Anyone Doing The Stagecoach 1/13?

[NYGIRL777]

Is Anyone Coming Out For The Stagecoach Ride On Saturday? I Am Driving In From Vegas And Would Love To Have Some Riding Company.

[bikerchick68]

I'm not riding it this year but sure hope you have decent weather... we are supposed to have rain thru tomorrow but Saturday should be clear and in the 60's... it may be cooler in the desert in the morning so plan to bring layers. Last year was chilly starting... take time to look at all the different eco-systems you'll ride thru too... pretty neat!

[NYGIRL777]

Hey Bikerchick
How come you're not coming? You live soooooooooooo close

[Brandy]

I just saw this post. How was your ride...cold enough for you?

[NYGIRL777]

Brandy
You have no idea how cold it was When I left the hotel room it was 25 degrees. After the ride began though I was warm enough except for my feet. The lunch stop was heaven...the chili was the BOMB! and the heaters inside that place were amazing. The bad part.....going back outside after sitting next to a furnace for 20 minutes. I thought I was going to freeze to death. But 15 minutes into it again and all was good. It was a great ride with hundreds of wonderful people. Are you doing the Borrego Springs ride? and/or Palm Springs?

[Brandy]

Oh...I know exactly how cold it was, I was right there with you! We stopped at the lunch stop to go to the bathroom and grab more Hammer gel, but jumped right back on the bikes and were on the road less than four minutes later. All of my friends that stopped and went inside to enjoy the heaters said the exact same thing...it was twice as cold when they went back out!

I'm not doing either of those rides, I have a 200k brevet in San Diego next weekend and I'm training for Butterfield Double, which is Feb 17th. I probably won't do many more organized centuries...I hate paying for them when I can do one for free on my own or with friends!

[Veronica]

Hey Brandy!

I see you're doing Butterfield and Solvang. I thought about Butterfield, but the Tour of California starts that day. It's so cool to see professional cyclists on our roads.

I did Solvang last year. It rained buckets!

What do you think your third one will be? Davis is nice. The flat section at the end was a bit of a drag for me. But I'll probably do it again. Tam in August is gorgeous!

I'm also doing Central Coast and maybe the Grand Tour or Terrible Two. It all depends on how the Devil Mountain Double goes.

Hope I run into you (not literally) at Solvang at least.

V.

[Brandy]

Hi Veronica

I'm actually rethinking Solvang. I'm definitely in for Butterfield, it starts too close to home to skip it! Solvang would require an overnight stay or two and with three kids at home, I'm thinking that might be tough. If I'm going to have to do an overnight, I'm thinking that I want to save it and do Eastern Sierra instead. So basically, my double schedule is totally up in the air as of now, but I'm thinking Hemet might be a good option because again, close to home and I'd love to have two knocked out early in the season. I considered Davis and that might be a possibility...but Eastern Sierra is calling to me if I can get more comfortable with my climbing ability! I'm also keeping the Grand Tour open as an option because it's close to home.

[Veronica]

Go for Eastern Sierra! MP did it last year and it sounds gorgeous. I'd forgotten about Hemet. It's not on my calendar since it's the same day as Mulholland. I vaguely entertained trying to do the stage races this year.

Welcome to the club of insanity. Good luck with your training!

V.

[Brandy]

Thanks Veronica! I think I started having nightmares about Butterfield the other night...I was apparently trying to calculate what time I'd need to come in to get in under the time limit and woke up in a panic.

I'm pretty set on Hemet as my second DC and I really, really, really want to shoot for Eastern Sierra, but it all depends on my climbing. I'm doing 100 miles and 10,000 ft on Saturday (Encinitas to Palomar Mountain and back) with my ultra rider friend, so that should be a good indication. We're also doing the Breathless Agony route on March 25th, we're organizing it for our so Cal Bike Forums group, complete with roving SAG. I had thought about going for King of the Mountain, but with the kids I was piling too many out of town rides on my plate. So...we'll see!

[Veronica]

How did the 200K go?

V.

[Brandy]

It went well...thanks for asking! I don't have plans to do a brevet series this year, but my friend told me that it would be a good training ride, particularly because it has some of the same climbing that is featured on Butterfield. The route was GREAT, I rode with some great guys from Bike Forums, and it was nice to have the company all day. I finished strong and felt great...but VERY hungry afterward. It was definitely a good test of my nutrition strategies on longer rides, I thought I was doing well with one Hammer Gel an hour, plus gatorade, but I was scolded by my friend/coach who told me that I should have been having two gels an hour. I vaguely remember having that conversation before the ride, but it must have left my brain...of course, the jersey pocket full of gels that I returned with should have been an indication that I should have been refueling more often.

[Veronica]

Glad you had a good ride.

I'm kind of obsessive about eating and drinking on my longer rides. Every 15 minutes I eat or drink something. So far this strategy has worked.

V.

[Brandy]

I definitely need to be more conscious of it and after my scolding from my coach friend, I will be. He's usually on top of me when we ride together and keeps good track of reminding me to eat/hydrate more often than I would do on my own. He took off with the fast group so we didn't ride together until he doubled back after finishing and rode the final 15 mile stretch with us, so I didn't have my babysitter there. I need to get better about doing it myself!

[Veronica]

I keep my HRM on my handlebar and just watch the display. I really don't like to eat much on the bike and I get even more finicky.

The other thing I noticed last year is that foods that worked well for me when it was cool/cold didn't go over so well when it warmed up. I hope you don't have issues with that.

I'm now considering Eastern Sierra. I'm not sure I'll be able to do Tam with some other things we have planned. I would kind of like to do five this year. But we'll see.

V.