TrojanHorse

https://app.strava.com/rides/18975156

I'll add some pictures and more of a ride report later but I'm beat and my wife is tapping her toes in the kitchen at me. My daughter is having her 12th birthday party tomorrow (I had to negotiate to get it changed from today so I could do this ride) so I'm on the hook for all kinds of stuff, I'm sure.

I will say that the Channel Island Bike Club and the Ventura Kiwanis organized up a fantastic event. It was VERY well supported with plenty of anything you could possibly want at every rest stop (and there were 5 rest stops on the century, not evenly spaces... so 15 mi, 35 mi, 55 mi, 75 mi and 85 mi or so with the world's greatest and coldest popsicle at that last stop)

I had one mystery flat about an hour in... changed the tube and off I went.
I lost one of my fabulous Camelbak Podium Big Chill bottles (right after I switched places with the empty one, so the 15 miles from roughly 40-55 were with no water, boo hoo, and doing the rest of the ride on 1 bottle was un-fun. I had to stop at a 7-11 for gatorade at one point)
I had the most vicious cramps I've ever experienced starting at about that time too - my quad locked up so badly I almost fell off my bike. I couldn't stand at all for most of the day after that although I was able to start again by say, mile 80, but I had to be really careful. I have NEVER experienced cramps like that and I'm not sure what led to them. I might have to start trying volosong's supplement trick.

Anyway, I had some sort of pipe dream that I could finish with a 16 mph average but no. I think the cramps & my reduced training recently as well as probably eating the wrong stuff contributed to putting the kibosh on that. Still, I'm really pleased with the result for a first century ever. It was also hillier than they advertised in the promotional materials when I signed up - it was supposed to have 3200 feet of climbing but they changed it to to 4200 somehow.

Anyway, I'll add a second post in a sec to serve as a placeholder for some pics and stuff and I'll add those later tonight or tomorrow. All in all it was a great time!

TrojanHorse

OK, time for my huge collection of cell phone photos (ha ha)

We hit the road a little after 8, all excitement and adrenaline. For some reason, the same road that caused me to worry about my fillings on the last leg of the trip was palatable. Maybe it really was better on the westbound side of the road. I was following my riding pal at about 19-20 mph (this was after we discussed finding a group riding at a good pace and NOT wanting to set the pace). We caught up to some other riders and thought BINGO! but then they stepped it up a bit further and we got smart and slowed down. My water was still frozen so we opted to pull into the ridiculously early 15 mile rest stop so I could hydrate a bit.

Here's the first rest stop. It's so crazy scenic I had to pull out my phone and even took it *out* of the ziploc for this picture. Gorgeous coastline, scads of food, gatorade was still cold.



We left rest stop 1 at a healthy clip (again) and headed inland. I don't know what I did but I might have hit a drainage grate or something because suddenly my rear wheel felt squishy. It was definitely soft (inflated it at the car before we left) so I decided to change it out anyway. Unloaded my saddle bag, got a new tube out and had trouble getting the old tube out of the tire - it was like the rubber welded itself to the tire. I couldn't find any evidence of a leak in the tube nor any signs of damage in the tire, so I stuck a new tube in, pumped 'er up and off we went. It's tiring saying "yeah we're OK" to the 42nd group of people going by but it's great that so many people asked. The sag car drove by right after we put everything back together.

About 12 minutes later we got to the first hill of the day and Ryan dropped me for the first of many times of the day. I did pretty well on that hill and passed all sorts of people, including a couple bike walkers and some lady doing extreme paperboy up the hill. Needless to say, there were plenty of people who went by like I was standing still, but it was a nice little 500 foot hill. Got to the top and no Ryan, so I figured I better hit the gas and get to the rest stop. Some nice downhill sweepers and nice pavement... I got momentarily confused at one point where the return path of the century crossed our path and went down a side road but kept going & made it to the rest stop. Used the portapotties, grabbed a banana and refilled my bottle (I'd only had about half a bottle at this point almost two hours in... uh oh) Ryan apparently made it to the rest stop a minute or two before me so we connected again, I borrowed the mechanic's pump to make sure my rear was properly inflated and off we went.

