Feb 20/21 - my three rides

I wasn't sure what else to use as a title for this blog -- "lessons learned" -- "interesting stories" ... but decided to focus on the three chapters of this ride.

Yes, it's over. Yes, I did it again. Yes, I'm probably crazy ... now that these are out of the way, onto the story ... in sort-of chronological order.

Feb 20 was the pre-ride day. I did a couple of things around here like put another coat of paint on that trim, but I mentioned before that was a 5 minute thing. Sandy had a couple of appointments, one first thing in the morning and one that would span my leaving time, so in-between she shuffled her stuff from the X5 to the M5, leaving me to pack my bike.

As with the ride from Melbourne, I put the bike in the car. Although I could put the receiver-mount bike rack on and ease the in/out process, it keeps the bike cleaner inside. Besides -- a minor rear-ender wouldn't hurt the bike inside, but would destroy it outside. Most everything else fit into my bike travel bag, including my laptop, which, as it turned out, was a waste of time.

The drive to Gainesville took about 2.5 hours, much better than the Google estimate of 3+ hours. It was an easy drive -- up I95 to SR40 (Granada @ Ormond Beach); across SR40 to I75; I75 to Gainesville. The NAV predicted 2:10 but it turned to 2:30 with traffic lights etc. It's quite scenic, in a Florida-sort-of-way across SR40. Horse farms, pine forest, sparsely populated and open. Most people's image of Florida is the coastal image -- busy, crowded, street malls -- but I can attest to the fact that I drove almost 60 miles across SR40 without seeing a McDonald's -- because I was looking for one last night !

The motel was easy to find; I checked in around 5pm. I then walked over to a Subway a half-block away and picked up some more snacks ... and a beer ... at a convenience store and I was set. Although the motel had wireless internet I was in the furthest room from the lobby and I think that the signal wasn't strong enough ... oh well. I went over to the hotel lobby a little after 6:30 PM to do the bike-check thing. Jim Wilson was there checking bikes while a helper checked us in, doling out cue cards and baggies.

Jim had mentioned in the email that he wanted to not only check that we had lights, but that they were properly aimed. Well, is he a stickler for the rules -- or perhaps they are just his rules, I don't know. There were people with rear lights attached to seat wedgies and unless the beam from that tail light was horizontal, he wasn't going to approve the setup. He was ok with a variety of other configurations -- seatstay mounts, seatpost mounts -- as long as the view of the light was not obscured or potentially obscured -- but he was picking on droopy mounts. Without his approval, you don't ride. It's a public road, he cannot stop you from riding, but people are doing these rides for credit. There were a couple of people with work to do and he would re-check in the a.m. He loved my "obscene" setup.

Back in the room, I watched the weather channel, since my laptop was non-functional. This was when I had my first inkling, or should have, that I might have trouble in the morning. They were now calling for a "hard frost" for Gainesville. Hard frost means below 27F for at least 2 hours. What happened to 30F ? Does 3 degrees make such a difference ?

I worried about the temperature. I'm a wimp in the cold. How many layers should I wear ? I'd brought plenty. I didn't sleep well. I woke up around 1am and couldn't get back to sleep ... I could have slept at home ! I had my in-room breakfast that I had brought with me -- cereal and milk, of course. I made coffee. I dressed -- 4 layers -- short-sleeved jersey, long-sleeved pullover jersey, long-sleeved zip jersey, light blue jacket. Skull cap under my helmet, shoe covers, leg warmers, long fingered gloves ... I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

I put my stuff in the car, checked out, and walked over to the parking garage at 4:50 a.m., following a few other people. There, in the bright lights of the parking garage, I found about 25 people gathered -- I never did count -- for cue card stamp and final light check for those with dodgey setups.

At 5am precisely, we rolled. For the first 15 minutes, I felt fine. I was adequately dressed. Then, since we were already in the outskirts of the city, we left town, heading north into the countryside. It was dark. There were no streetlights. My lighting setup is great, by the way. I cannot judge the rear lights, but the front lights are perfect -- high beam when I want or need it and bright square-wide low beam. The temperature plummeted, or so it seemed. Low to mid 20's would be my guess once we were out of the city. Once it was lighter you could see the frozen grass. I saw a skim of ice on a small pond.

I was in trouble. I dropped back, but not too far because the GPS wasn't helping me navigate. I braked going down the hills. I rode one-handed, alternating one hand either on my thigh or in my armpit. it was the gloves that were the big mistake. I needed my winter gloves. My trunk was warm enough so far, but my hands were soon unfeeling things at the end of my forearms.

I re-learned another lesson -- country roads are not always well defined in the map databases. All the 705 wanted me to do was "if possible, make a u-turn". At some point I took it out of navigate mode -- all it was doing was wasting its battery with the backlight on.

We came into a small town and I saw someone ahead pull into a convenience store. Unable to take it any longer, I pulled in too and let the group that was ahead of me fade into the distance. I warmed up for a minute, but not enough to really help my hands, and set out again, following the twinkling light of the fellow on the recumbent who had pulled into the store before me.

