Vital stats:

107 miles
10,500' vertical
piece of pie
big oops


More details to come later. [EDIT] See posts 9-12.

You're leaving us hanging? Shame on you!

Oh, thats just wrong. I went and got a beer for this.

amen! UGH! jason! how could you******************************

... that's just plain mean.... didn't think you had that in ya Jason!

Sorry... have to shower. But wanted to let you guys know that I finished. More will come. Including details about the big oops.

this sounds similiar to my first solo century last week.

101 miles
12,000 vertical
150 photos taken

man do i need to get off my butt and make a thread about it.

Get your butt in front of the keyboard and tell us about it already!

Background

I've attempted two centuries before. The first was the BikeForums SoCal "Pie ride" in January. Completed 100.6 miles before deciding to call it quits with a 1000' climb separating me from the end. (Ride reports here; my ride report is posts 26-29.) The second was Breathless Agony in May, where I stupidly played video games rather than riding for the two months before, including an entire month leading to the ride with zero mileage. Struggled along for 85 miles total. Note: Don't try hilly centuries if you haven't ridden for a long time! With a double metric and two centuries coming up in the next four weekends, I felt like I really should go out there and prove to myself I could do a century. So late last week, I decided I'd go for it, and in particular, I'd ride the Pie ride again. Couldn't convince anyone to join in the madness, so I decided to go at it solo.

I'm not going to note this again, but I should say one thing up front. The scenery for this ride is gorgeous. It was a wonderful way to keep my mind off of the miles.

Miles 0-38: Palomar Mountain

The start temperature was 50 degrees. And the ride starts with a fast downhill. To avoid having to drag around clothing I would use for only 15 minutes, I decided to go with only arm warmers, fingerless gloves, and knee warmers for added warmth. I was shivering in the initial downhill, as expected. My Cervelo R3 usually tracks as if on rails. But at mile one, I had some difficulty holding a line on 35+ MPH downhill turns. Gingerly continued while evaluating the situation. Nope, not a flat; I'm not encountering unusual rolling resistance. Nope, wheels don't appear out of true. Yup, it's the crazy winds blowing about. And my shivering isn't helping things, either. Later, reflecting on this while climbing Palomar, I noted that the tire's rubber still being cold and rock hard probably didn't help things, either.

Anyway, got to Palomar South Grade, a climb I had done many times before. Settled into a nice endurance rhythm, which for me means about 2000' vertical per hour. With 4200' of climbing to do, that took me right around two hours. I was feeling pretty good, and the winds were calming down a bit. Made the side trip to the observatory (another 1300' of climbing round trip), made a short stop next to the observatory, and then bombed down East Grade to Lake Henshaw, my first planned stop.

Going down East Grade was fun. I decided since it would be a long day, long downhills would be done coasting to save energy. Nonetheless, many sections of East Grade saw speeds of 35-40 MPH, with a few 40+ MPH sections. I had forgotten about the one tricky turn, though, so it caught me out by surprise when I got there. Winding through a few gentle 40 MPH turns, I came across a gentle looking turn only to find that it wasn't so gentle. Oops. And there was some rough pavement on the outside of the lane, so rather than try to turn harder over rough pavement, I decided the safe strategy was to burn off a huge amount of speed and then continue the turning. Squeezed hard on my brakes. A bit too hard, as my rear wheel came off the ground. Happily, descending Baldy has given me plenty of practice modulating brakes, so I got off my front brake ever so slightly. Whew. I decided I'd take remaining downhill turns a bit less aggressively. The tiny bit of time saved and the tiny additional thrill wasn't worth the risks.

Got down to Lake Henshaw to find a massive headwind. Oh dear. Perhaps trying a century on a day the Santa Ana winds were expected to wreak havoc wasn't such a great idea. Took about 4 hours ride time to cover 38 miles. Took a short break there before continuing.

