Flying Wheels

[ttaylor508]

Too funny, we have been going to brewfest for the last 4 or 5 years. My kids look forward to it as there are so many fun activities set up for them.

I saw on your site that you were planning on doing Red Hot Summer Days and Ramrod. If I was going to skip one, it would be Red Hot Summer Days. DH did it last year without me as I was healing from a torn hamstring and he said it was not a fun century. Lots of wind, not much scenery, he has no desire to do it again. Ramrod on the other hand he absolutely loved.

I usually use Flying Wheels as a gage for how prepared I am for stp one day. I have a feeling this year they are both going to be painful...

[lauraelmore1033]

I was going to do the fw century (as stp prep) but changed the goal to the 70 mile ride after coming down with what I thought was a cold two weeks ago. Cold turned into something requiring antibiotics, steroids and inhailers a week later and the goal changed to maybe doing the 45...
Dang!

[Dog]

I haven't been able to ride as much as I planned this spring, but I finished Flying Wheels Century yesterday. I got through it -averaged 14.2 mph, but concerned if I'm really ready for STP in one day??? Thoughts - advice?

[ttaylor508]

I haven't been able to ride as much as I planned this spring, but I finished Flying Wheels Century yesterday. I got through it -averaged 14.2 mph, but concerned if I'm really ready for STP in one day??? Thoughts - advice?

Hi Dog -- I did the Flying Wheels Saturday with only about 400 miles of outdoor riding under my belt since January (yikes). I was really worried about how I would do with the utter lack of riding I had done, but I finished stronger than I have ever felt before, largely due to the increased amount of indoor training and spinning classes I have taken. I have done the STP 6 times, 4 in two days and the last 2 years in one day. I have always used Flying Wheels to gage how ready I was, and I am feeling more confident than I was before Flying Wheels. The one day stp is definitely harder only because of the shear fact you are on the bike for 13+ hours. There aren't nearly the hills as Flying Wheels, but I think the hardest part of the one day stp is mental. No matter what, when I hit mile marker 170 around the St. Helen's stop I always wonder what the heck I am doing this for, but coming into that finish line in Portland is soooo gratifying and knowing I don't have to get back on the bike the next day is sooooo sweet! Just pace yourself and I think you will do fine.

[Dog]

Thanks TTaylor. I'm getting excited for the ride - picked up my packet from REI today. I think I will be good from a conditioning perspective, but really concerned about the hours in the saddle as well as the mental challenge. The good news is that the weather is looking favorable! Thanks again for the pep talk!!!

[ttaylor508]

Thanks TTaylor. I'm getting excited for the ride - picked up my packet from REI today. I think I will be good from a conditioning perspective, but really concerned about the hours in the saddle as well as the mental challenge. The good news is that the weather is looking favorable! Thanks again for the pep talk!!!

How did your ride go Dog? I can tell you this year was much tougher than years past because of the heat, although the tail wind was a blessing. Lots of really bad crashes, more than I have ever seen on a ride before and all seemed to happen right in front of us. There were four of us riding in our group and two of us went down in one of the crashes on the West Valley Hwy when a rider right in front of DH touched a tire. I think he may have broken his nose...lots of blood and nothing to give him to stop bleeding. We luckily came out unscathed. The other crash happened on the trail in Tenino, we were doing around 27 miles an hour and a rider clipped one of those big orange posts. It was a pretty bad crash. Hope the rider is okay!

We finished in 10 hours 45 minutes of ride time, but we got to Portland later than usual because we had to take more stops due to the heat. The Longview bridge was a torture chamber...I don't know why the heat was so bad there, but it was awful. DH started suffering from heat exhaustion at mile maker 170. We had been keeping a pretty fast pace all day and I think he just didn't get enough fluids. Pretty scary though and he was feeling so poorly at the end he couldn't even finish his beer (that's when I knew he was really sick!) All in all, first hundred miles was fun....last hundred was not!!!!

Hope you made it to Portland okay!!!! Would love to hear how your ride went.

[Dog]

Hi Taylor,
I'm glad to report that I finished the ride. I don't know my ride time, because my bike computer reset somewhere between Chehalis and the Longview Bridge. The afternoon weather was brutal. The two people I was riding with did not finish due to complications from the heat. I checked my bike computer on the Longview Bridge and it showed 100 degrees - I decided not to look at it after that! Anyway - I'm glad to have done it and I heard it was probably one of the toughest STPs in quite a while. Also, hate to say it, but I was one of the crashes. I hit the ground crossing the RR tracks heading into Roy. I slowed down to ride across the carpet, and it slid from under my bike. Messed up my knee and my wrist, but not enough to stop me from completing the ride.
I just found out tonight that I might get a spot in RAMROD due to a LOT of cancellations (I was around 126 on the waiting list). I'm hoping my knee will be better and allow me to give it a go.
Congrats on the great finish! I know that I wasn't close to 10 hours ride time, but I was happy to finish before the cut off at 9pm.

Take care,

Dog