The next part of the ride is where things got a little grim. We headed up through Montecito towards the foothills and there was about a 1,000 foot climb. Once again, I get dropped, got passed by some folks, did a little passing etc. I only stopped once uh, to take a picture, yeah, that's it. My HR was kind of high and I though it would do me a little good to pause so I got this lame picture of the coast:



There were some riders coming up the hill right behind me too. it was a nice climbing road:



Chugged a little go juice and off I went again. My little stop wasn't too far from the summit, so I got over and there was lots of curvy down hill action. I got to thinking I should eat a clif bar (plus they were weighing down my jersey) and in the interest of not stopping, I did it while riding. So I'm eating, holding the clif bar in my left hand and following some guy down the road and we came to a SHARP right hander aaaaaaaaand CRAP! Skidded my rear tire a little but phew, I made the turn. In hindsight I should have just dropped my clif bar. Oops.

So the rest of the route to the lunch stop was pretty mundane, mostly pretty fast stuff and either flat or downhill so I was working my downhill clyde magic and went by gobs of people. What do you know, we get to a little uphill and I dropped my chain. I fumbled with that for a minute or two and got back on but in the meanwhile those gobs of people passed me again. I passed them again and then rattle rattle... I looked down and my bottle was gone. CRAP! So I stopped and turned around and rode partway up that dang hill again (right at about 43 miles) looking for it. I had just emptied my other one and swapped the full one into the downtube holder because it's easier to get to that one. Well, I didn't find it but I rode up hill while all those people I passed (twice) rode downhill. Dang. Turned around and headed off again.

I think I started cramping at the 50 mile mark, and I was really dragging at that point. Now, I've ridden plenty of rides longer than 50 miles and never had cramping issues that were anywhere NEAR as severe as what I got yesterday. I stood up to go over a little hill and my quad seized up so badly I really thought I was going to wipe out. Sitting down and pedaling didn't bother the quads but my calves were acting up so I toned it down and limped in to the lunch break at 55 miles.

Lunch was nice (I'll put all the stuff I ate later on) and the break was nice... I drank quite a bit of water while I was there, refilled my bottle and used the facilities. I did accidentally run into Ryan again, so we headed off to finish the ride.

Well, I still wasn't feeling great and Ryan was, so it didn't take long for me to get stuck at a light and drop off the back. I wouldn't have been able to maintain the pace he wanted to maintain anyway so I just caught on with a bunch of other people and slogged along. This part of the ride was really pretty - we rode down the coast and along the Santa Barbara Harbor and waterfront. I should have stopped to take a photo or two there but my cell phone probably would have screwed it up anyway. I went through my bottle of gatorade between lunch at 55 miles and a 7-11 at 67 miles, so I pulled in for some cold refreshments. There were probably 20 other Cool Breezers doing the exact same thing. This was really the most enjoyable part of the ride in terms of scenery, temperatures and cool sea breezes, but again, my sense of impending doom from possible cramping kind of kept me from enjoying it that much. Sailboats, little kids on bikes on the beach path, Tri-weenies blasting by and ignoring red lights... bikinis... it's a beach, you get the picture. Very pretty.

I kind of went into zombie mode about mile 70 just watching the odometer and hoping for the rest stop. I was kind of in the vicinity of a bunch of other riders but not really riding with them and we all motored our way to the rest stop at 75 miles. I still felt full from lunch so I grabbed a handful of peanuts and refilled my water bottle (cytomax this time, which was a nice break from the sweetness of gatorade), found Ryan yet again and off we went.

I really don't remember much about the trip from the 75 mile rest stop to the 85 mile rest stop - I was really just kind of tunnel visioned and riding. It felt more like a transit than a "ride", really just getting from point A to point B. Anyway, Cool Breeze is semi-famous for having ice cold popsicles at the last rest stop and I was thinking about that popsicle for about 5 miles before I got there. I actually figured out how many pedal strokes it would take me to get one more tenth of a mile on the odometer but I finally made it. I didn't really need anything but I really wanted to get off the bike and just sit down for a bit and enjoy a popsicle. It looks like I took about 15 minutes to enjoy that popsicle. One funny thing about that popsicle, it was so cold I couldn't eat it right away - my tongue kept sticking to it. I finally got into it though and it was splendid. Mmmmm, best popsicle ever. My neck and shoulders were hurting and I had a headache at that point, and then I got an ice cream headache from the popsicle. Miraculously, when the icecream headache went away a minute later, so did my regular one. I'm telling you that popsicle was the bomb.

