200 K Report (The Trifecta)
Hi everyone
First off, thanks for all the encouragement to do the ride. Needless to say, it was interesting. I've done a lot of long distance rides in my days, but yesterday was by far the most difficult, most hellish day on my bike.
Perhaps it was an omen or a sign from my body to not go for the ride on Saturday. The night before, my stomach started acting up on me. I thought to myself that there as no way I was going to let the stupid crohn's disease stop me from doing this. Maybe I shouldn't have had that cheeseburger for dinner, but it was good. Unfortunately this equated to a night of broken sleep to get up to go to the bathroom. Regardless, when I got up at 5 I felt pretty rested so I figured I'd be fine. I got my stuff together, and realized I was out of bar food. So I decided to swing by walgreens for some items. As I drove east to get on the highway, the sun was coming up behind the chicago skyline, which is always a great sight.
I headed north to Wisconsin toward Milwaukee, but missed the exit I wanted somehow. So I had to go a little out of my way to pick up the interstate over to the Lake Geneva area. Unfortunately this made me arrive at the start point about 2 minutes before the actual start time of 8:00 am. I didn't worry too much though since other people were arriving late. I was the last person to leave the parking lot for the ride but knew I'd be able to catch up with some people. I left around 8:20 am.
The ride started out through a small town, but soon headed out into the farmlands. I saw my first cow within the first 3 miles. There were some hills out to either side, which made it very scenic but the road I was on was relatively flat. I noticed the grass along side me waving forward in the direction I was going, so I knew I had a decent tailwind going on. The route was an out and back, so I also knew I'd have a decent headwind coming back :D
Around mile 10 I encountered my first real hill and there was a man changing a rear flat along side the road. I asked him if he wanted help, and he said no. I felt better knowing I had someone behind me. After I crested the hill I saw in the distance another rider, in a bright neon jacket. Over the next couple of miles I bridged the distance between us, and met Mike. He was an experienced brevet rider having done the whole series last year, so I knew he'd be someone good to pair up with. After a while, the guy who was changing his tire caught us and we rode together to the first checkpoint. The tire guy's name was Peter, but I thought of him as Booger since he blew his nose off to the side every 5 minutes.
The first checkpoint was at a gas station near I-90, 27 miles into the ride. It was 9:45 am. We went in, got our card stamped and had a snack. I was a little worried about overdoing it on food because of the night before so I stuck to bars and made sure I drank a lot of cytomax. It was cold out, probably around 55 so our muscles started to get stiff. There were several other riders at the checkpoint, so we all headed out for the turn around point. Mike let me know that I'd be getting in some good hill training on this stretch, as it was all rolling hills to the next stop. "Great" I thought. But my definition of rolling hills and his were slightly different. In my mind rollers are much smaller :)
We started getting into the hills pretty early on in the 2nd 30 mile stretch, and I fell off our little pace line. Booger kept going, but Mike cut his pace and would check back periodically on me. I was able to keep up and occasionally catch him when I felt bursts of energy to climb a hill. I certainly don't have my climbing legs yet! I noted the descents because those would become our climbs on the way back as I enjoyed the downhill runs. My computer battery was dead, so I had no idea how fast I was going nor how far I'd gone, which both bugged me and made feel happy to not know. Toward the end of the ride, it would just bug me.
We got to the 2nd checkpoint around 12:15 pm. I bought a bottle of water and some granola bars and some oatmeal raisin cookies. We stopped a little longer at this checkpoint to eat lunch. I scored a banana from one of the even organizers. The temperature remained on the cold side, and it felt like it was getting a little colder as we stood and ate. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and I asked Mike how much of our trip back was into the wind. His reply "oh there will be some stretches." He did a good job of letting me know just enough information :)
We headed out and about 2 miles into the 60 miles back, it started to drizzle. I had my windbreaker on, so I stayed dry. My rainjacket however, was back in my car. I felt very stiff and was dropped almost immediately by Mike, so I had to ride into the wind on my own. This is where the ride went from being a physical ride to a mental challenge. My legs felt like crap and all I could do was think about the hills I had to start climbing once we got out of the town. I began to think I couldn't do it, that my body would win because I was sick the night before. One of the reasons I ride so much is because I refuse to let the crohn's disease take over. You can say it's a control freak thing for me, because you feel so free when you're on your bike. And to me as long as I can pedal, I'm not "sick." So the defeating thoughts I was having got pushed out by anything I could think of to keep my mind occupied.
The drizzle continued throughout the hills, and the road was slightly wet making the downhills a little more scary. The combination of rain and wind made my lips chapped, and all I could think about was the scene in Napoleon Dynamite where he calls his brother to bring him so chapstick "But my lips hurt REAL BAD!"