Miles 38-54: Mesa Grande

By now, it was scorching hot. Again, perhaps a day with Santa Ana conditions wasn't the best for this ride. But I really wanted to finish this ride, so I continued on. The headwinds were very annoying, but hey, it means a tailwind later, right? Mesa Grande has some steep climbing. Happily, the steeper sections were shielded from the nasty wind. So strangely, the steep sections didn't bother me. What bothered me was that once through the steep sections, rather than making pretty good time as I did in January, a massive headwind brought my progress to a crawl. Nothing I could do about the strong headwind except get as aero as possible and keep putting out a steady effort. And since I was making such a huge effort to fight the wind, I took every opportunity I could to coast downhill and recover a bit.

I would have done almost anything to get someone to share the work with me in that wind. Unfortunately, no ride partner was to be found. (During the entire ride, I passed only six other roadies, and all of them were headed the other way.) When I got to Santa Ysabel in a bit over 5 hours total ride time, since I was making decent time, I decided a break for Julian pie (the namesake of the ride) was called for. Took a break and enjoyed the pie.

Miles 54-69: Redefining a digestive pace

Heading west into Ramona, I enjoyed a tailwind and a predominantly downhill route. A perfect opportunity to digest the pie with minimal impact on the ability to make decent progress. With minimal effort, at one point, I found myself going 25 MPH on flat ground. Turned down the effort even further to save some energy, and enjoyed bombing down the descents.

Did I mention that I love my R3? There was some road construction on Old Julian Hwy resulting in steel plates and lots of bumps and transitions in the asphalt and other annoying road features. The R3's Paris-Roubaix pedigree definitely shined there. My Specialized Roubaix Comp is a bit more comfortable generally, but I was extremely impressed by how the bike seemed indifferent to all the nasty stuff in the road and seemed to smooth everything out for me. My wheels, on the other hand, do not have a Paris-Roubaix pedigree, so I nonetheless avoided as much of this nastiness as I could. In Ramona, I made my second planned stop, enjoying some more snacks before continuing.

By the way, all this riding on a hot day means I'd now properly heat acclimated, just in time for fall and winter.

Miles 69-100: Rolling into Escondido

After a short flat ride through Ramona, Highland Valley Rd felt a bit tiring with all its varied terrain. But this was where I really started struggling last time, and this time, I was still feeling pretty good. So I was pretty pleased with how things were going. Got to the outskirts of Escondido, where the climb past the Wild Animal Park caused me little difficulty. But the heat was getting to me a bit, so at mile 95, I took a short break in the shade. And then three miles later, I saw a gas station and couldn't resist the chance to get some cold soda and another snack as a substitute for hot sticky Clif bars and warm drinks. Got to the bottom of the final climb, feeling refreshed after that break.

Miles 100-107: Lake Wohlford and the big oops

By now, I was a bit over 8 hours ride time into the ride, and a 1000' climb separated me from my car. And the bottom two miles are the steepest part. Lake Wohlford probably wouldn't be too bad if it weren't at mile 100. Happily, I knew about this, so I had been conserving energy and resting every chance I could since Santa Ysabel, preparing for this final climb.

The first two miles went smoothly. I wasn't blazing fast, but I set a decent tempo and all the drivers were kind enough to leave me plenty of room on this narrow section of road. At the top of this section, I started feeling a slight cramp in my right leg. But the worst of this hill was over, and with a bit of stretching on a slight downhill, the cramp went away. By now, it was getting cooler, too. Feeling pretty good, and with the toughest part of the hill behind me, I decided to hammer home. This lasted for four miles until at mile 106, on the final grade of note, I was going about 9 MPH and decided to upshift and get out of the saddle one last time. Got out of the saddle, and both my legs immediately cramped up. I rolled to a stop and fell over to the left (direction definitely not chosen on purpose). Managed to protect the bike in the fall, looked over my shoulder to see no car bearing down on me (whew), and tried unsuccessfully to unclip. The next driver stopped to direct traffic around me as I uncramped, and the driver after that was a cyclist who rides with B&L, so she came over also to make sure I was okay and see if there was anything she could do. (She did happen to have some electrolyte water in her car, which I gladly accepted. But other than that, not much to do except wait until I uncramped enough to first unclip, and then eventually get off the road.) All the other drivers stopped to see if I was okay, but there wasn't much they could do about it. Likewise, the two nearest residents came to see if I was okay. It was very nice of all those people to check on me.

