Week 26

Date
June 29th, 2013

Distance
164 Miles

Time
10:34:50

Route Map/Profile

Minus Monitor (the last two climbs)

Weather

Picture

Near the top of Ebbetts Pass

Ride Report
Well, I wanted to go hard at the Alta Alpina Challenge and test myself. The problem is that I went too hard and didn't finish. It's been an awful year for me. I'm now 1/3 for doubles this year and I'm not too sure where to go from here.

The ride started off well. There was a strong group of guys starting off at 5:06 AM and we made quick work of the mostly downhill section before Kingsbury Grade, the first climb of the day. I managed to stay at the front on the Kingsbury climb with 5 other riders without any difficulty. I got dropped on the descent and from that point on I was on my own for the rest of the day.

I made it up Luther and Carson without any problems. I was going hard, but at the time it didn't feel like I was doing anything unsustainable. I kept riding my own pace on Blue Lakes Rd. and made it to the lunch stop with plenty of energy.

The real ride begins after lunch. There is nonstop climbing with both sides of Ebbetts (the steepest of the day) and both sides of Monitor (not terribly steep, but long and very difficult after 160 miles of riding). I know all 4 climbs pretty well and I have ridden them all within the last month. I knew I needed to keep a reasonable pace up Ebbetts in order to have something left in the tank for Monitor.

I rode the north side of Ebbetts at a steady pace, but again I didn't feel like I was riding too fast. I thought I was doing a good job of staying close to my limit, but not going over it. I was even more careful on the south side of Ebbetts. I figured I'd take it relatively easy, recover on the descent, and have energy left over for Monitor.

I made it to the base of Monitor feeling pretty good. My plan was to take Monitor easy and focus on finishing, not speed. I stayed in my easiest gear just spinning along. I didn't make it too far up the climb before I started to run out of gas. What began as a slow but reasonable pace turned into basically a walking pace. I knew the bottom section of the west side of Monitor was the most difficult portion of the climb and if I could just make it a little bit longer there was a flat section coming up. It didn't matter. All of the sudden I had to pull over and catch my breath.

Unfortunately, I've felt this feeling before (this year at DMD and last year in Oklahoma) and I've never been able to shake it. I get out of breath and even the smallest thing makes me feel winded. For example, I dropped my chain when I put my bike down, and it seemed like a huge ordeal just to put it back on. It took 3 attempts to finally put the chain back on and when I was done I felt like I had just done a sprint interval or something. Nothing feels comfortable except lying on my back with my hands above my head. I'll stay that way for a while, start to feel good, and decide it's time to sit up. By the time I sit up I'm already out of breath again. At DMD I was doing this, cramping, and my stomach felt terrible. Today there was no cramping and I didn't think my stomach felt so bad. However, after I decided to pull the plug on the ride and coasted down to the mini stop at the 89/4 junction, I began throwing up. I threw up a good 3 times and all that really came out was liquid and a few chunks of watermelon.

I felt better after throwing up, so I filled up a water bottle and decided to ride back to Turtle Rock Park. I drank a whole bottle on the downhill portion, and by the time I made it to the uphill portion I felt like garbage again. It's not a very steep section of road, but it might as well have been Sierra Rd. at that point. I stopped underneath a tree to catch my breath again. I threw up two more times, which was nothing but the bottle of water that I had just consumed. By this time my stomach was growling, but I was afraid to eat anything and drinking calories didn't seem like much of an option, either. I took a long break under the tree (long enough to see the first two 8-pass riders ride by) until I finally had enough energy to crawl back to the park. It wasn't quite as embarrassing as the SAG ride at DMD, but it was close. It's such a terrible feeling to ride in have people clap for you when you know you have to take the walk of shame to the timekeepers to let them know you only finished 6 passes.

It's difficult to accept defeat. I'm coming off of two solid years in the Triple Crown Stage Race, but this year I'm just garbage. I don't really know where to go from here. At the Terrible Two I proved to myself that I can ride slow and finish, but where's the fun in that? I only seem to be happy riding close to my limit. In 2011 and 2012 I was able to do that without pushing too far. This year I can only seem to push too far. The problem is that I didn't feel like I was going too hard at the time. But what else can it be when you're sitting at the side of the road puking?

Part of me never wants to ride a double again. It certainly hasn't been fun this year. Another part of me wants to go try the Alta Alpina Challenge route again next week.We'll see what happens.