Solvang Century ... Woo hoo! I did it!
So, after much debate between my friend and I, we finally decided to do the full century in Solvang, not the half. We weren't as trained for it as we would have liked to have been, and there was way more climbing than we've ever done in one ride, but we decided to go for it.
There were actually four of us that went, all women. My husband let us use his truck so we could fit all four bikes and us. However, when he was about to load the bikes, he started looking for his bike rack device he had built ... and he couldn't find it. :eek: Long story short, he actually built a knew one right then and there! What a sweetie. And so tricky, too! ;) So we left much later than anticipated, but we finally got on the road. We checked into our hotel, unloaded the bikes and headed for AJ Spurs in Buellton where we were told members from our club were meeting for dinner. Our entire day was scheduled around meeting them at 4:00. However, we got there and the restaurant was closed. :( Well, turns out, we had the days mixed up. They were meeting the NEXT day, AFTER the century, for dinner. Ugghhh! Oh well. So, we went to Split Pea Andersons and had our own fun. In fact, we had way too much fun on the entire trip. Talk about a lot of estrogen and girl talk and constant giggling! :) Girl trips are great!
Okay, so on to the ride. Of the four of us, Jenny is typically the strongest, at least lately. She got ahead of us early in the ride and Beverly, the newest rider with the heaviest bike, fell back early on. But Dawn and I were together for most of the ride. She weighs 20 lbs less than me, so she beats me up all the hills, but my weight helps on the downhill, as does my 11-28 cassette, so I pass her on the downhills.
We enjoyed every SAG stops, probably a little TOO much! This ride was supposed to have 4950 feet of climbing, though our Garmin's said more like 4500 at the end. We knew there were two hard climbs near the end, so we really tried to pace ourselves and save energy and muscle power. For most of the ride, the hills weren't too bad, followed by some nice downhills. At mile 80 we started looking for the first big climb we had heard so much about, which we knew was followed by "the wall", as they call it. But nothing came at mile 80, or 81, or 82. We just kept going from around 72 on at a 1 to 3% grade (the false flat we had also heard about). FINALLY at about mile 85 the "pre-wall", as we decided to name it, came. And it was a doosie. I stopped almost right away when my thighs were already screaming at me. Took a quick break to recover, then pushed on, worked through the pain and made it to the top. Yay! Then we had fun on a big descent, my favorite, of course! One more SAG stop and THEN the wall at about mile 93. We had been told by a club member that it was about the length of 10 houses. Not so bad. But if only that were true! It was more like 20 houses! But, like everyone said, it wasn't as bad as the previous hill we had just conquered. So, we got through it, took a picture on the top and continued on. Through the entire ride, our average pace kept staying about the same. She'd get ahead a tenth at the top of a hill and I'd catch up to her pace on a downhill.
However, a few miles later, one more stupid hill came along that we weren't expecting. Hair pin turns and more torture for the end of a century, already having done over 4,000 ft of climbing. As usual, my friend beat me to the top, however, this time I never found her again. It was mostly rolling hills with a lot of downhill to the end and I was passing person after person, going much faster than she normally would do on that kind of terrain, yet she was nowhere to be found. I started wondering if I had passed her on the side of the road and didn't realize it. Then I decided she probably caught on to the back of a wheel and pushed to the end. And that's exactly what happened. I finally found her at a red light just before the end. So, now, instead of me making up a tenth to match her pace, she had added another tenth, having been pulled for the previous 7 or so miles, while I had no one to pull me. Instead I apparently pulled someone else, though I didn't know it at the time.
I ended up with a 16.1 pace, which I'm actually very thrilled about. She ended up with a 16.3, which switched to 16.2 as we lollygagged the last half mile through traffic to the "finish". So, she's calling it a 16.3.
The funny thing is, our friend Jenny, who finished an hour and 45 minutes before us, also got a 16.3 pace! This is ride time, of course, not total time. So, we basically did the century at the same speed as our "fast friend", but we enjoyed the SAG stops and took pictures and all that, while she just pressed on and took as little time as possible at SAGs. Very interesting. :)
Oh .. and our fourth friend, Beverly, made it in safe and sound as well not too long later. :)
