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Ordered up a pair of Pearl Izumi bibs and will be going back to my stock Paradigm Race seat since the Montrose is softer, which is nice at first, but after 30-40 miles it starts chafing and pinching and just no bueno.
Pre ride
The day before, make sure your are drinking enough water to have to get up during sleep to take a leak. You should have to take a leak at least once in the last hour before the race. Difficult to drink too much water, easy to not drink enough.
Your last big meal before bed should be no closer than about 14hrs to start. The reason is you want it to be through you before ride start.
Breakfast should be generous but no closer than 3hrs before ride start. This may mean getting up at o'dark:30. That means getting to sleep early.
12;30 minutes before start eat a light snack. Banana, bar or something like that.
Caffeine helps endurance. Whatever you normally drink in the morning x 2. Take that 30m before so you have time to take care of business if need be.
Stuff to bring
Take a mustard packet or two. If you cramp, slam one down. The vinegar in the mustard will shut down the cramps faster than any electrolyte drink.
If it's hot/sunny, use sumblock everywhere. Keeps core temp down
Food at aid stations is usually enough but also bring stuff that you can eat with little or no water. Early on you can eat anything. Late in the ride it'll be hard to stomach anything that doesn't basically melt in your mouth with no energy/saliva expended.
So the harder to eat stuff should be eaten in the first half, the easier to eat stuff saved for later
The ride
Pace is everything. It'll be easy to use too much energy early on and pay for it later by running out too soon.
Next is eating and drinking. The harder you push, the more difficult it is to eat and drink enough. Best habit is to have a rough plan for how many calories and liters you want to take in every hours and stick to it.
Suck wheel. Draft whenever and wherever you can. DO NOT underestimate the amount of energy saved by drafting. Keep one or both brakes covered when you are around less experienced riders. They will tend to brake, swerve suddenly or neglect to call out road debris. Usually all at the same time.
Post ride
Beer
Naproxen Sodium
Bask in glory of achievement
In three years, the longest ride I've done is 82 miles, lol. I'm doing a few 100 mile gravel/adventure/"going to ******* use my Stigmata" races next year, so that will change. Need to buy Spesh trigger 38mm tire for gravel/fire roads in Colorado and Santa Fe, dry single track. Any other suggstions? I run a Spesh 32mm Rouxaix Pro Tubeless for road and light gravel on the Stigmata currently.
I was quite close to signing up for that century. The philly Tri uses some of those roads by the river which are great, and I've always wanted to explore Bucks where the northern part of the route takes you. But we're having a birthday party for my two children. Kids strike again!
Obviously go with Emilio here. But my $0.02 as a newb just winging it:
1. I would love to try that mustard packet trick, because holydamn did I ever cramp up. I've never cramped like that, ever. After the third/mile 60 rest stop. I hung around too long at the rest I think, when I got back on the bike it was...interesting. Every leg muscle group cramped. It took 10-15 miles at what seemed like 5mph to get loose again.
2. I left with the very first ride group cause of a concert I had tickets for later that afternoon. The first ride group ended up being the fastest group made up mostly of riders who ride together multiple times a week, and who were going for their century PR's 'cause this course was relatively flat. We didn't even stop at the first rest stop @ mile 20. Hanging with them for the first 33 miles helped me average 18+mph over the century, but I was spent after pulling that train once. I would try to find a group that is going at the speed you average on your solo 40 milers and ride with them.
3. Stuff your pockets with the bananas and granola bars from the rest stops. Even after eating what I could comfortably stomach at the stops, I was definitely hungry way before the next stop. I was OK on water/gadorade only because I brought 32oz bidons. I typically eat GU packs when I do my own rides and assumed there would be something similar at the stops, but there wasn't. only bananas, bagels, chocolate chip granola bars, PB&J sandwiches. Nothing I was used to eating like that.
4. I was in no mood to eat afterwards. All I wanted to do was get home. If possible, bring a vehicle with an automatic. The subaru's clutch was not enjoyable.
Yah. Post ride if its hot, you might only be able to get a smoothie down for the first hour or so. So one of my pre-race tasks is scouting the nearest Jamba Juice and coffee place.
+1 on automatic trans and cruise control. Both are a must for a bike racer
Yah. Post ride if its hot, you might only be able to get a smoothie down for the first hour or so. So one of my pre-race tasks is scouting the nearest Jamba Juice and coffee place.
+1 on automatic trans and cruise control. Both are a must for a bike racer
I have pulled over and taken a nap when driving home from a mountainous century ride. When you're spent, you're spent. Actually, now that I think about it, I have done that on two different occasions.
