palesaint

Ow. My sit bone hurts. I think I might be in the market for a new saddle.

I took out my stock (except for burning through michelin tires and replacing with panarace stradius pros) Windsor Dover yesterday for the 2007 Santa Fe Century. Now, I'm pretty much a mountain biker at heart. But after discovering I enjoyed racing, I took the advise from those "in the know" to get a road bike and do focused training. And what great advise it was! I still spend the majority of time on the single track, but I really enjoy the speed and feel of road biking. I'm scared of road racing though, so decided to get out with a couple thousand other bikers and try the Santa Fe century. What a great time!

Here are the stats:

Start/Finish elevation: ~7000 feet
Length: 104 miles
Time ; total: 5:45 (18.1MPH) in saddle: 5:30 (18.9MPH)
Total elevation climbing: 4400 feet
Weather: 55f at 7:30am, 70f at 1:15pm, mostly sunny - minimal wind

I had a really fun time the first half, hanging with the "serious" guys and doing the occasional draft. I've never drafted before, so I was quite nervous. I'd ask if I could tag along, then I'd get as close as I comfortably good.... which was never closer than 6 inches or so from his back tire. I need ALOT of practice and experience in the area to be ANY good in a pack. I was quite surprised at my anxiety level of being so close to a group. Consequently, I spent most of the time solo.

For one of the first times this season, I had to fall back to my granny crank gear for the climb up "heartbreak hill". I was doubting the intensity of this climb. Everyone told me it was a brutal but short climb that many walked. Sure enough, once I rounded a corner and saw it, I had no more doubts. This guy looked like the "steep" climb back up the hill to my house, only twice as steep. And it was: my local big hill is 7% grade over a little more than a mile. This hill was 14% grade over .5-.6 miles. Short. Steep. And, yep, many MANY riders were walking. Maybe 25-30% of the field I was around was off the bike. So I was happy just to clean it.

The rest of the century went well until the 65 miles mark or so. Then my energy drink ran dry. I'd been passing most food/drink stations (hence the small difference between actual and in the saddle time), and had just passed the 60ish mile station. Until the next station, at mile 85 or so I was in the hurt zone. My energy dropped off, I was out of intake calories and my a$$ and hands were hurting. The sit bones were raw, but I was more annoyed with the pain of being in the drops. I was constantly shifting from the drops to the top. Time for a profession bike fit. After one of out last significant climbs and a pretty long rolling section, I hit the last aid station and pulled off. Filled my bottles and noticed the mother load: a BIG bowl of fresh cut cantalope! I scarfed down my weight in delicious melon, ate some peanut butter/crackers and was back on the road. I felt awesome until mile 98 or so. Then the stomach decided it didn't care for that much food and I suffered for the last few miles with mild nausea. Everything stayed down though and I finished the century without incident.

What a great time! Gotta get me a new saddle though. I need to research past threads here for prefered saddles of long rides for 6' tall 145 pound skinny guys with NO padding in the rear.

2Tired2Shift

How do you like the Santa Fe area for riding in general? I've heard it's nice.

GRedner

My parents were in Santa Fe for a year. My dad (an avid cyclist and runner) said that he still didn't feel acclimated to the altitude, even after the full year. He said it sucked the fun right out of being active.

I went to visit for a couple of weeks, and spent a good deal of the time with mild altitude sickness. The idea of getting on a bike there (much less riding a century) sounds like suicide to me!

That said, it's a gorgeous part of the country. Beyond words. If I could breathe there, I'd consider living there someday

palesaint

I could see that. I moved from sea level to Albuquerque in '94. Took several years to get in good shape, though much of that was lack of motivation. in '99 I moved to Los Alamos, which is a smidgen higher than Santa Fe. Our house is at 7350 feet. My first year of mountain biking was ROUGH, but now I can ride just about anything around here. You do acclimate.

And YES, the riding is great. Within Santa Fe city limits it's like any other town... fend for yourself and try to dodge the idiots. But get on the back highways, taking in the blue skies and pines (if high enough) is heaven. I will have to take some pics one of these days. I really meant to bring a camera to the century. It is such a large ordeal, mammoth really, with bikes and characters of every possibility. Would have been great to capture it.

2Tired2Shift

I went hiking at 10,000' in Hawaii. It was incredibly invigorating.

GRedner

I went skiing at 10,000' outside of Santa Fe. I felt like someone had poured cold molasses into my brain. I couldn't make decisions. I couldn't remember decisions I had made. When we went to leave, I couldn't find the car. Then again, I have lived at sea level all my life.