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Apr. 14th, 2003 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmollySome day, I'll get around to writing up the full blow by blow of the 200k last week. We did finish, and we finished under the qualifying time, so we've earned the right to do the 300k race this coming Saturday. The time limit for the 300k is 20 hours. It starts at 4 AM.
4 AM. I'm just sayin'.
I learned some things from the bike last week. The night before, I got in six hours of sleep and somehow failed to eat dinner. This was a bad idea. After 35 miles or so, my body started to give up, and I was thinking, "wait, this isn't right! I'm supposed to be EnduroGirl!" So, we sat down, I ate food, and suddenly I was able to bike again.
OH YEAH. CALORIES ARE FUEL. Duh. Slowly, I readjusted. I kept the bottle of gatorade on my bike for easy sipping. At every stop, I ate as much food as I could possibly manage. And things turned... fine. Round about mile 85, I thought, "once you pass mile 40 or so and it's clear that you're just going to be riding the bike all damn day, the miles are all essentially the same." That was coincidentally around the time that we stopped for a quick break and I failed to eat all of the food that I possibly could. Lo and behold, a few miles down the road, I started to feel weak. Then, it degraded down through shaky into wanting-to-cry and when my no-pukin'-club membership was about to be called into question, we stopped and ate. Sure enough, it was a food issue again. I figured out what was going on when I realized that the only thing preventing me from crying out of pure exhaustion was Gatorade. I had this little cycle going:
legs barely move
|
|
nearly tearing up
|
|
take sip of gatorade
|
|
chest relaxes, legs start to move more happily
|
|
legs tire out...
Talk about a knife edge. This may be what Gu is for, eh? I'll try it.
So, I've learned the importance of such basic tactics as eating and sleeping. Hooray! At any rate, we did it. We biked out to Dighton Rock and back in a day. We were Not Properly Prepared, but I knew that. And that 200k will essentially be our training ride for THIS Saturday's 300k.
I figure, as long as my knees and tendons don't give out, we've got nothing to do but improve, and by the time PBP comes around, we'll be ready. Ish.
Another small note: I was wrecked on Friday. I came in to work, and my boss essentially sent me home, saying "you don't look well yet. Go get some sleep." So I did. Oh good lord did I. I was having difficulty sitting up in my chair before I went home. My knees and tendons were hurting, I was popping Advil like candy, my body wanted MASSIVE CALORIE INTAKE but was NAUSEATED at the thought of any food I could find, and all I really wanted to do was lie in bed and snuggle. It was like the worst hangover ever, without the headache and all of that pesky alcohol preloading you have to do for a real hangover. So, then, I spent all weekend playing Scrabble and getting my ass kicked by little old ladies with sleep apnea who don't know what "ichor" and "quipu" mean but who know how to spell them anyway. Sitting around all weekend still popping the old ibuprofen and intermittently massaging my thighs was the perfect recovery technique. This morning, the bike ride in to work felt magically quick.
Also, I got the bike all tuned up! My shifters were nearly unusable by the end of the ride, from all of the accumulated grit-n-crap in them. I needed brake adjustments, my left brake/shifter mount had to be moved, and everything needed to be cleaned, degreased, degritted, relubed, and replaced. Hzing! So much spiffier now. Plus, I have cute new bar tape! Wheeee!
4 AM. I'm just sayin'.
I learned some things from the bike last week. The night before, I got in six hours of sleep and somehow failed to eat dinner. This was a bad idea. After 35 miles or so, my body started to give up, and I was thinking, "wait, this isn't right! I'm supposed to be EnduroGirl!" So, we sat down, I ate food, and suddenly I was able to bike again.
OH YEAH. CALORIES ARE FUEL. Duh. Slowly, I readjusted. I kept the bottle of gatorade on my bike for easy sipping. At every stop, I ate as much food as I could possibly manage. And things turned... fine. Round about mile 85, I thought, "once you pass mile 40 or so and it's clear that you're just going to be riding the bike all damn day, the miles are all essentially the same." That was coincidentally around the time that we stopped for a quick break and I failed to eat all of the food that I possibly could. Lo and behold, a few miles down the road, I started to feel weak. Then, it degraded down through shaky into wanting-to-cry and when my no-pukin'-club membership was about to be called into question, we stopped and ate. Sure enough, it was a food issue again. I figured out what was going on when I realized that the only thing preventing me from crying out of pure exhaustion was Gatorade. I had this little cycle going:
legs barely move
|
|
nearly tearing up
|
|
take sip of gatorade
|
|
chest relaxes, legs start to move more happily
|
|
legs tire out...
Talk about a knife edge. This may be what Gu is for, eh? I'll try it.
So, I've learned the importance of such basic tactics as eating and sleeping. Hooray! At any rate, we did it. We biked out to Dighton Rock and back in a day. We were Not Properly Prepared, but I knew that. And that 200k will essentially be our training ride for THIS Saturday's 300k.
I figure, as long as my knees and tendons don't give out, we've got nothing to do but improve, and by the time PBP comes around, we'll be ready. Ish.
Another small note: I was wrecked on Friday. I came in to work, and my boss essentially sent me home, saying "you don't look well yet. Go get some sleep." So I did. Oh good lord did I. I was having difficulty sitting up in my chair before I went home. My knees and tendons were hurting, I was popping Advil like candy, my body wanted MASSIVE CALORIE INTAKE but was NAUSEATED at the thought of any food I could find, and all I really wanted to do was lie in bed and snuggle. It was like the worst hangover ever, without the headache and all of that pesky alcohol preloading you have to do for a real hangover. So, then, I spent all weekend playing Scrabble and getting my ass kicked by little old ladies with sleep apnea who don't know what "ichor" and "quipu" mean but who know how to spell them anyway. Sitting around all weekend still popping the old ibuprofen and intermittently massaging my thighs was the perfect recovery technique. This morning, the bike ride in to work felt magically quick.
Also, I got the bike all tuned up! My shifters were nearly unusable by the end of the ride, from all of the accumulated grit-n-crap in them. I needed brake adjustments, my left brake/shifter mount had to be moved, and everything needed to be cleaned, degreased, degritted, relubed, and replaced. Hzing! So much spiffier now. Plus, I have cute new bar tape! Wheeee!
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Eatin'
Date: 2003-04-14 11:44 am (UTC)Re: Eatin'
Date: 2003-04-14 12:18 pm (UTC)Yeah -- what a wild feeling! It was pretty neat. It was a direct lesson in how different kinds of food are stored: at the ~90 mile break where I didn't eat enough food, I ate the same amount of cheese that I'd been eating at the others, but not the same amount of Clif bar As a result, I felt full enough from the fat and protein but I didn't have enough of the short-term easy-access carb reserves.
Next time, I am definitely trying the carbo loading (http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/endeating.htm) thing on Friday night. Woo-hoo, endurance. I might try a mild carb-deficit a few days before the loading. Nothing drastic. Just to see.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-15 05:14 am (UTC)Are you for hire as a personal bike-cleaning-and-lubing person? (Wow, that sounds pretty indecent... "Want to lube my spokes?")
no subject
Date: 2003-04-15 05:35 am (UTC)And getting rid of the dirt efficiently was always something I haven't mastered...
I've cleaned and relubed my chain, and I've cleaned/lubed my wheel and spokes so I could properly true them, but cleaning the derailleurs and such I've always left for the bike shop. It definitely falls alongside "oil change" in the "things I could do for myself if I cared to but gosh isn't it nice that someone else does this for a living" pile. So, anyway, sorry to be unclear; we paid the nice bike shop to clean everything up all purty. And now, it's all purty!