I think I may have actually found someone a bit crazier than I when it comes to crafting crazy riding schemes. My fellow Bike Doctor rider Dan invited me down to his place this past Saturday to join him for an impromptu and unsupported century. Never mind the fact that I knew it was likely to be near 100 degrees and humid as hell I was all for logging some big miles on the road bike. Now in retrospect I’m not sure just who is crazier, the guy who crafted this ride or the one talked into it.

I arrived at Dan’s place located close to Ellicott City at around 7am. The plan was to get an early start to at least make some attempt to beat the heat. After discussing the days route and suiting up we were off and rolling short time later. The plan was to do an out and back from Dan’s house up to Littlestown Pa and back again. Dad alluded to the fact that he suspected this route would be hilly but I’m not sure either of us really knew just how hilly.

The first couple hours or so were very enjoyable, the temperature hadn’t yet reached smoldering and the roads leading out from Dan’s were smooth rolling back roads. By the time we hit our first stop for water in Sykesville we were feeling great. Seeing as to how we were on our own for food and water we had to plan our stops as carefully as possible. Having to worry about water and food and not getting lost adds great deal more work and stress to the whole process of doing a century. Not planning properly and running out of food and or water could be disastrous with temperatures so high. I think it’s safe to assume I’ll be much more appreciative of the rest areas on my next supported ride.

As the day went on the temperature continued to tick upwards as the general terrain seemed to do the same the closer we got to PA line. Once we got more than about halfway out it was pretty much all up and down turning into what seemed more like a roller coaster than a bike ride. When we finally hit our intended destination and turnaround point of Littlestown we had logged about 53 miles.

We had actually hoped that considering the elevation differences between Littlestown and Ellicott City that we’d perceive a bit less climbing on the return trip. In theory it sure sounded good but in all practicality it didn’t turn out that way. The return trip was every bit as bad as bad if not worse in many ways.

Nicodemus road particularly stands out in my mind as having been a painful experience. By the time we had reached that point the heat and all the climbing was starting to take its toll on me. My cardio was doing great but I found my legs were fading. I’ve actually never experienced anything quit like this before. It’s kind hard to explain, in that I didn’t really feel horribly tired it’s just that my legs were no longer performing at the level I would expect. It was a rather strange sense of fatigue. My legs were definitely tight but thankfully I never go to the point of cramping. I think this is further proof that I seem to have improved my riding nutrition a great deal. Last year I would have been cramping for sure and struggling to finish.

To add to the challenge I had three flats in the span of less than 10 miles. The first was a pinch flat, the second came shortly later in the form of a blowout. ( I think I didn’t seat the tire/tube properly) the third appeared to have been another small puncture. Having to stop and fix a series of flats along a stretch of smoldering blacktop ranks right up there with a stomach pump on my list of fun things to do. The worst part is both Dan and I had run out of water at this point and we were trying to make it back to Sykesville as quickly as possible to refill. Luckily the third time was the charm and we made it back to town thirsty as hell but no real worse for the wear.

From Sykesville back the terrain was a bit more mellow which provided a much needed rest. I finally managed to get my legs back with the last 10 miles or so. Dan did much better against the heat than I did. He attributed it to the fact that he works outside for a living as opposed to me being a geeeky computer guy pilot a desk in a nice climate controlled office. I always thought I held up generally well in hot weather but that ride had me wondering. At one point while cooking out on the road I actually thought about how nice some of our Greenbrier snow rides were I think I must have been pretty close to a heat stroke in order for such thoughts to make there way into my brain.

Anyhow by the time we finally arrived back at Dan’s we had logged a little over 106 miles. While I knew we had done a great deal of climbing I was surprised to find that we had done nearly 7,000 feet of total climbing on the day. Up to this point the only road centuries I’d done were out on the eastern shore and during supported events such as the MS150. This ride was brutal in comparison to those past rides. This one was probably the most challenging road ride I’ve done to date.

Looking back I think it was a combination of the heat and hills combined that made this one so rough. I’d never done any road riding of this magnitude in anything approaching this heat and I was sure feeling the pain near the end. At the end of the day my polar had the max recorded temperature at 106 degrees which in an odd coincidence matched up with our mileage. I hope to go back and revisit this ride in the fall to see just how much a role temperature plays in performance on a ride like this.

I think it’s safe to say I’ve found another great riding and training partner in Dan. There aren’t too many folks I ride with that would have even attempted this one with me let alone orchestrated it. I’m going to have to work hard to plan something more sadistic in order to top this one

This entry was posted on 8/15/2005 at 3:48 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Posted in General by Crashmore 2 Comments