Longest Solo, Most Climbing Yet!
I have never really posted a ride report...but, I feel pretty happy with my ride yesterday, and want to share it! :) This is pretty long...be warned.
Summary: I did my longest ever solo training ride (80 miles), and also climbed the most I ever have in one day (7300').
The route: Up Hurricane Ridge & back down (40 miles), followed by the Piedmont Loop...over the Elwha River, out to Joyce, up and over to Lake Crescent, back in over the Elwha, and home (40 miles).
I took a long time...about 10 hours total, including breaks.
I started out in mid-morning, since I hate (and my digestion hates) getting up early, and also knowing we have a lot of daylight at present. It was quite sunny, but also windy. I got everything together, and stocked my bike with 3 water bottles, Nunn electrolyte tabs, Power Bars, and Carb-Boom gels in orange cream/vanilla (which I am now absolutely addicted to on the bike...no upset tummy, great energy, awesome taste). I put on some sunscreen, but as it turned out, not enough. :(
I did a few loops on the one flat parking lot near home for a warm up, and then headed up the mountain. The first five miles is the steepest, and it cuts up through the trees, so no view. It's pleasant, but a bit of a slog. Still, it's near sea level, so the breathing is good ;) . Two riders came whizzing down the hill (well, not taking a whiz, mind you, just going FAST), with one of them in that extreme tuck (hands on bar tops, face an inch from the bar, elbows DOWN and in) that looks so scary to me! She even waved from that position! She had to be going at least 50mph, as I know I go 40mph on that stretch, and she was REALLY flying. Then, at five miles, I came to the park entry gate, where there was a huge line-up! So, I had a de facto 15 minute break. This entry gate is also where anyone doing this ride can take a powder break (in the campground) and get more water (at the entry gate out-building hose).
Refreshed and ready to go, I got started on the much easier 3 miles up to the tunnels. Got passed by a nice gentleman on a bike, and got up into where the view turns pretty. It was super clear, with Mt. Baker, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the San Juans, the Cascade Mountains, and the Dungeness flats & spit all at my feet. This ride is really worth how you feel when you can look straight down and see so graphically just how far you've climbed...and the tunnels are less than 1/2 way up!
Then through the tunnels...always kind of creepy for me...using headlight and extra rear flashers (well, I don't flash my rear on the bike, but you know what I mean) :p . Then on up. And up...the road gets a little steeper again at this point. The sun was out, and although I really ride better in the heat than the cold, the last 8 miles or so were kind of a slog for some reason, yesterday. I was really feeling the altitude. More than the last time I did it. So, I stopped in every small patch of shade I came to, and they come few and far between higher up in the alpine environment. I was carrying 3 water bottles, so I dumped some over my head to use my hair as a swamp cooler, and that really helped!
Finally, long story short, I arrived at the top! I took off my shoes, had some nice conversations with tourists, and pulled out my yellow jacket for the descent. After one last look around at the spectacular scenery of the Olympic Park backcountry, I headed down. [BTW, this ride is worth doing if for no other reason than all the ego-boosting conversations all the elderly people at the top will initiate with you when they ask if you rode your bike all the way up! ;) ]
With my low- to mid-range skills, the descent takes me about an hour. I find this fun, but fairly tiring...a full hour of descending in the drops on roads with lots of sheer drops, no shoulder, and many distracted tourists driving! Also, further down, in the trees, I startled a deer and had a moment of heart-in-throat in that flash of time when it could have either jumped out or not. It skittered around on its side of the road, and all was fine, but I realized that was one good reason for taking the descent a little easier. I wouldn't want to hit a deer on my bike!
Then: :mad: Coming down the very final stretch there is a short section of downhill road with no shoulder and a 35 mph limit that I must travel for maybe 2 block lengths. There was traffic, and knowing I would only be on the road for a couple hundred yards, I was taking the whole lane and going about 25, since I knew I needed to make a sharp right-hand turn. I signaled and slowed for the turn, and some idiot in a car was TAILGATING me. Truly on my wheel, about 3 feet off. I just instinctively turned around and in my most deep and agressive voice, yelled BACK OFF! before I turned. Fortunately, I had a goal for the day and kept on my own ride, because I felt like chasing him to the stoplight another block away and calling in his license plate, in as much as this is a small town and I happen to be selling my house to the chief of police! But, a deep breath prevailed, and I kept on with my plans.
After I got down off the mountain, I stopped in at my house to refill bottles and suck down a yogurt with almonds. Then it was on to the next 40 miles. My morale and energy flagged for the next 15 miles. I was riding into a pretty stiff, blustery headwind with a lot of traffic and a very small shoulder, and after climbing the Ridge already, my power was waning. I had a lot of these kinds of thoughts, as my bad attitude almost got the best of me: "Of course it has to be windy! We can't ever just have a day of unmitigated good weather around here! Sh!tty climate! Sh!tty climate! It isn't even a warm wind! We're never going to get a normal summer!" And so forth. Fortunately, I remembered (1) it was time for a gel, and (2) when I got to Joyce, I could take the turn up and over to the lake, and the wind would likely change. I was hoping, hoping, hoping that I would have the same wind at my back for the trip home. With a number of various valleys and mountains, sometimes this happens, sometimes not.
So, a small climb over the hill, down to Lake Crescent, beautiful scenery, and lower wind. Suddenly, I was feeling better. If it hadn't been 7pm already, I would have stopped for a swim! Long story short, the last 25 miles or so felt great. I was tired, but I was doing fine. My tush had been getting a little sore, but it was feeling better again, and I also stopped at a truck scale port-a-potty for the home stretch break, and I did, indeed, get that tailwind. So, for the last several miles of my 80 mile ride, I was able to swoosh along at 25 mph on the flat, thanks to that wind!
I arrived home with a smile on my face, feeling like I could keep going if I needed to (but really glad I didn't need to). When I got off the bike I discovered two things: (1) standing on the ground, my body did not feel nearly as good as I had on the bike, and (2) I had not used enough sunscreen. I was extremely tired, stiff and beat up, immediately after getting home. And, the leg that had born the brunt of the sunshine up to the Ridge was pretty seriously crispy and painful. It looked like a hot dog that had been microwaved for too long. So, no hot shower for me! Ice, neosporin, and Tylenol PM to help fall asleep despite a pretty painful burn.
Still, I feel pretty great about the ride. I did my longest solo training ride, with my highest elevation gain so far for one day...and I arrived home feeling extraordinarily grateful. I have a healthy body that held up, I had no digestion issues, I had no mechanicals, I had a safe ride, I saw some beautiful scenery, I talked to some pleasant people, and I achieved a new PB for climbing. Pretty hard to beat! My overwhelming thought as I fell asleep last night was, "Thank you, Lord!"
OK everyone...if you slogged through and read this far...thanks for listening!
Replies: Wahine, Mimi, Veronica
Wahine: Good for you with your 6 hour ride! I know the longer rides were causing you a little motivational issue. Sounds like you've broken through. I'm up for a ride up here anytime...although I know you're a lot faster than me...you'd have to be patient! I'd also love to come down there for a ride...but the next couple months are going to be rough to coordinate any travel for me, and I know you're working on your house!
Mimi: I feel unsure that my Friday ride was harder than a 200 mile ride. I've only done STP once, but I recall that the rollers on day two were a little hillier than I remember people portraying them. Mimi, have you done a 1-day STP? If so, wanna do it again someday!?! (Wahine, Veronica, you too, for that matter!)
Veronica: The thing about STP is that there really isn't much in the way of scenery! LOL To me, its main selling point as a first double would be that over 200 miles, it only climbs something like 2000 feet!
