Nothing new on Race Day!

 Nothing new on Race Day!

 

I have a saying engraved on my brain from years of doing Team in Training Events.  The coaches were really quite wonderful, and I will remember the stuff they taught me for the rest of my life.  Team in Training not only gave me great coaching but gave me a new family but kept me in California for an additional 20 years or so.  Anyway, before I get sidetracked in that lets focus on what is engraved in my brain.  You finish marathons on your arms not on your legs.  Add sports drink after one hour after starting.  Perhaps more importantly than anything else is nothing new on race day.  It is something that I tried to live by.  I use the same sports drink, never drink what they have at a race.  I eat the same thing on each ride.  I have the same breakfast.  So on and so forth.  Most importantly, though, I make sure whatever I wear on the day of the event has been worn before.  So, when I was going out last Friday for what I thought was the last 60 miler before my event (I am doing 60 this week to but with a bit more hills), I put on my race day cycling jersey, socks, that were brand new and made sure I used them at least once before the century which is in three Saturdays.  GULP!  However, I won’t be wearing anything new on Race Day.  Not even tires… because well I just remembered I had new tires put on my bike after I found some nicks in the back tire during the prior week’s trainings.  Now, since I am keeping my race day kit a secret, you will not see a picture of what is on the jersey or the sweet matching socks in this week’s blog.  Just me letting you know that there isn’t anything new on Race Day.

 

Now… let’s talk about the 61 miles I did and yes, it was exactly 61 on the dot.  No 61* needed here, this after all isn’t Maris’s record for most homers.  If you don’t know what the 61* means, long story short is no one wanted Maris to break the Babe’s record, they want Mickey Mantle to do it, and therefore they used whatever they could to make his record-breaking amount of home runs seem tainted.  So, it took Maris more games than it took the Babe to his 60 and 61 home runs if my baseball history is correct, which is might not be, I have lost my love for that game, and some people put an asterisk next to the record number of home runs.  Please note, I am trying to recall this from memory of conversations I have had on the topic and from a Billy Crystal directed movie on the topic and I have not researched but that is the just of my comment.  Can I tangent or can I tangent.  I rode 61 miles on the dot.

 

It was a good ride by myself soaking in and enjoying the California landscape while I can.  I did an out and back route on some roads that should be pretty familiar to the reader at this point. I rode out from my place in Livermore to Manning Road and thank goodness we had no idiots bombing down it this week and no close calls with bikers not being able to take the dead man’s curve.  I took the Highland Bypass from Manning Road and headed out towards Blackhawk.  I made a stop at what is now my least favorite Chevron stations near the theaters in Blackhawk.  It is my least favorite because they don’t let me put my code in there and therefore, I can’t get my free water.  I think that is why the guy didn’t ask me if I had a rewards member ship and then acted dumb when I asked about it.  

 

I pushed out Blackhawk Road till it became Diablo, from Diablo I took Green Valley Road to Stone Valley and then I cut off on Miranda.  From Miranda I took Livorna to Lavender to Rudgear.  On Rudgear just after crossing Palmer I hit 30.5 miles, so I turned around and headed home.  I had intended to ride all the way to downtown Walnut Creek, but 30.5 miles was the turnaround point so 30.5 miles so, I turned.  I seemed to pick up an extra mile or so somewhere.

 

I stopped at Livorna park.  Restrooms there are good.  Water fountains there are bad.  It was really hard to get my water bottles filled.  The water just didn’t have enough pressure to my bottle full.  Very nice park though.  I started to talk about Livorna park to tell an embarrassing story about myself but then decided against it.   Most people would just delete this paragraph or use it to transition without saying, I have an embarrassing story but not me, I will just say, I had some issues here and pivot at the same time.  

 

Livorna Park marks the start of a Category 5 climb.  A climb that lasts about 5 miles in total, maybe 6.  Now, when I drove this route, I scoffed at the climb.  I thought it would be easy for the most part.  It felt like to me there was a lot of ups and downs and that I would have some recovery time after climbing one part to the next climb.  It is clear to me now that the map making app is smarter than I am, and it is classified as a long climb for a reason and that reason in my mind is because there is no break in the 5-to-6-mile climb.  I will say while the climb is very doable and I made it up without stopping or blowing out my legs, I will say I did want to cry a few times because you were going up and up and there was not relieve at all, and even when your computer is telling you that you should be going down, you aren’t.  When it looks like you should be going down, you aren’t. You are in climbing purgatory and you just must keep cranking because if you coast you lose momentum and if you lose momentum that is not good.  So, I had to peddle for 5to 6 straight miles without a break and it made me work hard and that made me grumpy.  Look just because I am riding 61 miles doesn’t mean I am not lazy.  

 

I got up the climb finally as I came back onto Blackhawk Road and starting to turn towards the movie theater. It was great knowing that I could do it.  I felt good. However, it also made me a little tired.  I was very tired after doing it.  However, I was getting closer and closer to home.  I stopped again at my least favorite Chevron.  You work with what you got and load up on water for my final spin home on Highland.  Highland is a bit of a pain but once you get up it, it is smooth sailing after that.  Plus, the downhill on Manning is so nice!  Then it is just navigating yourself back home.  

 

I was riding strong on the way home.  I was cranking at like 18 miles per hour on flats which is super-fast for me.  The legs felt good and strong.  I even felt like a real bad ass when I started passing little kids on their bikes as they road home from school.  Just kidding, I didn’t feel like a bad ass, but I do think I scared the hell out of them because I called out to them, I was coming by on the left.  One kid apologized to me, and I was like it is all good my man, just letting you know I was there.  Anyway, it was a good ride!  

 

Ride Stats:

 

Distance: 61 miles

Elevation Gain: 2,434 feet

Moving time: 5:25:37

Average Power: 112 W

Average Speed: 11.2 mi/h