Tierra Bella Century?

[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?!?!