Woo hoo! Great first
ride in A Year of Centuries!
Here Comes the Sun
There aren’t too many rides I’ve done in January without leg
or arm warmers. It was 61 degrees when
the group started at 9:00 A.M. When I
finished at about 2:30 P.M., it was 79 degrees.
I’ve ridden in plenty of cold weather and willingly would have done so today,
but it sure was wonderful to get to ride on this unseasonably warm and beautiful
day.
Rocket (Wo)man
You might think it’s necessary to eat tons of calories on a
century, but it’s really not. The main
thing is to fuel consistently. For me,
that’s about 200 calories per hour.
Usually, I eat something about every 1½ to 2 hours. Today I had Claxton fruitcake and Dr. Lim’s
rice cakes.
Recently, my husband Robert heard a radio interview with the
owners of one of the fruitcake bakeries in Claxton, Georgia. They said that, as you’d expect, their
clientele is on the older side. However,
they have started marketing their fruitcake to younger endurance athletes. Robert and I decided to give it a try, and it
works great.
Another recent addition to our bike food repertoire is Alan
Lim’s rice cakes. Dr. Lim is a trainer
for some of the pro cycling teams, and he has come up with a rice cake recipe
that’s a good balance of carbohydrates and proteins, which is important on long
rides. The rice cakes consist of cooked
sushi rice (stickier than regular rice, which helps hold the cakes together),
cooked bacon, scrambled eggs, soy sauce, Parmesan cheese, and a little brown
sugar. You press it into a pan, cut it
into squares, and wrap individually to take on the bike. It really tastes good to have something
savory on the ride to contrast with the sweetness of Clif Bars, Gu, etc.
Here’s a photo of today’s bike vittles:
I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends
And now for the best part, the ride itself. During the winter, Robert and I do long rides
on Saturdays with our cycling group in Macon.
These winter training rides are called the Peach Peloton. Today’s PP ride was already planned to be 95
miles, and so all I had to do was add a few more. Here are some of the guys in the parking lot
before we rolled out:
As always, it was a challenging yet satisfying PP ride. These guys are some of the best cyclists in
Middle Georgia, and I really enjoy the good workouts and their excellent
companionship. We usually ride two
abreast, except when we have to ride single file on short stretches of busier
highways that connect the less traveled roads.
When we’re two abreast, the front two people pull a while and then
gradually fade to the back. Everyone
behind the front riders gets to take advantage of the draft effect. This goes a long way to equalize the energy
output between riders of varying abilities.
I’ve learned that on these long rides, I don’t need to be up front
pulling because it uses too much of my energy.
When I make it to the front, I immediately roll off, letting the
stronger riders ahead of me. The guys
are totally cool with this. In fact, they
respect you a lot more if you know your limits and ride within them.
Given all this, I still often get dropped from the
group. (I always study the route ahead
of time as well as have my phone with me to make sure that I can find my way
home!) Today I made it to mile 71 when I
cracked. Even so, I’m very happy with
the way I rode. When I got dropped, we
were averaging 21.7 mph. Holy moly! If I were riding by myself, I would be happy
to average 17 mph. That gives you an
idea of how much faster you can ride with a group because of drafting.
A couple of guys popped at the same time I did. Once I slowed my pace, I immediately felt
like I could keep going for a while.
Things were good. It got even
better. Gabe, one of the strong riders,
hung back to help me and the other two who had popped. That was really nice of him. The four of us worked together to get back to
the parking lot.
When we were a mile or two from the end, Robert and our
friend Chad Davies joined us. (They had
already finished with the front group.)
Robert and Chad are on the Georgia Neurosurgical racing team. They provided the Georgia Neuro Century
Escort Service, accompanying me on the last five miles I needed to make it a century. Thanks, y’all! That really meant a lot to me J
I also have to give a special shout out to a couple of my
other riding buddies. One is Tom, who
also had a bad bicycle accident last year.
He was on a cross-country ride, and about 10 days into the trip, he crashed
on a steep descent. He had some bad
injuries, including a broken pelvis, which required several months of
recovery. He’s been back on the bike for
a good while now, but today was the first opportunity I’ve had to ride with him
since his crash. It was good to be with
him. Props also go to Sidney, who rode
his first century ever today! Way to go,
Sidney!
As I rode and appreciated my friends’ help today, I couldn’t
help but contemplate on how much my friends did to help me through the toughest
days of recovery from my crash. These
were my cycling friends plus friends from many other parts of my life. They prayed for me, sent me cards and
e-mails, called me, and brought food to me.
I couldn’t have made it without you all.
Thank you again to each of you.
I send today’s ride out as a prayer for the women who have
or will receive treatment through the Face to Face program of the Partnership
Against Domestic Violence. May they
experience healing and new life.
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