Sunday, April 19, 2009

I Want More...

Excitement for the Tour de Red Cell ride of 80 miles on Saturday morning can not be described.  I had no problems getting up at 6am sharp, preparing a great breakfast, loading up the car with all the cycle gear (forgot my bottles but was saved by my friend who had extras), and arrived 50 minutes before the start.  Plenty of time to check-in, chat, and make sure I had everything needed for the miles ahead.

Since temps were still in the mid 40's I opted to wear my jacket and shorts.  I knew that once the sun was up it would warm up enough to go sleeveless.  We rolled out at 8am and immediately the course dropped us into beautiful, rolling, country hills.  We passed vineyards, farming land, and fields of amazing flowers.  There truly was not a mile of the course that I did not like.  

At each rest stop (3 total) I took opportunity to fuel up.  The key to the endurance riding (any endurance sport for that matter) is not to fall behind on calories.  I had no problem with this.  With each stop also came the need for a bathroom break.  Urine was clear so that was a great sign that I was plenty hydrated.

Even now I am amazed that just a few months ago I only considered riding the 35 mile route of this event thinking that there would be no way to be ready for 80 miles.  Truly amazing!!

Fuel info:
5 bottles of sports drink
5 gu's
3 sports bars
4 peanut butter crackers
1 ginger ale

Ride time : 5 hrs 20 minutes

Total miles for this past week: 156

So now I am moving on to getting ready for another event ride next weekend.  Rather than rolling hills this one will have mountains.  Need to have these legs ready. :)

Robin


19 comments:

JD said...

Good Job on the ride!! Excellent time as well! Congrats!

What's next week's event?

G-Man said...

You 'out-miled' me this week, you animal. You will easily be ready for B2B at this pace...

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Incredible! Congrats, sounds like you did everything right!

Vincent said...

I'm so excited for riding season. We have had a couple good days already. and soon every weekend will be ready for a big ride!

good work on the 80 miles!

Grey Beard said...

Nice, solid performance. I like your focus - nutrition & pace. On race day, you have to go with what you've got. It is what it is, so maxing that with optimal nutrition and staying within that with pace are perfect strategy. A smart ride. I think you will LOVE your next ride. You will feel the "distance seal" right away.

Just a thought, you might need to swap out that 12-25 rear cassette for a 12-27 if riding steep grades to keep your muscle speed (cadence) optimal.

Very happy for you. A just reward for a good approach that was well executed!

Marci @All Things Wonderful said...

I am so inspired! WOW. Congrats!

Shannon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shannon said...

You're so ready!

It sounds like you had fun. :)

RunBubbaRun said...

Nice job. Way to get out that much mileage on the bike.

Chris said...

Congrats Robin. On My way back from the 5k I saw lots of riders and I assume that this was your group. then when I got closer to home I saw all the cars parked at the Village lot and knew that it must be the red cell ride.

Sounds awesome! You Rock!!

Wes said...

They key to endurance riding is comfie bike shorts :-) ROFL...

Patrick said...

Great job!!!! It's gotta feel so nice to accomplish such an amazing task! How do you like the gu gel packs?? I just bought some and will use them on my next LD run later this week.

jen said...

Great job Robin!! You are really doing great on the bike lately. Very inspiring! Keep up the good work. :)

ShirleyPerly said...

Nice job on the ride, Robin!!

Looks like we're riding similar bike mileages. You're way ahead of me on the nutrition side, though. I'm usually consuming only about 200 cals per hour on the bike and need to be shooting for much more if I'm going to run long afterwards ...

MJ said...

Way to go!! Great execution on the day...

Anonymous said...

You sound strong! And only 3 stops???

Unknown said...

Awesome Ride Robin. Your killing the mileage. You are so right about the fueling. Very important indeed.

Sherry said...

Way to go, Robin! Nice ride... and some sweet mileage.

I love how so many of your posts are reminders about how important nutrition is. Sometime when I'm in the zone (or working really hard), nutrition seems to be an afterthought. I've been trying really hard lately to keep it at the forefront of my mind and I think it's paying off.

PS- I think you may want to change your blog title to "Gotta Ride". You are just ROCKIN' the bike!

Marlene said...

WOW, that is a long ride! Congratulations. You've come so far.