thanks for the welcome. I work at a hospital and I always ask questions like that when I run into the Sports/ortho surgeons. My previous post was based on what they tell me. Theu also agree stretching before has no benefit. strething after is good to do provided you didnt overdo it.

Thanks again for the welcome!

Thanks for the link - that looks like a great ride. Still not really sure what to make of the OP's question. If it was me, I'd just go out easy to begin with - especially as there are 2 or 3 other significant climbs later on.

Anyway good luck to you - hope it's going well out there.

I think those new meds are working wonderfully! Good to hear from you.

??

I dunno, maybe cuz its a bad week to quit smoking, then cocaine, then......

So I finished the ride in 7 hours and 3 minutes. Apparently I crushed some souls, because after the ride a guy I passed on the final climb of the day told me my riding made him feel like he had never ridden a bike before. Which really made my day. I took the most popular advice and took the first few miles easy. And to jayp, I wish the first climb had an average of 5%. The way that climb goes is a steady 3%, and then it kicks up to 9%, back to 3, and then back to 9. It does this a few times. This is the ride if anyone wants to see it. http://www.mapmyride.com/s/routes/vi...leton/36655054

Congratulations.

You know you have a very serious responsibility now.

Crushed souls will come back at you if you don't follow rules #5 and #10.

Payback is heck.

OK, if your 7:03 was total time, not ride time, then you can consider my soul crushed. If it was ride time, then I'm OK with that.

Here's what it looked like for me - 7:59 ride time, 13.0 mph. I spent a long time at the Evergreen aid station waiting for a storm to move through.

I had a really interesting ride - usually I do this type of ride with a friend who is a little stronger than me, so I push myself a bit and am fairly ruined at that end. Today I did it alone, so I rode a conservative plan using my new-ish power meter, keeping most of the efforts well below LT. I felt good all day, and the second City View loop felt fine!

Here's my download -- before scoffing at my wattage, you should know i weigh 108 pounds.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/108438374

I wish 7:03 was my total time. And I only said I "crushed souls" because people told me that I made the second climb up city view look easy, even though I was dying. I did the same up Myers Gulch. In reality I probably took it too hard at the beginning, and used up all my glycogen stores by the halfway point. Next year I won't make that mistake. And I consider a 7:03 time on a ride that is 104 miles, and 12,741 ft of climbing to be fantastic. And before you scoff at my comment, know that I'm 17.

I wasn't scoffing, I'm impressed! Seriously! THat was a hard ride, and you did it very fast.

It's interesting, on the internet you just have no idea who you are talking to. I wouldn't have guess you were 17 from your writing. That is a compliment.

I'm 45.

whoa, prestretching will not hurt your muscles, it may be an old idea but it won't hurt your muscles. I've taken martial arts for 39 years, and any dojo you go into will have you prestretch and no one has ever hurt muscles doing that. Professional sports like football have their guys prestretch as well. So no prestretching will not hurt you, it may not help you perform better on the bike, but it won't make you perform worse either.

rek, I guess I was saying that from my personal experience where I used to stretch too much before things, and I did have some problems. I may have not been stretching properly, but in any case, I prefer to take things easy on the bike at first, and if a long day, to stretch during breaks. I find even after an hour or so, some stretching helps me and loosens things up and is worth the 5 mins or so. This works well for me with biking and cross country skiing, along with the longer stretch sessions after exercise, hence my opionated comments.