The first of many

All last week I was waffling back and forth over whether or not to ride the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club's 200km Brevet called "Horsetooth & Beyond". Now, while I'm not a member of RMCC, nor, do I "race" these brevets, I still enjoy attending them nonetheless because it gives me the opportunity to ride along with Mike on some pretty epic routes and meet some new & nice people. At first, I was concerned that the weather would be crap. I consider myself somewhat of a hard man, willing to ride in the cold or wet, but, when the weather is potentially BOTH of them, along with winds & sun, I'm a little more reticent than usual to harden up and go out. Also, I had been doing some more intensity that week, and, figured a long ride would be out of the question simply because I was going to be too tired.

In the past, I'd only done 1 or 2 rides over 100miles, and, I recall they were very painful! Granted it was in the swing of heavy/long training blocks and I was able to tolerate them based on training data (per super genius), but, they were still challenging. I was able to ride them, and then, immediately afterwards...collapse in a face full of baked ziti. I hadn't ridden over 5.5 hrs yet this year, nor have I approached the 90 mile mark either. I have brushed it here and there, but, most rides have maxed at 5 hrs with 75-80 miles. 20 more doesn't seem like a lot, but, when there's supposed to be 7620K feet of climbing, it adds up quickly.

To prep for the ride, I did a bit of research on motionbased & garmin connect for some previous versions of the ride by other riders. I was more concerned about the time, rather than anything else, simply because I don't know A) how long it'd take to ride 200k (122 miles) or, B) if I could last however long it'd take. As I perused the previous ride files, I noticed times of 9h45 min, 10h 25min, 8h 30min and so on. These looked to be "ride times" since most of the sites that store these gps sorta files typically have a "total time" and a "moving time" depending on the device used. Also, some people don't stop recording when they take a break, while others do. Regardless, I was looking at 9+ hrs on the bike. I was now officially nervous! I'd only done 7 riding hours previously, which, coincidentally was one of those previous centuries. I immediately started thinking about whether or not I was ready and more or less up for the challenge. So, I emailed Mike, and, asked him what his previous ride time was, since he'd done this a few years back. His stats turned out to be 7h 10min ride time w/ 8h 09min total, with an asterisk on the the total time being that he waited for a bit at one of the checkpoints.

*DING*

The light bulb in my head went off and I thought "this is doable". I decided to participate, and, also, convinced myself that something this epic is going to be few and far between from now on, once the little man arrives. It was on.

The ride started out the next morning promptly at 8, and, we rolled out. Mike, myself, and a few other people watched as a group of 10-12 VERY fast guys rolled off the front. I asked Mike if he wanted to catch up to them, and, he expressed his interest in actually pacing himself for this ride, since he felt he wouldn't be able to hang with them on the climbs. Pshaw MP!

So, we headed out on the route, which took us to the north along I-25 briefly, then, west on HWY 56, and, eventually very very north to Horsetooth Reservoir. Here, I had some serious flashbacks to the Rist Canyon Road Race I "participated" (quotes are intentional!)in. I remembered just how friggin hard that race was, and, how I'd unfortunately timed it with my "return" to cycling after taking time off from the initial back injury. The ride went around the Reservoir, and, I encountered the 3-4 difficult, albeit short, climbs that were present during the road race. The first climb averaged about 9% and lasted maybe a mile or 2. The second climb was a bit shallower, and, we used the tail wind to help bust a move up it. The third was just ludicrous in that it pitched out at a whopping 16% and, while it was short at about a mile, it was RELENTLESS in it's pitch. I think it eventually leveled out to 10 or 11%, but, by far, this was the most difficult one! The 4th climb was shorter, but, only hit about 8% max in spots, so, it was a nice change. As I looked across the reservoir, I could see the wind whipping across the water, creating ever-increasing waves & peaks, and, about 30 seconds later, I'd feel the gust at my legs. I knew that the weather & wind was changing, but, at the same time, had no idea which direction we were ultimately going in and whether or not we'd be affected by it, if at all. So, Mike & I descended down to the edge of the reservoir, and, made our way to the first checkpoint of the day in a town called Bellvue, CO. We stopped at Vern's General Store, where they had some mighty fine looking baked goods. If we were almost done, I might have enjoyed one of the "Famous Cinnamon Rolls" they had advertised, but, knowing that we were only at mile 47, with another 80 or so to go, the last thing I wanted now was to spike my blood sugar! I decided it was time to munch on the first of 2 PB & J sammiches I brought along. Since I was regularly staying on top of my nutritional needs during the first leg drinking my Hammer Sustained Energy, I wasn't noticeably hungry. However, one of the guys commented that we eat food, not, liquids or liquid food...so, I thought this is as good a time as any to start eating, considering the NEXT stop isn't for 50 miles. This also includes the ability to stop and get any sort of water/hydration...50 miles and we had only climbed about 1600 of this 7600 feet to go.