Anyway, headed out again and the route home put us on Route 101 for a while with all the 60 mph cars. Not fun. THe shoulder was huge, then there was a sort of dead zone, and then an actual bike lane. The pavement in the bike lane was nice but it was inches from the traffic blasting by. The pavement in the shoulder was really rough and awful so I rode in that for as long as I could take it and then took my chances on the bike lane. I got on the freeway with some bike club and though, hey, it would be nice to just tag along behind them but I couldn't keep up. I needed motivation as much as an actual draft but I kept after them as well as I could. We finally got off that awful road and onto Rincon parkway or something like that - campers lined the right shoulder, and then another dead zone and then the bike land. Unfortunately, the pavement was really rough (not broken but it was like cemented gravel more than asphalt)... very uncomfortable to ride on. I rode by one of the SAG cars parked at the side and gave the SAG guy a wave and he started clapping. That was pretty cool.

I had my gel a little after that and things started looking up. Once I recognized the home stretch adrenaline kicked in and I was really flying on that last bike path. It felt good! I was really counting down the miles too... 98.1... point 2.... point 3....



I put my food consumption down in post #18 if you're interested in my thoughts on how I did that wrong. Obviously my drinking was all fubar on account of freezing my water and then losing a bottle. The last piece of the puzzle I think is my training leading up to the ride. I had some struggles (vacation, business trip, illness) that kept me off the bike for 3 weeks in July and in hindsight that probably contributed to my late ride struggles. You do what you can, I suppose, and certainly people ride centuries with a lot less riding than I've done this year so that may be a red herring.

All in all it was enormously satisfying to look down at the Garmin and see 101 for the distance. I think I need to find another century this year with maybe no more than the same amount of hills. Who's up for it?

Chaco

Congrats!!!

vesteroid

You did well regardless.... Nice job

jeepseahawk

Great time for first one (if first one?), good job! I manage 15.7 average on palm springs but that was less elevation and my 2nd century, that will give you some comparison how great you did.

edit...

I mixed you up with another poster stating first century

bigfred 

Well done. Good job. Woohoo. Wheeeeeee!

TrojanHorse

Yep, that was my first century... I did NOT restrain myself for the first 30 miles, which was probably a mistake (but it felt so good!)

I think sans cramping and sans missing waterbottle and with a better eating plan, I would have done better but of course, I'll have to test that theory next time.

Homeyba

Congrats on your first century! See, it wasn't so bad even though you lost a bottle. I was right, wasn't I, the "hills" weren't much more than bumps were they?

OiS

Congratz on getting through it. Sounds like a couple of unexpected dramas, but you got through it all the same! Well done.

chefisaac

What kind of father are you? To have to reschedule the kids b-day party??!!!???

Heck I would have done the same!

Great job!

1855Cru

Very nicely done, your next one will be much easier

lenny866

Well Done!!

volosong

Congratulations on your first century. It did turn out to be a little warmer than forecast.

I finished the double-metric century in an awful time. I got THREE flat tires, and only carried two tubes with me. Because of the lost time changing tubes, I arrived at the last rest stop about five minutes after the last popsicle was given out. Bummer! I was really looking forward to that. They threw in a new hill near the beginning, so there was more climbing than last year.

Got through without cramping, however there was one point where I could tell that if I pushed it right then, the leg would cramp up. The sensation was gone within a minute. After two years doing the double-metric, I think if I ride it next year, I'll just ride the century. Since I don't climb very fast, I'm tired of being the caboose all the time. I can hang with most people, until the terrain heads up. With the big hills front loaded, that means I fall behind fairly quickly.

This was my birthday ride. I rode twice my age in miles and triple my age in kilometers. It's a good route. When you hit the lunch stop, you know that the worst is over and that you will have a tail wind all the way home. The psychological boost that gives makes the ride not seem so long.

My legs are sore this morning.

TrojanHorse

And now I know that exact feeling. And riding that rough edge between cramping and not cramping.

Well, it was a good learning experience that's for sure.

