Another One Down

Sunday wasn't just any other day, it was my 3rd century of the year, 4th if you count that I also did a 94.6 (95) miler, yeah it's 5.4 miles short, but that's close enough for me. My next one will be Saturday at the Lake Country Classic in Oconomowoc with my friend and co-worker Dave, but I digress, back to my Sunday ride. I knew it was going to be a difficult ride with the heat and humidity, especially after I did a 3 hour ride on Saturday and was suffering a bit even though I was riding at 9:00a.m.. Sunday would be basically the same but twice as long so hydration was key and I probably drank about 12 bottles worth of water and PowerBar Refuel drink mix. I started out at 8:00 at Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva with my dad and his friend Dorothee whom had ridden up from his house in Bohner's Lake about 12 miles away. We did the lake loop up to the observatory, and along the way hit a nice long hill that maxed out at 16%, the burn was on at that point but the legs were just getting opened up as we were about 6 or 7 miles in. From there we went through some countryside outside of Lake Geneva to the Alpine Valley area and hit another hard climb on Bowers Rd. that was probably about 4/10ths of a mile long and maxed out at 17%. There was a Phish concert going on but luckily for us all the Phish-heads were just getting up and weren't on the road yet, too much later and we would have been in the middle of a pretty big traffic jam on Hwy D. At this point I was sweating buckets and we were only 25 miles in, and I knew that I'd probably run out of water before getting to New Berlin to refuel at the 65 mile mark. We kept on rolling along until we hit the Honey Creek area where we went up another 16% max hill and my dad and Dorothee decided that they were turning off to head home. They had 40 miles in and it was still about 20 miles back to my dad's house for them, so I thanked them for hanging with me for a while and we went our separate ways. I kept going along until I got to the Lake Beulah area, then Big Bend, and finally through Muskego before I hit my refueling stop at home. I had 65 miles in and had some ground to make up as riding with my dad and Dorothee had my average speed at this point at around 17.1, which is fine because the enjoyment of riding with them was worth the slower speed, but I had already improved on that after I left them as my average was 16.6 at the 40 mile mark. I probably did 18ish the next 25 miles after I left them which was mainly due to a headwind on the trip to my house. After 10 minutes, 2 or 3 bottles worth of ice water and some Clif Bars, I was heading back on the 46 mile trip to Lake Geneva. I had a nice tailwind, was cruising along at about 20mph and soaking up the sun until I hit the 85-90 mile mark when I started having some pain in my big toes, mainly when I stood up on hills. I had to go up Lyons Rd. and then South Rd., two long, fairly steep hills and the feet were starting to become bothersome so I sat more than I normally would when I climb. After getting over those two hills though I had a fairly flat route the rest of the way and motored along in to Lake Geneva. The only small problem was running out of water again at about 98 miles, so the last 13 were without water, but at that point I didn't care as I knew there was salvation in the form of Burger King after the ride. I got back in to Lake Geneva and was happy to be done with another century in the books, and thankfully I had brought the cooler with me and was even happier to have some ice water to drink to cool down. I was beet red and even just sitting at my car I was still sweating profusely for another 10 minutes or so before the spigot finally turned off. I left the park, drove right over to Burger King, ordered a Whopper value meal and wolfed that down pretty quickly. Yeah, not great after ride food, but it sure tasted good and it definitely replaced some of the calories I lost. According to my Garmin I burned approximately 7,000 calories over the duration of the ride. They use a formula of height, weight, distance, elevation, average speed and HR to determine the caloric expenditure, and I think based on other formulas I've seen, the number that it puts out is fairly exact. That's it for the ride, a great course, a nice warm day with not too much wind, and I felt great afterwards, no soreness at all Sunday night or yesterday. I'm ready to get back on the bike tonight and I'll just do about 2 hours today to get the blood going again, and we have a heat advisory in effect with temps over 90 and humidity in the 80% range so it's probably best to take it easy anyways. Tomorrow and Thursday will be 50 mile rides after work and then Friday I have a vacation day so I'll be doing about 3 hours on the bike and getting some yard work done as well. Saturday is another century and I'm not sure what Sunday holds yet, probably just another 3 hours or so. Well, that's it for now, until next time, happy riding!