First Century Ride of the Year

Let's be honest: this was my second 100 mile bike ride ever. The first was a 140 miles on the first day of the STP ride last year. This ride felt (and was!) much faster, despite more than 4000 feet of elevation gain. After the ride, I was happy to find out that the ride had about twice as much elevation gain as IM CDA. This is a good thing because I was HATING life as I pedaled up the last hill back into Kirkland. Other than that, it was a great ride - no flats, no crashes, good company, and I almost had enough nutrition.

I tried a few new things nutrition-wise that I want to remember for CDA:

1. I felt like I was eating constantly, but I didn't get hungry until the last 10 miles. I had 2 bars, 2 gus, 2 bottles of Gatorade w/ carbopro for extra calories, Strawberry shot blocs, a flask of Perpeteum, and I bought 2 extra liters of Gatorade along the way. Next time, I want to double the Perpeteum and carbopro and and ditch one of the bars. Too much chewing!

2. Salt Stix! After about an hour of drinking and eating sweet gus and sports drinks, my tolerance for sweets is low. Very low. I don't know if this has anything to do with not getting enough salt, but I took a couple of Salt Stix pills w/ water during this ride and it seemed to help.

3. Knowing I had to run 13 miles in a relay race the next day, I wanted to try out a recovery drink. I had some protien and a not-so-tasty packet of strawberry Recoverite w/in 20 minutes of finishing the ride. The next morning, I was able to hold a 7:02 pace for my first 8 mile leg of the relay! Of course it was downhill, and it helped that 3 miles from the finish, a guy caught up to me and carried me the rest of the way. Not literally, but after he told me he was "taking it easy" because he did a "really hard workout" the day before, I couldn't let him beat me. When did I get to be so type A? Don't answer that.