We rolled out to the north towards the Poudre Canyon highway,and, began the climb up the rather shallow canyon with a wind whipping at us out of the north east. Eventually, as we snaked around the canyon, the wind died down to pretty much nothing, and, I was still feeling really good. At times, I'd end up pulling a little too hard on the front of the group, and, constantly had to remind myself that we still had so many miles left that it was imperative I ease up. Lucky for me, Mike and again made the comment that he wanted to chill out a bit, considering the next climb, up to Stove Prairie, is a doozie. When we finally hit HWY 29, we hooked a left, and, started climbing up to the top. I was thankful to get out of the Poudre for a few reasons...like traffic/etc, but, mainly because, well, it wasn't too breathtaking! I love climbing canyons that are really scenic and make you look past the suffering to the beauty around you. The climb up to Stove Prairie was gorgeous. There was no noise whatsoever from the canyon below, but rather, the lovely sound of rushing water from the melting run-off of the snow. The sun was starting to beat down on us, after keeping us slightly chilly in the low to mid 50s all day. I took my thermal hat off, but, left the rest of my items in place to cool down as we climbed. The road twisted and turned with pitches approaching 12%, and, averaging around 9. The length of the climb was ~6 miles in total, so, it was pretty challenging compared to Poudre Canyon, and, as Euro as anything could have felt outside of Italy (yeah yeah, I just did it). When we summit ed, we stopped briefly for a quick rest, and, to our left, a rider was coming up and over the original Rist Canyon climb from the same race as mentioned earlier. I shuddered!

We started the descent, and, I completely forgot just how steep and winding this side of the canyon was. It's probably an epic climb from the other side as well, but, I'm not so sure I'm willing to find out anytime soon :-). Anyway, after we rolled up and over the final 1/4 of the Horsetooth "loop" we made our way to Sandy's convenience store at mile 97. I was still feeling great, and, had been eating enough during the ride, that, as I prepped my final bottle of the Hammer drink, I thought briefly about cutting it back for caloric purposes, but, then realized that these next 28 miles were going to be hard, simply because now we were at 6h and 15 minutes, and, it's just been a looong day! As we rolled out, we made our way up Hwy 34 back towards Carter Lake. I tried to push it a little bit as to get my body going again, but, for some reason, it was hard to get started. As the road started to gently pitch upwards, I started to fall back a little. I'd lose wheels every now and then, but, eventually catch back up. I could feel myself starting to disintegrate! I immediately started eating more, and, cued the positive self-talk that I'd used before. I told myself I could do this, and, that I was going to finish no matter what. We broke the 100 mile mark when we made the right turn onto HWY 56 again, and, here was where it all started to do me in. I was fading off the back pretty fast, and, the guys I was riding with were leaving me behind (unintentionally of course!). As the road rose extended due east, and, eventually south when we hooked a right onto County Road 1, I was getting even more tired, and, it became difficult to even turn the pedals. I persevered though, and, no matter how daunting the "country hills" looked ahead, I still made it up them, determined to finish. We made our penultimate left turn onto HWY 34, and, the tail wind helped push us along. After a few more turns, we finally made it back to the cars, and, I was so numb and tired that I was rather zombie-ish.

I got changed slowly, and, each movement was a chore. One of the hardest things I had to do was put my bike on the roof. Eventually, I made my way to the store and got an Odwalla drink, and, completely destroyed the 2nd PB & J sandwich I brought along. During the drive home, I struggled to keep my eyes open, and, I could barely focus since I feel like my eye muscles were "tired" from just being active/alert all day on the road. When I walked in the door, a cupcake that was purchased by my wife & soon to be son was sitting on a plate with a note of congratulations and a bunch of x's & o's. That night we went to Watercourse for dinner, where I imbibed a single beer which proceeded to absolute knock me on my ass, more so than it usually does (as expected!). I passed out around 9pm, and, woke up at 8 the next morning. I don't think I moved once all night! I spun the legs out with Justin briefly, but, I honestly couldn't sit down on the bike seat! My ass/high hamstrings were so sore from the 7h + of saddle time the day before, that I quickly called it a day after 51 minutes of riding. I was glad to be off the bike, and, have been today, and, again tomorrow. Two or so days off is a good rest after something so huge like that, after not really doing much like that all year.

I'm pretty psyched I finished, and, really have Mike & the guy I met on the ride named Rich to thank. They really towed me home that last 15 or so miles, and, without them I would never have finished. Next weekend is a 400k (200+ miles), and, I am most certainly passing on that one! However, if the opportunity presented itself to do another 100+ mile ride like this, I'd most likely do it.

What an accomplishment!

zzzzzzzzzzz