Respect the ride

I spent my spring break cycling. Linda and I visited her folks in Phoenix, and I brought a bike along for company. It was a two day drive to Phoenix. Three days of getting up at the crack of dawn riding hard and getting home in time for a swim before dinner. The weather was cool in the morning, hot in the afternoon and windy all the time. It was my spring training camp, so I rode hard all three days. Sunday 4/5 was a very windy 70 mile loop just north of Phoenix enlivened by a 30 minute impromptu time trial when I saw a cyclist gaining on me in my mirror. Monday was 60 miles of hills in the beautiful Salt River Canyon. Tuesday was a 50 mile hilly training ride from Apache Junction to the end of the pavement beyond Tortilla Flat. I could live the snowbird retiree lifestyle, but I’d need to take some rest days.

We zipped back home quickly then I was up to Forest Grove for the Three Capes 300 km Bevet. I learned a lesson on this ride about recovery time. I hadn’t had enough and it showed up 100 km into the ride. The first third I felt great and was on track for a personal best. The pace was 28.5 kph, which is fast for a rando bike with fenders, generator, lights, food and water for a day, a headwind and a couple of good size hills. Then the miles in Arizona and the lack of quality recovery time caught up to me and I had to slow way down. Caffeinated hammer gel gave a quick burst of energy, but wasn’t adequate; I just needed to keep my heart rate down in the recovery zone. The second 100 km my pace dropped to 19.8 kph, with a little more headwind and the same amount of climbing. Lots of people passed me on the hills. I moderated my pace to stay in my recovery zone, and made up some time by keeping the control stops very short. The active recovery helped a lot, and riding with Susan from Vancouver and RB also helped me pick up the pace in the last third of the ride. It had an average of 24 kph, which is about average for me on a flat 300K. In fact, with the short stops at the controls, this was actually my personal best 300K. It sure didn’t feel like it at the half way point.

The lesson for me is to “respect the ride” and allow adequate recovery time. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bad day on the bike; this ride made me remember it can happen to me and I need to be adequately prepared. I’ll be back for this 300 K next year, better rested.