I did the Central Coast DC yesterday out of Paso Robles and ran into the same thing. At mile 87 you turn on to Nacimiento-Ferguson Road and climb 2700 feet strait up from the ocean. The lower 1500 feet climbs at an average grade of 10% with some pitches at 16%, I had 98f (it was 66f at the bottom) on my comp mid-climb and wilted. Took me 60 miles to recover, actually it had to get dark and drop into the 60s for me to recover. Our spring has been so cool and wet, I have absolutely no heat tolerance yet.

If you don't need Sherpas it's just another hill. ;)

38 this morning, after an easy ride yesterday.

Here's another profile, this one's from the second day of the Everest Challenge.

This starts in the desert near the little town of Big Pine, at the crack of dawn. The first climb is into the Sierra, up Big Pine Creek. It's a steady climb to the rustic Glacier Lodge, then it turns around for a screaming ride back down to the start.

The second climb is on Death Valley Road, which is a more gradual climb. The organizers have you go far enough on this road so the 2-day total equals 29,035 feet (the elevation of Mt. Everest). As you can guess from the name, it's a dry desert climb. Then it's turn-around time and back to the start.

The big climb is saved for last. Up and into the White Mountains. This climb goes up a canyon that gets cooked by the midday sun, then it turns left into the Bristlecone Forest (home of the oldest living thing). The last few miles are the steepest.

The race finishes at the summit. After a rest and a cold soda or two, you get a "free" descent back to the start.

Hey terry-
Here's one from Breathless Agony last weekend. This was a great ride. Now if I can picture myself doing it back to back on consecutive days, I'll be ready for Everest Challenge. Are you doing Son of Death Ride? I've been thinking about it. Sherman grade looks like hell, the ride should be titled Son of a B*tch.
Here's the profile for Breathless Agony, 115 miles with 12,000' climbing (11,000' in the first 74 miles "ouch"). I also included one of the profiles from Son Of Death Ride. See you at EC in Sept. Take Care...Pat

Assuming the pass through Mt. Lassen National Park is cleared of snow, I'll be doing this ride on June 11th. It's 104 miles, with nearly 10,000 feet of climbing. From the low point (about 15 miles from the start), there's a 42 mile climb with about 8000 feet of climbing to the summit pass in the park. The good news is that after the big climb, there's only one "bump" up in the last 35 miles.

Last year, we rode past a couple of still-frozen lakes, and between 10' high snow banks (there's a photo gallery from last year's ride on my website).

BTW - Terry, when you said you "suffered greatly", could you be more specific? Was it just a muscle fatigue issue? Or, bonking? Or, cramping? Or, something else? What, if anything, did you learn from it?

I might do Son of Death Ride, I'll have to wait and see. I was thinking of renting a cabin around that time, somewhere near Bishop instead for a week and doing the Everest Challenge climbs. Sort of a mini climbing camp.

It wasn't a bonk, since I was able to keep my heart rate up. It was a lot of overall discomfort that I attribute to the heat and not having enough to drink. My legs were aching pretty badly on the last climb up Mt. Hamilton, and they were starting to cramp up. I also noticed that I had stopped sweating about half way up the climb, even though it was quite hot. I was also getting chills, never a good sign.

I was drinking one large bottle of Cytomax per hour, but I don't think that was enough for the hot return trip in the afternoon. I'll have to try the ride again soon to see if I can manage it better.

Nice ride SSP, and thanks for sharing the pics, they were great.

Can someone explain what software/hardware you guys are using to create these profiles? These are very cool.

The profiles I posted are from my Polar software, just a screen capture. I use a Polar 720i to record the rides.

I use KLIMB. Good if you are in the SF Bay Area or Central Ohio (or if you like to tinker). It's free.

Classic Heat Stress (precurser to heat stroke). I'm pretty susceptable to it due to a heat stroke I suffered while serving in the luxurious enginerooms of Uncle Sams Canoe Club. I was passed by a rider on Saturday that I noticed had sweat running down his arms matting his arm hair, I realized mine were dry, forehead was dry. Big sign it's time to back off. I try to carry extra water so I can waste some down my chest of over my arms, but once you've stopped sweating it takes more than that. Anybody else been in that creek that crosses Monitor Pass heading west about 1/2 to 2/3s of the way up? That little creek was a lifesaver for me one hot day.
Here's the profile for Central Coast...

