General Cycling Discussion - The century that almost was... (Katy Flatlands)

Today I rode an organized century ride here in Texas (The Katy Flatlands ride) and I guess it was kind of a mixed success for me. First the bad news; I didn't finish and I sagged in after 87 miles. The good news is that I had a good ride and enjoyed myself and it all went without incident.

I don't know, I guess the heat got me. I spent all this past week getting fluids in me - something like 3+ liters of water and Gatorade a day, and I made sure to drink plenty and often during the ride. Despite that, it just got to where I couldn't get the fluids down fast enough and toward the end of the ride I could tell I was heading for trouble. I finally swallowed my pride (along with another gulp of Gatorade) and flagged down the SAG wagon.

Oh well, I can live with 87 if that's all I could do -- the main thing is having a good ride (check) and coming home in one piece (check). Time to recover with a few brewskis... :D

Congrats on 87 miles, Grendel! I think it's important that you knew when to stop and didn't push yourself those last 13 miles. Good call! Seems that a lot of people push themselves too hard and end up regretting it.

Sorry you didn't finish, but 87 miles ain't bad:thumbup: :D

Grendel -

Congrats on the ride! (I made it for the 100, but the heat did zap us.) Why am I doing HHH in August?

Did you go to the popsicle rest stop?

I give you a firm pat on the back. I have a bad habit of NOT sagging when I sould. I was on the Shiner Bash and got dehydrated. Hurling, goosbumps, chills, etc. Should have sagged in, but I kept going. Fortunately one of my riding buddies drug my but in by pulling the last 10 miles. Fortunately, I was okay today, because that same buddy needed me to drag his butt in the last 11 miles. Thats what we are there for...

Glad you got home safe. Way too hot today.

M

Yep, I made it to the popsicle stop but in a truck and not on the bike. As it turned out I sagged a few miles before the rest stop, not that it mattered much since I wouldn't have gotten much farther. I was doing pretty much okay until the 80-mile mark when we turned onto 362 -- that headwind took away everything I had left and just left me bake on the road. :cry:

Ah well, it still was a good ride -- glad you made it in okay! :beer:

Grendel: Look on the bright side you did a metric century and a bit more :)

Zack

Grendel,
Glad to hear you are OK. Congratulations on getting 87. The BEST I ever did so far is 70.

That's what I wanted to ask you about. I was on an organized ride this last weekend - Planed to do the metric. Thanks to a few wrong turns, I did 70 miles. At the end of the day I realized that I had better train more for the Century I plan to do in 2 months, or I won’t make it.

Did you do any training for your century? What was the longest you ever rode before you did the 87 miles?

87 sounds good to me and like a stepping stone to 100 next time.

Joe

CONGRATULATIONS on 87!!!!!!!:beer:

You mentioned taking in a lot of liquids. Did you also take in some food? Keeping the body fueled is just as important as hydration.

I applaud your good sense in stopping rather than push beyond your limits. Next time it will be easier.

Good job Grendel. 87 in that heat and wind is quite an accomplishment.

Congrats on finishing pcsanity!

I made the 100 also, but the heat really hurt me. I don't think I've ever sweated so much on a ride. I was really draggin for the last 10 miles. Didn't see the popsicle stop - that would have helped - it must have been that last stop. I skipped the last one (thinking I'd just push through to the end since I had enough hot water on board), but that was probably a mistake.

The 'popsicle' stop actually refreshed me enough to help pull in a couple of other riders from our group. (They helped pull me to the stop and were hurting at that point worse than I was after the stop)

Great ride to everyone.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the ride. You were not the only one having an off day. While yall were doing the Katy ride, I escaped to Austin. It felt great at first not having the humidity, but I was wishing for a sag wagon out on the green belt. I downed all the water in my camelbak and all the gatorade in my bottles before making it back to the truck. When I got back to Pasadena, I could swear that my body was so dry it was soaking up the humidity.

Ride on

That's kind of like me, yesterday. I got really dehydrated on a ride. I ended up doing about 25 more k than I'd intended. It wasn't terribly hot ,about 77 degrees, but I probably should have taken some Gatorade. I ended up doing 95.8 k, nearly a metric century. But I really got dehydrated. I wasn't cramping but I felt PARCHED. On the way home I really began to lose altitude and my legs just went. The final few K I was going 18k per hour and it was exhausting. Lance wasn't kidding when he said he felt like hell the day after getting all dehydrated! I feel like hell today. Not like I'm comparing myself to lance but it happens to everyone. I'm just now starting to wake up- it really does take a while. Fortunately for me I don't have to climb Alpe D'huez! In fact, I am not riding at all today.

Congrats on 87 miles in that heat, though! I have no idea how anyone does that, or the HH 100.

Originally posted by MikeR
Did you do any training for your century? What was the longest you ever rode before you did the 87 miles?
I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary -- my preparation basically consisted of the 50-mile club rides on the weekends plus 15-20 mile rides in the evenings during the week. I rode a century back in April on the first day of the MS-150 and did okay then, so I figured I should be okay for this one being that I'm in better shape now than I was when I rode the first century. I think I underestimated the heat effect and probably should have put in more miles before the ride. Oh well, live and learn... :)

I basically followed the same path as grendel, except

I do 65-80 mile club rides on Saturday, and 45 every other Sunday.

In addition to the MS, I rode the Shiner Bash which is 95 miles and was hot - I learned alot of lessons on heat and proper hydration on that one...tossing my guts off the side of the bike, chills, no sweat, etc.

Also, the Sunday Rides I do, are in the afternoon at 3pm for the heat training.

HHH here i come.....Insanity, yes. But I may be moving to FLorida, so I would regret it if I dont do it.