Washington/Baltimore area ride. It raises money to provide services to senior citizens in Carroll County, MD. Participants in the ride can choose from several options for the ride including a metric century, a metric half century, and a flat eight mile course. I rode the metric century with a group from our work riding club including Larry, Dave and Val. It was a very good tune-up for the Tahoe century I am doing in June.The terrain for the ride was similar to what I train on as far as size of the hills and elevation change versus distance (except for a fairly flat part in the middle of the ride). The people who organized the ride were really pleasant and the route well marked with arrows drawn on the pavement. It was quite a contrast from the only other organized event I have done, the Seagull Century. This event is quite scaled down and has a much more informal feel.
As for the ride, we took it pretty easy for the first 45 miles or so, riding as a group some of the time and sometime riding in twos and then reforming the group. Val pushed it a little too hard though and started having leg cramps around mile 38. Not good with 26 miles to go. The group
photos show a happy Val (in the red jersey) prior to the cramps. After the rest stop at mile 46, I basically rode alone the rest of the way though we started off together. I had my bike tuned up a few weeks before the event and it was not well done. The shifting was mis-aligned and causing me problems like not engaging on down-shifts. Due to a very full schedule, I hadn't had time to get it straightened out and thought I could work around it by doing a technique that seemed to work, doing down-shifts off the big ring up front and simultaneously shifting up on the rear. That worked but then a new symptom showed up. My chain kept coming off. This happened a couple of times right after we left the 46 mile stop, so I had some catching up to do. I got into a rhythm as I played catch-up so once I caught them I just motored on by and ended up pushing myself really hard all the way to the end at mile 64.I learned a very important lesson about how hard and long I can push. During the last 18 mile stretch I intentionally kept my heart rate in a zone that indicated I was anaerobic. I do this on my training rides quite often, but usually not for more than 30 minutes straight. This time I was at that level for almost all of the hour and 10 minutes or so it took to complete the ride. The first tip-off that this might be too much was that I started fading on the hills. Then at the end of the ride I decided to take some pictures of the others as they arrived at the finish line. As I was standing near the finish line with my camera, my vision was fading in and out. I immediately knew that this was an indicator that I was close to fainting. I must have depleted my body so that there was no fuel circulating in my bloodstream. What I should have done right then was go grab something sweet to eat and sat down to eat it. But this didn't happen because the photographer in me didn't want to miss the shot of the others completing the ride. So I watched myself and somehow hung in there until Larry showed
up. After Larry arrived we waited together for another 15 minutes or so for Val and Dave to show up, but finally gave up. Finally I was able to grab some food and drink and and by the time I finished eating brownies covered in ice cream I was feeling much better. Next time I am going to do like Larry and remember to hit the Gue about 12 to 15 miles before the end of the ride.By the time I finished eating it was close to an hour after I had finished and still no Val and Dave. Larry and I talked it over and decided we needed to head out since Larry had an event to go to.
I left the event feeling that it was something that will likely be on my calendar next year. It is an easy event to get other riders I know to join in. The ride goes through some very pretty countryside. The ride is long enough to require some pacing and the hills big enough to test my fitness. Two days after the ride when I did my next training ride, I found that I was noticeably stronger on the hills and felt that I had move up a level in performance. Given that I have been training for endurance rides since last August, it is exciting to see that I continue to improve.
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