I had to drop into the "granny gear" on my bike for the first time since I owned it as I rode up to a steep grade that as about 1/4 mile long. I didn't want to go to the triple, it was a pride thing in my mind (stupid) to remain in the 2nd ring up every hill I'd faced in the past. But my legs didn't have it, and it's too early in the season. I knew I'd tip over. The 2nd time I had to go into the triple, I decided to name it Terry and proceeded to talk to Terry as I rode up the 2nd big hill. Yes, this is where I started to lose it :D
I had to pay Terry a visit 2 more times, on one more hill and toward the end of the ride. But we'll get to that. After we finished the hills, we rolled into the 3rd checkpoint. I felt pretty good actually, all things considered. I spoke with a man who was on a recumbent and was feeling bad. He said that this would be his last brevet. We headed out after warming up a bit. It started to rain harder, and the winds were howling around 20 mph. The last 27 miles of the ride would be the most challenging ride of my life.
After a few relatively smaller hills, we got back into the flats and farmland. The fields were only dirt, so there wasn't even corn to block some of the wind. For the first part it was a crosswind/headwind coming out of the southeast as we rode east. Any sign of a barn, trees, or house was a much welcomed sight. The rain picked up and was pelting my face. I had to look over my glasses since they were so spotted. Mike and I caught up with the recumbent guy, who was struggling. I offered to ride with him so he could draft off of me. Mike remained about 1/8 of a mile ahead of us. I kept focusing on his jacket as my beacon to get me to the end.
There were several times when I thought I would have to abandon the ride. I thought about how I would do it, offer to pay a guy with a pickup truck 20 bucks for a ride into town. That's the thing about a brevet, there's no SAG vehicle. If you want to quit, you figure out how to get home. Home for me was 2 hours away, so I'd have to sit and wait for my boyfriend to come get me. That thought wasn't very welcoming. So Jim, the guy on the recumbent, and I kept each other company.
When I saw Mike turn into the headwind, I cringed. I got into the drops and plowed into it. It about blew me to a stop. The other fun part was when cars came by in the opposite direction, and blew you back with an added spray of rain. I really liked when a dump truck would come by, that was swell. :D
I looked at Jim's computer periodically to see how fast we were going - 10 mph. If we hit any sort of small incline, we dropped to 8. It was maddening because we had 10 miles left and it would take an hour. At mile 119, I had to pull off for a break. I couldn't feel my feet, I had puddles in my gloves, and I was soaked. We rested for a few minutes behind some trees to block the wind and rain. Jim offered to finish and come back and get me. I said that I would finish out of f***ing principle at that point. We headed back out into the wind and rain.
With about 3 miles left, we got some reprieve from the wind by getting to a wooded area. So we were able to pick up the pace a little. After one more stretch of open land and wind, we finally hit the starting town and navigated across to the motel we started from. I've never been so happy to see a Super 8 in my entire life!
I got off my bike and almost fell over. My entire body was numb, tingly like when your foot falls asleep. The ride organizer asked me how my first brevet was. I said "you mean my first and last?" And he said that this was probably the worst it's been in a long time and to not give up on it. Jim told him this was the worst he's done in all of his years of doing them. So I didn't feel like so much of a wuss for thinking it was so bad. I waddled into the motel to get my card stamped. A volunteer had to pull my gloves off, which were soaked. I went to sign my name on the card and had a hard time doing it. The motel guy offered me a towel to dry off.
I had some hot chocolate, and chatted with the other riders in the lobby. They were all supportive of my finishing because you could probably read on my face what I was thinking. Many concurred that it was a brutal brevet, only being beaten out by the 400k last year where there was a tornado.
I got to my car, threw my bike in the back and turned on the heat full blast to thaw out. Thankfully I had a dry jersey and socks to put on. I had to leave my tights on though. I shivered uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. There was a McDonalds nearby that I'd been thinking about since mile 120, which I stopped at for the ride home. Got a 1/4 pounder meal, and 2 apple pies. I was in heaven. I thought that it would probably screw up my stomach again, but at that point I didn't care. I was done, out of the rain, and starting to thaw out.
So, that's my first brevet story. 125 miles of the biking trifecta of hell - hills, headwind, and rain. I've done each of those on their own, or a combination of 2 of them. But never all 3 in a single day. I thought about the people who do RAAm and the weather they must endure. My respect for them is even higher now. When you get into a situation like that, it becomes so much mental strength. You can easily talk yourself into stopping, which I found myself doing on several occasions. Distraction or simply getting pissed off will help you get through that. I never want to have to be so pissed again on my bike :D
300k is on May 13th. I've decided if the weather is going to be anywhere near what yesterday was, I'm not going to do it. Yesterday I said I'd never do another brevet, but once you get out of the elements you thinking changes (or you get crazier again). Today as I type this, the rain is still falling and winds blowing. No recovery ride for me, just recovery sofa time.
Thanks for reading :)