Thanks for the deailed tips Emilio and others. Looking forward to tomorrow. Probably not the best idea before a century, but I'll have a new saddle, new bibs, and a new shirt, and new gloves for tomorrow. No idea how they will all feel together but the bibs felt good just wearing around at home. Gloves I got are Pearl Izumi selects, nothing too fancy but padded well (though in what seems like odd areas)
New saddle for a century is really risky. Make sure you bring the tools required to adjust it and know how to adjust it.
its actually the one that came on my bike originally. We replaced it with a different model cause the rails were crooked somehow, but the one we put on was too soft and after some time would cause pinching between the shorts and my ***. So they ordered me a replacement saddle to replace the factory one. Oddly, the 2017 model of the bike I have comes with the saddle which for me was too soft.
Back to the Bontrager Paradigm Race. I think with these better shorts, the harder saddle will be a good match.
So for the most part it went well. Of course, I cut my sidewall (didn't have a spare tire) at the 100.8 mile mark and walked the rest of the way cause it was quicker than waiting for SAG. The ride itself was great, plenty of food and drink to keep us going all day but man was it WINDY. I didn't have the fastest finish of the day, but that wasn't the point. Between miles 70 and 90 every time I would stop spinning my legs would feel like they caught fire, between 90 and 100 I literally felt nothing, and no soreness or cramps last night, or all day today. Saddle was very comfy at first, between 40 and 70 miles felt pretty bad, and again after 70 I didn't feel anything. My buddy is going to throw on a Specialized Romin to let me try, he's been very happy with his for distance. Lots of people were out, some real racers, one guy in his early 60s who rode all day with no shirt blew by us and we never saw him again (then found out he's a Cat 2 racer). Gives me a lot to aspire towards. Thanks for everyone's tips, the energy gels proved very helpful.
So for the most part it went well. Of course, I cut my sidewall (didn't have a spare tire) at the 100.8 mile mark and walked the rest of the way cause it was quicker than waiting for SAG. The ride itself was great, plenty of food and drink to keep us going all day but man was it WINDY. I didn't have the fastest finish of the day, but that wasn't the point. Between miles 70 and 90 every time I would stop spinning my legs would feel like they caught fire, between 90 and 100 I literally felt nothing, and no soreness or cramps last night, or all day today. Saddle was very comfy at first, between 40 and 70 miles felt pretty bad, and again after 70 I didn't feel anything. My buddy is going to throw on a Specialized Romin to let me try, he's been very happy with his for distance. Lots of people were out, some real racers, one guy in his early 60s who rode all day with no shirt blew by us and we never saw him again (then found out he's a Cat 2 racer). Gives me a lot to aspire towards. Thanks for everyone's tips, the energy gels proved very helpful.
I have a 143 Romin to get rid of, never crashed, never even seen dirt.
In other news, today is my next shoulder appointment and I've felt great, but today is also knee MRI day. Additionally, work is a huge ************ right now, it's bad, very bad. So, I did the last Monday night ride of the year on the Stigmata with 32s, attacked every hill, off the front every time, full-on beast mode, got the stress out. I feel way better now.
Saddle was very comfy at first, between 40 and 70 miles felt pretty bad, and again after 70 I didn't feel anything. My buddy is going to throw on a Specialized Romin to let me try, he's been very happy with his for distance.
If it lets you down, try a Selle SMP. I went through half a dozen saddles before settling on the SMP I have now.
I have spent ~25% of my riding time on clip on extensions. This was usually on my "B" road bike. I have a Look KG361 with the wires duct taped and zip tied down as aero as possible with bar end shifters. This bike is 16 years old and no where near as good the recently acquired Venge Pro. I was contemplation moving everything over to my Cannondale Six13... which is 10 years old and no where near as good as the Venge. So I started looking for a suitable replacement and came across this:
A used Giant Trinity Composite 1 TT frame. I can move all the bits from the Look over to this frame. It is in great shape for a 4 year old used bike. Another big thanks to Emilio for helping make this happen. This will allow me to smoke all my pr's I set on the old Look. We will be practicing our team TT work to see if we can set some fast times on our favorite routes. I may even race in the local TT series, something I have not even thought about doing in 20 years.
An update on the Venge: We could not get it to shift right, even with all Durace components. I even bought some new stuff. Emilio decided to upgrade his ride to 11 speed Di2, so I inherited his 10 speed Ultegra Di2. This bike was great with poor shifting, it will be awesome when it shifts right. More thanks to Emilio for encouraging my bad habits in a good way.
So I can get a set of Bontrager AURA 5 with 100 miles on them for $800. I messaged my LBS owner if any of his customers were looking to unload deeper wheels and he said he has a set that he's barely ridden on. Now, I'm not sure how 50mm wheels will feel, but I would either use them and keep my boyds for training, or sell my Boyd's to a friend and ride strictly on teh 50mm. Reviews on the Aura 5 online are hit and miss, some like them, some give them 3/5 stars.
09-07-2016, 06:20 PM
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