Soon it was light enough to see but I was in the middle of nowhere. My hands went from no feeling to hurting, which is not a good thing. I worried about them. I stopped and tried to warm them, but they were dead to the world, so-to-speak. I stopped a couple more times, starting to worry that perhaps I might miss the time cutoff at the first Control. I went through a small town. It was too small to have any facilities, ie. gas station / convenience store. I rode on. I seemed to remember that the first Control closed at 9:15. The first control was 15 miles away. I had an hour. I'd only gone 40 miles in 3 hours. At last I came upon a convenience store. I still had 13 miles to go to the control, but had no choice but to stop. As I pulled in, a group of bikers was leaving -- I guess that I wasn't so far behind after all !

First things first, I went to the restroom and ran warm water over my hands. Feeling came back and they hurt like hell. They felt swollen with blood moving in again. After a bit they started to work and I could go out and get money out of my seat-pack and check the control card. I had until 11:00 am ! Why was I worried ? Ha !

I had a coffee. It was flavorless but hot. There was still one biker in the store, sitting over by the side on his cell phone. After a bit he got off the cell phone and I went over to talk to him. He was abandoning. He'd been in the store for 1/2 hour and was still shivering. Clearly he'd come close to hypothermia. He was going to ride back to the beginning ... I tried to convince him to change his mind -- not much time to the first Control, it would warm up soon, I'd ride with him ... but he'd clearly had enough, was beyond thinking rationally. I spent about 15 minutes, I'd guess, rejuvenating myself.

I set out again. I was chilled. My core temperature had probably been on the low side, but at a moderate pace I would have been ok other than my hands. My feet were ok with the shoe-covers. Had the ride stayed at that temperature, I would not have been able to maintain enough body heat ... but the sight of the sun warmed my thoughts, if not my body ... yet.

My first ride of the day was over. My second ride had begun. 10 miles later and I stopped, took off my skull cap, changed my clear glasses for my dark shades, and ... believe it or not ... changed to the cut finger gloves. Who needs fossil fuels ? We need to find better ways of harnessing that solar energy ! It's amazing !

3 miles later and I got to the first control. I'd caught up to a group who were outside the Control (a convenience store) and were just getting ready to leave. I bought some chocolate milk, had to choose between Nestles and another brand -- I bought the Nestles for Ken Mercurio. We have to have some reason for brand preferences, right ? I stood outside, roasting in the sun. I sat down on the curb, taking off my shoe covers, leg warmers and jacket. Oooohhh that sun felt good. I set off again. I was now into a head wind that would stay with me for the rest of the day. I never even took out my MP3 player - there was always too much wind noise. I was headed NE into an ENE wind that pressed against me at this point which had changed to SE by the time I got to the end of the short eastbound leg into Georgia.

I pressed on, making 16-18 into the wind. We were now into the Osceola park, pine forest, flat, deserted. I eventually took note that I'd ridden almost an hour and had only seen one car. As I got to the second Control at 81.4 I was catching up to a group of four riders about to leave. This was an "information control" -- we had to write down the time of Sunday School from the church sign. This was just to prove that we'd been here and had not taken any shortcuts. I set out again, quickly catching up to the 4 riders ahead. I figured that I might ride with them for a while, but it did not seem like any of them were interested in chatting and they always rode the same, glued to the wheel ahead of them and always in the same order. They didn't seem interested in riding any faster or alternating pulling ... They were making about 14 mph. I wasn't prepared to ride extra hours just for the heck of it ... I rode on.

The next control was at 98.8, just inside of Georgia. A group of about 8 riders had arrived just before me and we queued up to purchase our goods -- a V8 for me -- and get our cards signed and stamped. The clerk was incredibly slow, compounded by the fact that we let a few locals go ahead of us -- after all, the stores do this as a favor for us and we shouldn't press our luck. They need to local business to sustain them

I was too warm. I took off the pullover long-sleeved jersey and stuffed it too into my seat pack. By now it was quite stuffed ! I headed south, paralleling the Georgia-Florida state line at this point, into the wind and by myself again/still. The group that had pulled into the Control just before me did not seem in a hurry to leave. The larger the group, the slower it moves -- lollygagging, as Jerry would say.

I ground along, a pleasant day, a deserted road, no traffic lights to slow me down; no traffic to create a wind going my direction or otherwise. Crossing back into Florida at 112 miles I was now in the outskirts of a town and would be in and out of towns the rest of the way.

At mile 120.6 was the lunch control. Jim and his helper had put together an incredible lunch -- sandwiches, snacks, drinks, pasta salad ... It was now around 2pm, as I recall, and I was ready for food. I hadn't had anything since the last control, foolishly, since I usually have a gel or something every 10 miles and I was running on fumes, to use the out-of-gas metaphor. My second ride was over. I was 2/3 through, give or take.

There was a large group already at the lunch control and there I found Hamid, who had left me behind early in the ride. Hamid was the one who I'd ridden with so much during the last ride. Hamid in recovery mode still -- naturally -- had fallen in with another group.

