*Peeks head up*
Stats? Did someone ask for stats from the ALC? Well, I happen to keep track of just about everything while I ride, so I have stats for ALC7 (2008)!
Between my Garmin 305 and Shimano Flightdeck, here's what we have:
Total Mileage: 542.95 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 24,311 feet*
*elevation gain - your climbing feet may vary: Garmin Edge tends to overestimate. Not only that, but my Garmin didn't charge properly the night before Quadbuster, so I only recorded 2454 feet of climbing for Day 3.
Want a breakdown by day? OK!
Day 1: Cow Palace to Santa Cruz
- 81.67 miles, 5378 feet elevation gain
Day 2: Santa Cruz to King City
- 106.18 miles, 3976 feet elevation gain
Day 3: King City to Paso Robles
- 65.40 miles, 2545 feet elevation gain* (Garmin wasn't fully charged that day)
Day 4: Paso Robles to Santa Maria
- 98.03 miles, 4391 feet elevation gain
Day 5: Santa Maria to Lompoc (Red Dress Day)
- 43.17 miles, 2227 feet elevation gain
Day 6: Lompoc to Ventura
- 86.90 miles, 3838 feet elevation gain
Day 7: Ventura to Los Angeles
- 61.60 miles, 2047 feet elevation gain
Yes, the back-to-back-to-backness had me concerned too. During a typical training week, I rode my bike 6 days a week, trying for longer rides on the weekend, and jumping on the trainer for 30 minutes to an hour on weekday mornings. I also trained for endurance rather than speed. I felt great during the AIDS/Lifecycle ride; my legs didn't feel tired until Day 6.
I believe we had a tailwind for most of the ride. My average speeds were fairly high for me -- in the 15-16mph range. I certainly wasn't the fastest one on the course, but I had a great time and looked forward to riding each morning, which was my training goal.
If you're interested in more details, I recorded my training and the ALC Ride itself pretty faithfully on bikejournal (mmann964). Let's see, I started at the end of November, 2007 and continued thru May, 2008. The Ride itself was June 1 - June 8.
The Ride itself was an amazing experience. But I see that I've already written a novel, so I'll leave that for another post.
Best wishes to everyone rockin' the ALC this year!
- Melissa
I'll get back on the bike soon, I promise!