Many people who live in the Bay Area (Northern California) use a software called KIMB (www.klimb.org).. It is free and covers our area well. We use it to plan rides. It has a couple of graphing capabilities to profile a route (including a cool 3D)

You may have been suffering the effects of hyponatrenia (low blood sodium level). During extended efforts in the heat, you can lose 1300 mg of sodium per hour, or more. Unfortunately, Cytomax has very little sodium - 100 mg per 16 oz, or 175 mg in a 28 oz water bottle. For a long hot ride, that's way too little sodium. You may need to switch to a different product, or find some way to take on supplemental sodium during the ride (salt tablets, pretzels, etc.).

Also, if this was one of your first rides this season in the heat, it may be an acclimation issue. The more you ride in the heat, the better your body gets at conserving sodium and other minerals. But, those first few hot rides each year can result in a very noticeable amount of salt buildup on your helmet straps, jersey, and skin.

Glad you survived it...cramps and chills when it's 98 degrees are pretty significant warning signs!

FWIW, I've been experimenting this season with a homemade sports drink, with the specific goal of avoiding cramps and electrolyte problems on hot, hilly, long rides (I'm training for the Death Ride). So far, it seems to be working - I've had no cramping issues yet this year (though that could be due to better training and/or good luck). If you're interested, PM me and I'll send you the formula.

Here are a couple of links addressing the issue of cramping:

http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/electrolytes.html

http://www.myodynamics.com/articles/cramps.html

Here's a nasty little bugger that I started doing last year and should be accesible now though with the crazy weather we've had, snow at any time near French Meadows would be a serious possibility. The Corkscrew wall climb out of the Middle Fork is epic, climbing 2000ft (with a 100ft descent) in 3.2 miles. The 30 second descent leads you to 20% grade, not fun, though fortunately at that point it's somewhat shaded. That can be real important as the Middle Fork canyon is incredibly hot in summer with road temperatures frequently at 120 degrees. It can also be a pretty mosquito ridden in the morning (you are climbing Mosquito Ridge :rolleyes: ) or gnatty in the afternoon. Yechh, you can't outrun them at 16% grade.
I forgot, this starts and ends in Auburn, Ca, it's 120 miles with 13,500 feet of climbing, 10k in less than 80 miles. If I ride it from my house, it adds another 30 miles and 1800 feet of climb.

This is cool stuff. Now I'm going to get a portable GPS system to record my routes.

forget the PM post that baby...plz....i have added salt to my sports drink and have started to try and figure out how much water I lose per ride so that I don't over drink.

It was the opposite this year! Temps ranged from 39 to 75 degrees. It was 39 at the top of Oak Glen, the way down was freezing witht the wind chill. A few people were hypothermic at the Mill Creek rest stop and couldn't stop shaking and didn't go on. I had the shakes as well, but ate quickly and got back on my bike. It didn't take long climbing damnation alley to warm-up, it was around 65-75 on the way up. The cooler temperatures were ideal for the climbs. I can't believe the new record. Scott passed me on the Forest Falls climb, you would have thought he was sprinting. Someone else from the Jelly Belly pro team was going about just as fast. My time to the summit was 7 hours, my goal was 6 hours, but I was happy to have completed the ride. I think I could have rode harder the first 3 hours, but I played on the conservative side when it came to pacing myself. Oh yeah, you would've loved Jack Rabbit trail this year, there was a lake up top that everyone had to clip out and travese a hill to get around. I clipped out and fell over into the mud :D , what a bonehead. Scott probably could have broke the 5 hour mark if it wasn't for this.

holly schitt! some of those climbs are really intimidating.. :D

Thanks, good information there. I suspect I was caught unawares by the first long and hot ride of the season. I had a few endurolytes and a bag of pretzels, which served me fine most of the day. But the latter half of the return ride was too hot, and I had only 2 bottles.

Wow, that looks like a beauty! It ought to make a great training ride. Can you provide riding directions for it? What about water/food/toilets?

OK...here's what I'm using this season. But, FWIW, I'm making no claims as to efficacy or safety. Use at your own risk, no warranty expressed or implied, etc., etc.

