Training Log Archive: biggins

Davis Double. One of these days I'm going to do one of these where the conditions are great. Not today though.

Started from Davis and wandered around the farms a bit, which are dead flat and super duper duper crappy pavement. As in, the parts that were flat were old pitted concrete that vibrated your arms off, and the parts that were paved smooth were because they had patched it all so there were 2" bumps and potholes every 15 feet. I was making good time, but it just took tons of energy and concentration to ride, which isn't really a great way to start one of these.

45 miles in and we hit the mountains climbing towards Boggs, and it was fantastic. I'll take those anyday over the farms. No crazy steep hills, lots of rollers, and a couple solid long climbs. Much less wind, plus downhills. Hit the last summit at 135 then a good downhill, but then 60 more miles of flat bumpy farm field misery, with afternoon headwinds this time.

Started out with a pile of GUs and mini cliff bars in the pockets, and was eating one of those on the hour for about the first 5 hours, plus some banana parts when I stopped to refill the water. I think it worked fine, I felt really good for the first part, but by about halfway through though I was starting to feel tired, but was also just full from drinking all the water. At the lunch stop I had a couple bowls of fruit salad, since they seemed like mostly water anyway, and I didn't want to take one of the sandwiches for fear it would pause my liquid absorption for a couple hours. It wasn't too hot, maybe 85, but my stomach had lots of fluid in it that just wasn't going anywhere, so I was a little worried about that. I felt totally toast by the rest stop at 160, and probably sat there for half an hour. Led a slow pull for a couple guys into the wind for the next 20 miles to the next one, and sat there for another twenty minutes. By that point my stomach felt like it had room for more, and they were giving out instant cup of noodles, so I got one of those down and it got me through the last two legs.

Though barely. I felt totally trashed by the finish. I don't think I'd call it a bonk, which would imply I had extra energy I just couldn't use it because of heat or diet or something. I just had no energy for the last 50 miles and all my muscles were shot. I assume because I don't have that much training this year, and zero from last year, so I'm probably not up to the endurance yet. But it was just survival speed coming back through the last crappy bumpy farm fields. The 12:30 time is a little deceptive as its moving time, it was really 15 hours total (5am->8pm), and all but about 10 minutes of the extra time was in the last 85 miles.

Anyway first time doing this Davis one, and the verdict is that while the ride support was excellent (all the turns were marked, and they actually had a person at all of them for the first 30 miles or so) and the rest stops were great, the course itself is pretty crap. Too much flatness and terrible pavement. Not sure I'd do it again.

And we'll have to see how the Eastern Sierra goes in two weeks, if I feel anything like this one there's no way I'm going to try the triple in LA. Hopefully this one has beat me into shape a bit and ES will be fine, at least that one is mostly mountains, though last time the last 30 miles got more headwind than I knew was possible.

C • and on the plus side ... 2

Finished up the second campground at donner lake, plus some bonus swamp. Also found some sneaky new terrain.

Now down in Davis for some serious road biking tomorrow. Woot.

C • Good luck on the double 1

intervals with Carol

doing the middle campground on the donner lake map