Anyway, the B&L cyclist asked me if I wanted her to get her bike rack. No way! Not with under two miles to go! They stayed with me for a while as I rested up, and then we parted ways. I rested a little more, then continued on my way. I felt fine after the break, but not wanting to tempt fate, I took it easy the remaining mile and change and never got out of the saddle. Rolled to my car in 8:55 ride time, with almost 11 hours total elapsed time. (Yeah, kind of slow.)

Survey of oops damage
Basically, it was a clipless incident. Just toppled over at a stop. My leg managed to cushion most of the bike. After carefully checking over everything, I found minor scrapes on the rear wheel's quick release and the left side shifter, bar tape, and bar plug. Basically what one might expect. Everything else on my bike is fine. Sorry, my beloved prima donna. But some sort of battle wound was an inevitability.

I have a slight cut on my left wrist. No big deal, only a few millimeters long, though it did draw a few drops of blood. But aside from that and a huge dose of embarassment, I'm fine. My helmet has some cracks, though, so I guess it's time to get another helmet.

Concluding thoughts
Even with the incredible embarassment of toppling over a mile and change from the end, I had a great time. Probably my most enjoyable ride since the original Pie ride thanks to all the great scenery and great riding (despite the wind). I have been putting off trying out electrolyte drinks since most of my rides aren't really long enough for it to matter. I guess I should get around to it, though.

Oh, and with this ride under my belt, I'm looking forward to the Grand Tour Lite double metric next Sunday, Tour de Poway century the Sunday after, and the SoCal BikeForums Baldy Challenge on Oct 14. It should be a fun month of riding.

A bunch of people to thank
A big thank you to the people to stopped to help at my oops. A few of them were cyclists, so if any of you happen to read this, I owe you a big return favor sometime.

Thanks to the original Pie ride gang. While today was great, I had even more fun back in January. It was really great riding with you all.

In particular, thanks again to my58vw and Mrs Nosra451 for providing SAG support back in January. Having one SAG vehicle for every four riders is awesome, but I didn't fully appreciate how much nicer the riding experience was until today.

And thanks to tprevost for offering to be my emergency cell phone contact should I need help from someone. Happily, I didn't need to call her, but it was nice to know there was someone willing to come get me if for some reason I needed help getting back home.

Great Report Jason and WELL DONE! Sorry about the "oops" but those things happen! Mine usually happen in the middle of the road w/my DH yelling "GET UP" at me from the other side... of course, that's another story

I'm SO glad to hear the ride was great and basically uneventful; I know those roads well; perhaps someday I'll be up to doing that ride!

Thanks again for the great report!!!

trac'

anytime jason... it would've been my pleasure if you'd needed it

Wow, great report. Glad you (and bike) are OK.

Great report Jason...what an accomplishment! I don't think I could ever do a solo century like that. Glad that your oops wasn't too terrible and that the R3 that I plan to steal someday is okay.

Great write up Jason. Glad to hear you had a good time and got home safe. Dang those winds sure do add to the excitement. And to think Iwas considering coming down there for a ride. Let me know when they stop.

October 27th.... just in time for you to do that metric on the 28th!

Congratulations. If the wind was anything like it was around here, you certainly earned it.

Man, what a report. How do you remember all that stuff? I forgot... you're going to be a phd pretty soon.

Great ride and report, Jason!!

Good job Jason! Very impressive to do that solo. Glad to hear that the R3 is still making it's worth known. I just completed a 118 mile ride last weekend on my R3 and was very pleased with it's performance.
Thanks for the excellent report. Sorry to hear about the oops but it doesn't sound too bad. Late in my ride last week I got the top of my top tube with my cleat. Just a few scratches in the clear coat that will polish out, but like you inferred, the first mark has to happen at some point.

Steve

Awesome. Yeah, the R3 is definitely a keeper.

It happens... I was mainly concerned about potentially getting run over. Once it was clear that wouldn't happen, anything else really was inconsequential.

You wanna hear solo century?! This is my solo (double) century for you!!!! PG 1/7 for the bulk of the thread.

https://www.bikeforums.net/singlespeed-fixed-gear/222915-edge-sanity.html

Without your fancy expensive R3'S and such, and brakeless. Whatchu' got on me?

I had heard about that and checked in. Sorry it didn't work out.