Tierra Bella Century?

[jobob]

I'd ask you where you're riding tomorrow, but that would be a total hijack of the thread, so I'm not gonna do it.

Here - more or less. (probably just the upper 2/3)
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ay-200K-ver-99

[melissam]

No worries Mel, it's not remotely same.

Have fun, it's supposed to be lovely out tomorrow!

[Hijack ON]
I had a blast -- Old La Honda is gorgeous! My only regret is that I waited so long to ride it. I ended up doing the whole thing in my middle chain ring; I'd heard somewhere that it got really steep at the end, so I wanted to have the little chain ring in reserve in case I was suffering at the end.

Jobob, hope you a great time on your ride. You had a pretty long ride picked out!
[Hijack OFF]

Speaking of Tierra Bella, I'm considering doing the double metric. One of my riding buddies has a ticket for the double metric but will be out of town that weekend. Does anyone know what the double metric route is like?

-- Melissa

[jobob]

Does anyone know what the double metric route is like?

[wizeazz ON]

Uh, long?

[/wizeazz OFF]


Here be the route descriptions:

http://www.tierrabella.org/route.html

[jobob]

BTW, glad you enjoyed Old La Honda, Mel!

[snapdragen]

Now I'm really jealous. Mel used to be a bike potato like me. Now she's all ALC'd up and spinning up hills.

[melissam]

Now I'm really jealous. Mel used to be a bike potato like me. Now she's all ALC'd up and spinning up hills.

Snap, if anything, it should give you hope. I mean, if I can do it, anyone can do it!

[Bike Goddess]

Melissm-

A couple of guys from our club went down to Morgan Hill and rode with some other folks on the newer version of the Tierra Bella. They say that there are some pretty stiff (18%) climbs out in the Henry Coe State Park area. Not terribly long, but still enough to give you a good work out. These guys aren't slackers- they are some of the best climbers in our group. I trust what they say is pretty darn accurate.

Just thought I'd warn you.

[melissam]

Melissm-

A couple of guys from our club went down to Morgan Hill and rode with some other folks on the newer version of the Tierra Bella. They say that there are some pretty stiff (18%) climbs out in the Henry Coe State Park area. Not terribly long, but still enough to give you a good work out. These guys aren't slackers- they are some of the best climbers in our group. I trust what they say is pretty darn accurate.

Just thought I'd warn you.

BG,

Thanks for the warning; as they say, forewarned is forearmed.

Gawd, 18% grades?! Enough to give me a good workout?! I'll say! Those are the kinds of grades that cause my heart rate to skyrocket and my stomach ... um ... to empty itself of its contents.

My-o-my-o-my-o-my-o-my, what have I gotten myself into?

Oh well, as MP says, it'll be fun. Uh huh.

-- Melissa

PS I do know that no one's holding a gun to my head and making me do this. I can either:
A. Bail on the ride entirely
B. Pick a shorter route
C. Walk up the 18% grades (the AIDS/Lifecycle folks call this "crosstraining")

[slinkedog]

Hey melissa... I think those 18% are for the hilly 100 mile route, not sure which one you signed up for!!

[melissam]

Hey Slinke -- haven't seen you posting on here in a coon's age!

I had my eye on the double metric. The "easier" option was going to be the century. But, um, I may end up doing the metric century. I guess it all depends on how I'm feeling in a couple of weekends.

I'm training for the AIDS/Lifecycle ride in June, so I've been trying to teach my body how to ride longer distances day after day. I know there's hills on the Ride, but I don't think there's anything with an 18% grade. We did Quadbuster a few weekends ago, and it certainly wasn't 18%.

So, I guess now I need to figure out which Tierra Bella route would best serve my training needs.

-- Melissa

[Bike Goddess]

As an ALC alumni I can tell you that there aren't a lot of "tough" hills. What you need is time in the saddle and back to back rides. What was tough for me (and I had 3000 miles on my pretraining rides before the ALC) was the back to back days. No rest days and even the shorter day turned out to be a hilly one.

Keep up your training and you will do fine!

[melissam]

As an ALC alumni I can tell you that there aren't a lot of "tough" hills. What you need is time in the saddle and back to back rides. What was tough for me (and I had 3000 miles on my pretraining rides before the ALC) was the back to back days. No rest days and even the shorter day turned out to be a hilly one.

Keep up your training and you will do fine!

[ThreadDrift = ON]

BG,

Yeah, Quadbuster didn't seem that tough. OTOH, we didn't have to climb it after 2 days of riding. Then there's the Evil Twins that I keep hearing about. Are they about the same difficulty as Quadbuster? Shorter & steeper? Longer?

I had Friday off, so I was able to do 3 back-to-back longish rides. While I wasn't as fresh on the second or third day, I wasn't exactly struggling either. I take that as a very good sign.

Any specific tips you can offer for riding longer distances on consecutive days?

Less than 2 months to go until Day 0!

[ThreadDrift = OFF]

Back to your regularly scheduled Tierra Bella thread. I'm still pondering which route I'll take. Prolly won't know until the day of the ride.

-- Melissa

[Bike Goddess]

The Evil Sisters are not hard at all! That's the ride from Paso Robles out to the ocean on Hwy 46. It's a gentle climb but you may run into some traffic since that's a main route to Cambria.

Great descent, but a bit chilly since you get over to the ocean and the cold ocean air. Even if it's warm when you leaver Paso, be sure to bring a good windbreaker and some leg or knee warmers.

By the last day, any hill is hard because by that time you are just ready to get finished. But lots of fun surprises on the rest stops to keep your spirits up which really does help!

Yeah, do Tierra Bella and then do another 85 mile ride the next day.

[melissam]

The Evil Sisters are not hard at all! That's the ride from Paso Robles out to the ocean on Hwy 46. It's a gentle climb but you may run into some traffic since that's a main route to Cambria.

Great descent, but a bit chilly since you get over to the ocean and the cold ocean air. Even if it's warm when you leaver Paso, be sure to bring a good windbreaker and some leg or knee warmers.

By the last day, any hill is hard because by that time you are just ready to get finished. But lots of fun surprises on the rest stops to keep your spirits up which really does help!

Yeah, do Tierra Bella and then do another 85 mile ride the next day.

Actually, the Primavera Century is the day after the Tierra Bella, so I am considering doing it as well.

My current thought is that the TB has the 18% grades on the Century and Double Metric. So why not do the Metric century at TB, then do the Full Century with Primavera.

Well, we'll see.

Oh, and I definitely planned to be well stocked for arm warmers, leg warmers, knee warmers, jackets, etc. A cold Mel is a very, very unhappy Mel.

[jobob]

My current thought is that the TB has the 18% grades on the Century and Double Metric. So why not do the Metric century at TB, then do the Full Century with Primavera.

Yikes! Who are you, and what have you done to Mel?!?!