|   The day my legs stopped working (road ride) | laffeaux
Apr 28, 2003 9:13 AM | | Friday evening I heard about a local road ride called the "Mount Hamilton Challenge." The annual ride was scheduled for Saturday morning and started less about two miles from my house. The ride is billed as 124 miles with over 8000 feet of climbing, including climbing one of the Bay Area's two highest peaks (Mount Hamilton).
I've been riding a lot, but it's been a while since I've done any really long rides. Other than a few 30+ mile MTB rides, and a 40 miles road ride in January, I've not been done any long distance rides since last fall. Regardless, I decided that 124 miles sounded reasonable.
Saturday morning I woke up to a flat tire on my road bike (I'd topped the tires off the night before). Not wanting to spend the time to determine if the rim tape was bad, I grabbed the front wheel off of my beater road bike, and then rode to the start of the ride to register. Upon arriving the front tire was flat again! I was hoping the day would get better, eventually.
I fixed the flat, registered, and took off a few minutes after the 8:30 start deadline for the ride. There were 3 riders bringing up the rear. We lost one rider to a flat. Then I lost the other guy on a climb where I pulled away from him. Then I lost everyone when I took a wrong turn. Luckily the road I took was a dead-end, and I turned back to catch the trailing group.
Going up Mount Hamilton I felt really good and caught up with the slower riders and managed to pass a few. Near Grant Ranch park on one of the few downhill sections of the climb up Hamilton my rear tire blew! Less than 20 miles of riding and I was dealing with my 3rd flat of the day. (Luckily that was my last flat.)
After Hamilton, the ride went down the backside and through the San Antonio Valley to Livermore. There are few cars on the backside of Hamilton, but the Devil's Mountain Double (another road ride) was traveling the same road in the opposite direction, so it was a super highway of bikes.
The ride eventually made it's way back to Sunnyvale via the Calabazas Canyon, and in the end I'd traveled just over 130 miles with almost 8,900 feet of elevation gain. I took a shower, ate dinner, and immediately crawled into bed.
Unfortunately I had to get up the next morning and be at a local bike swap by 7:30 to help unload boxes for vendors. I felt surprisingly good. However, this morning, two days after the ride, I'm not sure my legs work anymore. I'm walking around like an 80 year old guy. The trips from my desk to the coffee machine are about to kill me.
I think in the future, I'll work up to a long ride instead of deciding to do it 12 hours before the start time. |
| re: The day my legs stopped working (road ride) | RLinNH
Apr 28, 2003 9:40 AM | | Sounds like a good day after all the flats. I just did my first "real" road ride of the year yesterday. 25 miles to my nephew's B-Day party. I love the looks I got when I walked in with my cycling clothes on. Unreal how many people that don't know about the Chamois in these clothes. I guess they think we wear it for the looks;-). Anywho, I'm really gearing up this year to do my first 75 mile day. Next season, I want to do my 1st century. Thanks for the post and the motivation. If you can do 130, I sure as hell can do 75. |
| re: The day my legs stopped working (road ride) | Blue 'Goose
Apr 28, 2003 9:51 AM | | Nice account of the ride -
You sound like your legs feel like mine did the year I decided to
just up and do a century with some friends on a borrowed bike after
not having ridden all season - I could barely walk two days after
the ride and I was surprisingly spry the day after the ride.
Some friends have said unless you've ridden 3/4ths of the distance
lately that going for a really long one is something that you'll end
up regretting. Well, I might not regret it but it might be a bit of
a pain in the posterior maybe. |
| Sweet - I always wanted to do that ride. | Biking Viking
Apr 28, 2003 12:50 PM | | Your legs probably felt just like mine did after the Sea Otter. It's a good idea to spin easily the day after to help flush shit out of your legs. Helps speed the recovery and eliminates some of that corncob-up-your-ass walk.
BV |
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