This will make 1 gallon:

2 Kool-Aid packets
The little 0.25 oz packets with no sugar. I really like the "Ice Cool" Lemon Ice flavor. It mixes as a "white" drink so your water bottles don't look like they contain glowing neon, and the taste is excellent.

9 oz sugar
Standard cane sugar (though I might experiment with maltodextrin, fructose, etc. in future). This amount means the carbohydrate content is similar to Gatorade (around 6%), with about 55-60 calories per 8 oz. You can adjust this up or down to taste, but beware of getting the sugar content much higher (it can cause stomach upset if too sweet).

1 tsp salt - for the sodium

1/2 tsp "No Salt" (or other salt substitute, as long as it's straight potassium chloride).

The above ingredients are all readily available at the grocery store.

Optional ingredients:

1 tsp Magnesium Citrate powder
Magnesium depletion has been associated with cramping, though it's not clear if the depletion causes the cramping or is an after effect of it. Alternatively, you can (and probably should) take a daily magnesium supplement tablet (available whereever vitamins are sold).

1/2 tsp Calcium Citrate
Calcium too has been associated with cramping. Alternatively (and highly recommended) is to take some Tums or other calcium-based antacid prior to the ride, and bring some along in your kit.

1/4 tsp Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C).
For it's antioxidant effects, which are supposed to help prevent cramping during extended exercise.

1/8 tsp liquid B-6
Same - antioxidant.

These optional ingredients can be obtained at vitamin/supplement suppliers - I got mine from www.vitaminexpress.com.

Mix with water to make 1 gallon of mixture, and stir well. If it's been sitting in the fridge for a while, shake it up before pouring into your water bottles, because the calcium and/or magnesium does not really dissolve.

Hope this helps...cramps suck!

What??? :D

Seriously Foresthill is the last place with food, so you are looking at 80 miles with no sure facilities, there is nothing between Foresthill and French Meadows, nothing. There are bathrooms at French Meadows with sinks, but seriously, I would never go counting on that water as it seems pretty well unattended up there. I was carrying 144 ounces of fluids last year and I didn't run short, but I still believe some type of water filtration capability or iodine tablets are a must. The climb back to Foresthill at the end can be ungodly hot and though there's ususally some traffic on that road due to river rafting, I would not want to run out of water there. I'll get you a route sheet sometime in the next couple days, once you get to Foresthill there are only two turns to FM and a U-ey and a right to get back.

Its the Tour de Whidbey. It is held every year about Sept. It is very diffucult (super hilly) and beautiful. If you ride up the island and don't leave 525 and HWY20, you are making a mistake. If you get the chance to ride the island again, get on the side roads.

Most of the route I followed was away from 525 and 20 simply because the route was set up by the organisers of the Trek Tri-Island who wanted to keep the 500 or so riders as much out of harm's way as possible. We took a lot of backroads and coastal routes and it was wonderful so I try and repeat those same routes when I can. It would be interesting to see some other scenic planned routes as well so I'll try and look up the route map for the TdW.

Update: I couldn't let a ride beat me so badly, so I rode it again yesterday. This time the winds were brutal, but I didn't suffer like last time. I rode at the same pace, but I drank and ate more. My legs had no get-up-and-go on the final climb up Hamilton, which I assume meant that my muscle glycogen was gone. But no hammer and tongs, which was just fine with me. I just couldn't get my legs to go, no amount of concentration could get my heart rate up to 80%.

From what I've read, there's nothing to do once you run out of muscle glycogen. Eating carbs will keep your blood sugar up, but it won't replenish the fuel in your legs. The only thing to do is prevent running out of them in the first place, and that's done by pacing.

Oh yeah, the 24-mile return ride up Del Puerto Canyon from Patterson to the Junction? It's a killer. It's a long, slow, hot, exposed, windy grind up a gradual grade, finished off by an even hotter and very steep climb. I was feeling great when I got to Patterson, but I was pretty tired when I got back to the Junction.

Here is a site that has the waterworks route. Took somewhat longer than I expected to write it up. I have not done a route guide before.

Maybe I'll see you on the 7 hills of Kirkland ride next week. I haven't picked a distance yet, but I'm also considering the century. :rolleyes: I'll be on this.