Oh -- when I pulled into the 98.8 control I had seen a group head off just before I pulled in. That group was led by a pair on a tandem ... and as it turned out, that was the group that Hamid was riding with. That group of 5 bikes and 6 people had been riding together much of the day. Tandems make good time and they were clearly helping with the wind ! I overheard someone at the lunch control ask where the "washroom" was and I thought -- ah ha ! a Canadian ! As it turned out, the Canadian was part of Hamid's group.

It did not take long for me to have my sandwich, some pasta salad, some chips and use the "washroom" -- my intent was to join up with Hanid's group. I could have gone off on my own, but these things are much more fun if you can find some like-speed-and-mind groups to ride with. It's slower riding with a group, unless they are all pressing to the max. As it turned out, I'd caught up all the groups on the road other than a group of 7 who had already left the lunch stop. They must have been pressing hard.

My third ride began, and it was at an easier pace. It was an easier pace because I was not in the wind all the time and an easier pace because I was not pushing to my limit. Since I'd caught this group, clearly I was moving faster -- not much, but faster. 1-2 mph makes a huge difference in energy expended. By the end of the ride I was not as whipped as at the end of the prior 300k, for a few reasons -- as mentioned above, the pace and some drafting; the group moved slower coming out of the next-to-last control, and the last 5 miles of the ride was a series of turns through city streets at a slow pace as we navigated in the dark.

The tandem pulled -- a husband and wife, or at least I assumed that. No one else seemed inclined to take over some of the work ... I even heard some discussion and heard --- ooohhh not me, I don't have the legs. Legs or not, it's not fair to let them do all the work. So ... I moved up the side and asked if they wanted to take a rest -- absolutely ! -- and took my turn. I received many compliments for the pull from the tandem pair -- easy to draft behind due to a rock-steady pace and straight line. Later I complimented them, saying that I loved drafting behind them because they had a steady pace and a big wake ! An interesting pair, they are probably in their 40's and have only been riding tandem for the last year. They're from Fort Lauderdale.

So ... that began a semi-rotation that consisted of me, the tandem and two brothers, with the Canadian who I'd not talked to yet, Hamid and later on a recumbent, hanging off the back. The two brothers were fairly strong riders but more erratic in their line and their speed. We were generally maintaining 17-17.5 into the wind, which seemed to be a pace that was sustainable in gusts and maintainable in lulls. The brothers were hard to follow, with an inconsistent line and speeds varying from 15-19, or so it seemed. That leaves you either in the wind working when you're supposed to be recovering or coasting. At one point I indicated that I was ready to move off the front and I heard "oh oh" from behind me and found that the Canadian had miscalculated and was now put in the position of having to take pull. Luckily we were just making a right turn from a particularly wind-in-your-face leg onto a 4-5 mile section with neutral wind. He had no problem and from that point on took his place in the rotation. I'm not sure why he was reluctant in the first place -- perhaps he thought that he couldn't do a long pull ... heck, if you can only do a 1/2 mile pull, do your turn, move over, every bit helps.

I moved to the side to talk to the Canadian at one point (Terry) and found out that he was from Saskatchewan. Later on I found that he was from Saskatoon and lives in Jacksonville, having moved down here 6 months ago. He works for Blue Cross / Blue Shield. Later on we started taking about Randoneering in general and I found out that a) he belongs to the Prairie Randoneurs, which I'd never heard of ... b) he's ridden the Paris-Brest-Paris twice ... c) the Saskatchewan government picked up the tab for their trips ! He's definitely going to be riding the 400k in a month and after I told him about the 400k two weeks from now, perhaps that too. He said that it depends on his schedule for running meets -- he does that too.

It was a good ride. It's probably, hopefully, the coldest ride that I'll do this year, at least at the start. I rode well, making up for lost ground from the first cold section. We finished around 7pm, so just over 14 hours. That is not as good time as the 13:18 from the last time, but my pace was slow for that first 40-some miles and was slower than I could have accomplished for the last 60 ... but that's ok. I met some good people who I'll probably see again.

So I'm running a deficit. According to the 705 I burned 9000+ calories. Add to that the normal day's resting calories, say 1000 or so and I'm easily over 10,000. The 9000, of course, is an estimate, and average. Some of the riding was hard work and would have expended more; some would be less. So -- that's the expenditure -- what did I put in the bank during the day ? Well, including breakfast, I calculate 3100 calories. That includes the cereal & milk, snacks at lunch, calorie-laden drinks at Controls, fig newtons and gels that I brought with me. After the ride I packed in another 3000 or-so calories, I figure, from another sub, chips, an orange soda along with flatbreads and spreads once I got home.

There were definitely times early yesterday morning when I was thinking -- "why am I doing this to myself ?" -- but now, I feel good. The feel good time lasts much longer than the pain.

This was probably a longer writeup than you needed or expected ! Onward ... now for the 400 ! It will likely be warmer (it had better be!) but of course it could be wet. Who knows ...

I'm hungry ... it's time for lunch !