PhotoJoe 

I did a recovery ride this morning in honor of you guys!

bbeasley

Other than not losing the water bottle, what will you do different next time?

I've done a couple of 75s but my first Century is in 3 weeks and 75 does not equal 100. I rode 64 the other day and had fall on the ground cramps, for the first time, at 50 miles.

Black wallnut 

Way to go TrojanHorse! Sounds like you had quite the memorable experience.

TrojanHorse

Well, a couple of stupid things... losing the bottle is very high on the list (I just ordered some arundel Dave-O cages... pricey but apparently they're awesome at preventing exactly what I did to myself)

1) I froze my gatorade bottles the night before thinking they would defrost on the 2 hour drive to the start. No. They were still barely defrosted by the time we got to rest stop #1, so I actually had to stop to get something to drink. I think I would have preferred to drink what I brought and either keep rolling or just refill the bottle and jam on out of there.
2) Eating. I really don't think I ate right. Here's what I did eat:
* Rest stop 1 - 15 miles - half a muffin and some trail mix. Gatorade
* Rest stop 2 - 30 miles - banana & gatorade
* Mid ride - 38 mile or so - clif bar
* Lunch - 55 miles - big ham and turkey sammich with red onion, grey poupon, two tomatoes & plenty of pickles (I was cramping), water & gatorade
* Rest stop - 75 miles - peanuts & cytomax (tasted great after all that sweet gatorade)
* Rest stop - 85 miles - popsicle & gatorade
* mid ride - 92 miles or so - power bar gel

I think in this case drinking more early on and eating one or two more clif bars would have helped. Losing my bottle obviously was a huge problem and I didn't see any place to stop and get some gatorade on the route. I guess I could have stopped and used somebody hose so I probably should have done that. I hate doing that if they're not there to ask though. Finishing with only one bottle was a bit of a hindrance but I did stop at a 7-11 to reload between lunch and the next rest stop, so that worked out OK.

They had a lot of crap food at the rest stops (cookies & stuff) so really, besides that the bananas and PB&J sandwiches were the most appropriate things to eat and I didn't really take advantage of that. SO I guess my big change would be to stick with what I know... which is funny because I had a gaggle of clif bars in my jersey and I certainly COULD have eaten them. The other thing is that the big lunch filled me up and kept me from wanting to eat after that too which brings me to my last observation - the gel. I've never really liked using them but I think in this particular case I could have used one or two more. A little burst of caffeine and energy really gave me the juice to finish strong.

I'd recommend that you find something to motivate you for that last 15 miles. I was seriously in economy limp home mode from about 80 miles till 92 when I had that glorious gel. Then I started passing people again and all was well.

PhotoJoe 

Great writeup. Sounds like it was tough, but not toooooo tough, and fun!

chefisaac

They make some ear phones that fit on the OUTSIDE of the ear and it NOT IN THE EAR. They work well for those times you need a little push!

Beachgrad05

TH - sounds like an adventure for sure. I want to do this ride for sure next year.

CommuteCommando

Good job Horse. I'll be doing my first in November. I love the Ventura/Santa Barbara Coast, and will try to make this one next year.

TrojanHorse

I updated post #2 with more info but yes, it was exactly that - tough but not overly so, fun but not overly so, and incredibly satisfying to finish.

I was sitting down for a post ride meal (santa maria trip tip of course) with a guy and we got to chatting about centuries. Says he - I have ridden 4 this year but i didn't really mean to. I noticed he's wearing the breathless agony jersey and he added that he rode all three centuries in the King of the Mountains challenge.

This one must have been a piece of cake for him!

Hill-Pumper

Congrats on the finish TrojanHorse. It always seem that there is some sort of drama when I do a century for some reason. I've been stung by a yellow jacket, had leg issues, and host of other things that seem to happen. The important thing is that you finished and learned somethings for the next time.

TrojanHorse

Funny you say that - I followed 3 people for the last couple miles of my trip to the lunch stop. The dude (and two girls with him, all wearing identical pearl izumi outfits) had some sort of music system on his bike, so I was just tagging along behind him listening to whatever it was he listened to. I don't know what it was, I wouldn't have picked it but it was a nice distraction for a couple miles.