100 Kilometers!

I wrote in June about my Summer Riding Goal.  As July was coming to a close my right knee started hurting.  We cut a couple of our training rides short because of it.  I gutted out my longest ride last week but not without a lot of pain in both knees.  Les did some research on the cause of knee pain when cycling.  It appears the pain was from the position of my bike seat/saddle.  He made an adjustment and I rode on Monday with little pain.  Still, as we left our house at 5:00 yesterday morning, I was a bit concerned.

We drove to Ventura, parked and Les started putting our bikes together (he takes the wheels off to fit them in the car.)  We started riding at 6:45 under cool skies.  Our route took us from Ventura to Santa Barbara.    We rode inland for a while on the way out, but we stayed along the ocean as much as possible.

 

My other concern for such a long outing was nutrition.  I did not want to bonk.  I had yogurt and a banana at home, then sipped on a coffee on the 45 minute drive.  A few minutes before we started rolling I ate a Hammer Gel (about 100 calories.)  I had two water bottles on my bike, each one had a scoop of Hammer Perpetuem (approximately 250 calories) and an Endurolyte Fizz tab.  I also ate part of a Cliff Bar when we stopped for restroom breaks.

I told Les to start off a little slow so my legs could warm up.  One of the things I've struggled with on the bike is "drafting."  Drafting behind another rider can save about 25% of energy.  My fear is riding too close, then tapping the wheel in front of me causing a crash.  When drafting it's a fine balance of riding too close or not close enough.  I really worked on that yesterday and felt like I made a lot of progress!

 

Les had created a route that was fairly flat.  Almost all of our climbing happened in the first half.  By the time we got to Santa Barbara I was still feeling really good and my confidence was climbing.  We decided to ride back to Summerland and take a break.  We were 40 miles in when we had our Bodacious cinnamon roll.  We ate the cinnamon roll, drank water and topped off our water bottles.  I also took a Hammer Enduroltyes Extreme tab and a couple of other things Les had in his bag of goodness.

 

Not long after we left Summerland, we were back on the coast.  There is a beautiful stretch that is right along the beach.  It is also a dedicated bike lane that is protected by a wall from traffic.  Vehicles were flying by us on the US 101, but I never felt afraid.  

My drafting skills were improving and at one point I even told Les he could speed up a little!  Our average speed at the 40 mile mark was 11.8 mph.  Our final average was 12.5, so we definitely picked up the pace.  When we got back to Ventura we were about a mile short, so we took a little detour up the bike path to make sure we got all our miles in.

The final stats:

63.03 miles in 5:03:29 (moving time.)  12.5 mph average, maximum speed 30 mph.  2,066 feet of climbing.  Average heart rate 115, max 146.  1,743 calories burned.

The final analysis:

I had a blast!  My knees felt really good the entire day (and I'm still feeling good this morning.)  We saw a lot of smiling people throughout the day, including a little girl at the cafe who was celebrating her 5th birthday.  We saw lots of people who were camping along the beach.  There was a family who rented bikes and Les heard the mom say, "I haven't ridden in so long, I forgot how fun this is."  I couldn't agree more - riding is so fun and riding with the one I love to celebrate his day made it perfect!