautiful day to walk your bike after all.  I had started out about mid way through the peloton and because of my difficulty walking across in my Speedplay cleats (hard to walk on a solid floor, much less a cheese grater surface), I ended up being last off the section to mount back up and continue.  I had to chase back  to the group which was not a big problem at all.

The next couple of miles consisted of lots of stop and go through the center of town with lots of traffic, both foot and vehicular...oh, and a horse drawn carriage.  The splinter group that I had ended up with came to a stop at a traffic light, and said that they were going left instead of straight.  They wanted to make a little side trip which I wasn't really wanting to join in on.  They told me that the route went straight through.  I could see the rest of the group in the distance, which initiated a sprint to catch up to them. Remember, there are no markings through Charleston, and I had no idea where I was at.  I caught up to them, and found my way to the next major portion of this ride.

The next section was the climb on the Arthur J Ravenel Jr Bridge which was probably the hardest climb of the day (the only one actually).  I was surprised that my legs were quite happy to power on up the bridge.  The interesting thing was there was a protected bike lane which was shared with pedestrians.  Now picture this, a sidewalk essentially that was about 12 feet wide.  In that width there was a two lane bike path on the left and a single lane pedestrian path on the right.  The climb up was fraught with obstacles like riders coming the opposite direction, runners, walkers, spectators, etc.  Somehow we made it through without a problem though.

If you have been paying attention, you are aware that I have had no serious issues on the bike short of some dogs forcing a sprint.  Well, at 250 miles out of 252, I ALMOST had a big problem.  On the descent side of the bridge which was a fast one at about 41 mph, right at the base, I was moving right along and all of a sudden my front wheel slipped hard to the left.  I felt the whole bike coming out from under me and I tried to correct in that split second, but knew I was going down (I have no idea why though).  Then the rear wheel hit the same thing that the front one had which miraculously corrected the uncontrolled path I was about to take.  I was upright still, and in control.  My tires still had air, and there were no noises indicating that the bike wasn't happy.  I was alive...whew!

With the bridge done, it was just a couple miles to the finish at the hotel.  As I rolled in, I realized that I had done my first sub five hour century ride at an average speed of 22.3 mph!  This actually cemented me in the A group category after many months of toying with it.  I was stoked to say the least!

Something else I realized was that I had only gone 99.8 miles.  This was not a century, not even close.  I needed to get those extra .2 miles, which I promptly went out and got, thanks to a quick ride back out to the street and a "U" turn.  When I got back, I had a total of 100.33 miles.  This was more like it, I had done my century....Number 10 for the year!

While Toni and I were chatting at the finish line, I happened to start talking with one of the riders who came in with me.  I told him about the incident on the bridge, and he told me that he had a similar problem where his wheel had found a perfect gap in the pavement and almost got his front wheel stuck.  That had to be what I had run into.  Strange as it sounds, I did like that I hadn't had some fluke handling issue, and it was actually something in the road that had caused my issues

While I had been completing the last few miles, Toni had been on top of securing our room.  We were able to register pretty much right upon my arrival.  That allowed us to go up and me to change clothes to come back down for lunch.  I tell you what, it really was awesome to share this event with her considering she is the primary reason I am doing this ride.  Together, we have taken a stand against Alzheimer's and refused to just sit back and accept what might become.  This was the first time she participated on the level that she did as a volunteer.  She stood out in the heat and humidity taking care of other riders, and not just me for a change.  While it might not seem like much, every one of the volunteers had a tremendously hard job.  They would sit and wait for long periods to then be bombarded by a hoard of cyclists needing all sorts of attention for a very short amount of time...and then they were gone.  Some of these stations stayed functioning for the majority of the day.  There was very little shade, if any at all, no breeze, just blazing sun and swarms of insects.  Without the volunteers like Toni, this ride would not have been able to happen.  All of us cyclists owe each and every volunteer a debt of gratitude, and I owe Toni so much more for always being there taking care of me.

Garmin data for stage 3

A Special Thank You to my Sponsors

The 2015 Ride to Remember is all about raising funds and awareness for the Alzheimer's Association.  I have learned a lot about this disease since agreeing to participate back in the Fall of 2014.  I have tried to share what I've learned along the way while attempting to raise the much needed funds.

Over the months that followed, I changed my fundraising goal several times.  At one point, I even promised to shave my legs if I reached $1,750.00.  I didn't think that it would happen, but it did.  My legs are still shaved as a result of that, and I actually do like it, but that is an entry for another day.  My final goal that was set was $2,520.00 which might seem like an odd amount, but it actually represents $10 per mile that I was pledging to ride.  Somehow that just seemed right.

With just hours left before we started riding, I actually surpassed my goal at $2,540!!!!  The list of sponsors is long and represents donations between a single dollar, up to $288.00.  Each and every donation is appreciated by not only Toni and myself, but the Alzheimer's Association as well.  As of the morning of the first stage, they had raised over $300,000.00 through this event.  Every donation that was raised by every one of the riders, regardless of amount was important and added up to this huge number.

I would like to take a moment to thank every one of my sponsors who took the time to make a donation, and were generous enough to share their hard earned money to help others.  Their generosity will echo throughout the Alzheimer's Association and will show the more than 5 million sufferers of this disease that while they might have forgotten a lot, we have not forgotten them!

THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!