Week 7

Date
February 15, 2016

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 7

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
You never know when you're going to have a good day.

I was off for Presidents' Day and the weather was great, so I expected a fun day, but due to recent rides I wasn't expecting much in terms of physical performance. I drove out to Fernley just for a little change of scenery. US 50 is a fun ride when there's not much wind.

I started off feeling stronger than expected and at the 1-hour mark I noticed that I had covered more than 20 miles. I didn't think much of it. It was early, the route is super flat, there hadn't been any stop signs yet, and I probably had a slight tailwind. I just kept riding the same pace.

At the 90-minute mark I was over 30.5 miles in and I had ridden through the only stop signs on the route (in Fallon). That's when I started to entertain the idea of trying to finish in less than 5 hours. Let's take a little step back here. Riding a solo century in less than 5 hours is a thought that I've had in the back of my head for a long time, but I've never actually set a goal to do it because I didn't think I was physically capable. There are rules to goal setting and one of the major rules is that a goal should be attainable. I didn't consider this goal attainable unless I had a tailwind the whole way, and what's the point of that?

I started riding a little harder to see where my time was at the 50-mile mark. If I was still on pace by the halfway point, I'd go ahead and give it a shot.

Close to the turnaround point

I felt myself slowing down between miles 40-50, but when I made it to mile 50 I had 3 minutes to spare. That's when I decided to go for it. I just told myself that there would be 2.5 hours of hell and then I'd have an easy week.

It wasn't exactly 2.5 hours of hell, but I did end up working much harder just to keep a 20mph pace. I felt like I had a slight headwind, but the reality is that I was probably just running out of energy as the ride went on. When I made it to Fallon all of the sudden I was paranoid about the stoplights. I seemed to hit a red on all of them. How horrible would it be to ride so hard and miss out by 1 minute or something just because of a stoplight? After I passed through Fallon I was still on pace, and that's when I actually started to believe. I could give it everything for an hour. An hour is nothing.

I finished with about 3 minutes to spare. I couldn't believe that I had been so lucky. I had a good day out of nowhere. The weather was perfect and I had just so happened to have picked an ideal route- flat with only one town to ride through. Here I was achieving a goal that I hadn't believed to be possible and I did it without any planning or training. (I know this is no big deal for a lot of riders, but I'm not that fast.)

It makes me wonder. I've always had the idea of riding across Nevada in less than 24 hours in the back of my mind, but that's another one that I've never considered attainable. Should I give that a shot this summer? There are a few other "not quite goals" that come to mind. I guess you never know until you try. Should goals really be attainable, or is that just a limit we put on ourselves that actually holds us back?

Week 6

Date
February 12, 2016

Distance
103 miles

Strava Link
Week 6

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
Today was the warmest day we've had so far this year. I took advantage of the weather by riding Kingsbury Grade. The road was in good condition. There was a little bit of sand, but the whole road was completely dry except for one little spot in the shade towards the bottom. I was expecting worse.

Kingsbury Grade

I'm not in good climbing shape, but it felt great to be out there. That's what it's all about- being out there in the sun and doing a good climb. This was the most fun I've had since Tenerife.

Week 5

Date
February 5, 2016

Distance
101 miles

Strava Link
Week 5

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
This was a simple ride out to Susanville and back on 395. You may not think of 395 as a bike friendly place to ride, but there's plenty of shoulder between Red Rock Rd and Susanville. You can just put your head down and ride.

395

The weather was much better than last week, with hardly any wind at all. 45 doesn't sound like much of a high, but with the weather we had in January it felt warm in comparison.

Week 4

Date
January 29, 2016

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 4

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
I drove out to Yerington to avoid the rain, but there was no avoiding the wind. I'm not usually a fan of doing multiple loops, but on windy days like this it helps to break up the headwind portions. After the 3rd loop I was hoping to continue going west on 208 through the canyon there, which is a nice scenic area next to the river. However, the wind was super strong at that point and was gusty near the canyon.

This has never happened to me before, but I couldn't make it through the canyon. The wind was too gusty and unpredictable. I've ridden through a lot of windy days, especially in Washoe valley, but the wind there is usually steady and predictable. Just lean and push through it. This wind wasn't so easy. At one point it turned my wheel sideways and I was lucky not to crash. Even after I stopped and put my foot down, the fight wasn't over. It was difficult to even stand up straight with my bike. During that whole process the wind blew my sunglasses off of my head and they went flying down the road.

I tried a couple more times and wasn't having much luck. I went ahead and put my ego aside and turned around. No need for a stupid, avoidable crash. I took it easy for the rest of the ride. The wind had really picked up and I just wanted to finish without crashing.

As I was driving home there was a lot of rain in Washoe Valley and there was an overturned semi on 580. My day wasn't great, but it could have been worse. At least I stayed dry and upright. On to week 5.