Katy Flatland Century - Results

You think you do everything right in preparation the days before and the morning of only to be left asking what did I do wrong? Yesterdays results was disappointing to say the least but, I am not all that upset.

I'm fairly sure all my preparations were O'k, I hydrated plenty the days before the ride, I ate high carb and high protein foods and then I hydrated more. I did no hard rides the week of the ride and limited them to under 20 miles a ride at easy paces to just keep my muscles loose. So why did I cramp out at 47 miles?

I think I have the answer to that question. The first 30 miles of the ride were in the nice cool morning, we were keeping a pace of 24 to 28 mph for nearly all of that first 30 mile's. Way out of my training zone, I normally ride 17-20 mph. In a group though it is easy to go faster as you can draft (like in NASCAR) but you still are exerting energy. At about 35 miles I decided that I wasn't going to keep up with that group as I was getting pretty tired. What I didn't realize until last night/this morning was that the first 30 miles I drank no water or Gatorade! BIG MISTAKE! The weather was just so nice that I never felt thirsty, but hey, lesson learned.

Anyways, from 35 miles to 47 miles I was getting some light cramps in my calf's and that little muscle that runs down your shin bone so I started drinking like a mad man. It was too late though, by 47 miles my left leg ceased to function and my right leg I could barely get off the pedal to stop. On top of that, the last 4-5 miles of that struggle the road was some crappy paved cobblestone that really beat the crap out of my entire body. My arms, chest, and back hurt from all the shaking and rattling.

I called the SAG wagon (support vehicle) to come get me and they took me to pit stop 7 were I was supposed to catch another SAG back to the finish line, but I just couldn't do that. I waited for about 30 minutes drinking some pickle juice and eating a bunch of other salty snacks and hydrating to make a final decision. I decided that from stop 7 to the finish line was 12 miles and I didn't want to cross the finish line in the back of a truck, so I got back on the bike to cross it under my own power.

That last 12 felt like hell. My arms and chest were so sore from that cobblestone it was a chore to hold the handlebars and my legs were sore from all the cramping. I kept a slow pace of 15-18 mph and with 3 stops (in 12 miles...lol) I finally made it back to the start only to find there was no finish line!!!

Anyways, I ended up riding 58 miles with total ride time being 3hrs 20mins.  I did set some new pace records for myself and 58 miles is 7 miles further than my previous longest distance.

Oh - Yesterday I told you I weighed in at 210.8 lbs. After the race I weighed in at 206.6 lbs and this morning at 205.2 lbs. Lost water = cramps....grrrr

New personal records:
Fastest 1 Mile: 2min 39sec
Fastest 10 Miles: 28min 26sec

Here's a pic of me afterwards. My face is all squished up because it hurts from the sun (it did get really hot) and I can hardly keep my eyes open from the sun, wind and my contacts.  I look like roadkill..lol

MAP UPDATE

Century day!

Well, it is about 4:30 in the morning and I am ready to go. I have eaten 2 scrambled eggs, a banana and some oatmeal. this mornings weigh in was at 210.8 lbs. I am guessing I will lose 5-8 lbs today in fluids no matter how much I hydrate. My goal is to have both of my water bottles drank and refilled every 2 restops (about every 25 miles).


Live tracking can be done at http://www.endomondo.com . Enter "Donald McDade" in the search box in the upper left corner of the page and then click my name. You will see a blog like entry that says "Donald McDade is out cycling. So far he has...blah blah blah..."  CLICK THE WORD CYCLING. That will show you a live map with current stats.

See you guys later!
Don

The Katy Flatland Century - July 22, 2012

So, this weekend is a Century ride (100 miles) in Katy, TX called the 2012 Katy Flatland Century Ride. This will be my first century ride. I'm hoping this will be relatively easy as I hear it is very flat and hardly any hills; so it ought to be a good first.

Coincidentally, this will also be 80 days smoke free for me. I did not think I would be ready for this so soon, but my lungs are feeling awesome! For all my friends at QuitNet.com, KTQ!

Wish me luck people!

Pundt Park

I was looking on Google maps the other day and saw what appeared to be a bunch of trails in some wooded area by the house. So last night I invited a couple friends over to go ride it with me and when we got to the area - we discovered it was a county park. AWESOME!

We rode a couple of miles through it last night, but the flooding coupled with the darkness had us traveling pretty slow.

Today, I decided to go check out the place in the daylight. This park is awesome for trail riders. It extends currently about 12-15 miles East to West (including both Pundt Park and Jones Park)and is being added on to as well. The park ranger told me it will extend as far as Tomball which will put it at total distance around 32 miles one-way.

I ended up getting turned around by flooding about 7 miles into the trail, then on the way back I got hammered by a severe thunderstorm. Took my almost 15 minutes to go 1 mile cause I couldn't see it was raining so hard. I had to wait it out at the park shack because of all the lightning. IT WAS AWESOME! and I was soaked!

Here's some pics of the park!

Half Century - Goal Completed

Today I went riding with my friend Tony; we had a 40 mile ride planned out. About 30 miles into the ride I decided to try 50 miles (yea, I know right). Being the mad man Tony is, he agreed to push me along (more like pull me along). When we hit 40 miles I was happy as a clam, I hadn't biked that distance since I was in my teens. At 45 miles I was like wtf am I doing? At 48 mile's I was anxious to finish and had a short energy boost...very short. At 49 miles I was cursing myself for wanting to try 50; at this point I'm just trying to keep my speedometer above 17.3 mph to maintain an average speed over 17 mph. At 50 miles, I was in total agony as I was expecting to be done and there was still another mile to go! Finally we clocked in 51.01 miles and none to soon!

Here's a snapshot of our ride. The distance between the dots = 1mile and we started and finished at the dot with the halo.

Congrats to my wife!

I'm not sure of the exact date, but it has now been just over 5 years since my beautiful wife has quite smoking. I love you babe and happy quit day!

It's official - 2 MONTHS SMOKE FREE!

Yes, that is right, today I turn the big 6 0, 60 DAYS SMOKE FREE!

On the lighter side, I got a flat tire the other night and it won't hold air patched so I have to go buy a new tube today. I think I'll get some tire liners as well for some added protection.

The STATS
Quit date: 5/3/2012 8:00:00 AM
60 days, 3 hours smoke free
1203 cigarettes not smoked.
$239.40 Saved