09/18/2006

"Nosce te ipsum" is latin for "Know Thyself."  At 398 miles my body told me in a very painful way that I was done with the Colorado Last Chance!  I wish I could blame the weather or the terrain, but both were rather average, it was my own mistakes, mistakes that I know very well not to do, that stopped me from finishing this ride.

I drove up to Louisville, CO for the ride leaving Mesa on Monday morning, stopping for lunch with my dad in Gallup, NM then spending the night in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  The drive is just about 14 hours, so that left about 5 hours to drive on Tuesday.  I slept in and took my time, so I was well rested and got to the start hotel an hour before the ride check-in.  After check-in I had a nice dinner at Carrabas with Tim Bol, Dan Wallace and Henrik Schroeder who were all from Florida.  We had a nice dinner with good conversation.

I went to bed early and was up at 1:30 am to get ready to go.  The ride start was at 3am, so I had plenty of time and was outside ready to go with about 20 minutes to spare.  The ride started fast with a good descent and some rolling hills.  I was maintaining my place near the front of the group, but I was working harder than I knew I should have, so I pulled out to drop back and saw that I was with a lead group of maybe 5 guys.  Uh-oh, that's not where I wanted to be and is the reason it felt like I was working so hard - because I was!  It was dark and I hadn't been paying attention to my heart rate monitor like I should have been.  We had already gone 15 or 20 miles by the time I dropped back.  I slowed my pace, but kept close enough to see red lights in front so I would know roughly where to turn, but I was now by myself.  It was pretty brisk, in the mid to high 40's, so I was bundled up pretty good with a Craft S3 wind-protecting base layer, long finger gloves, arm warmers, leg warmers, ear warmers and shoe covers. At least I wasn't cold!

When I got to the checkpoint in Byers (at 71.5 miles), the sun had just come up, but it felt like the temperature had dropped so as soon as I stopped I got cold and quickly got my card signed and got back on my bike.  Unfortunately the temperature came up way faster than I expected, or I was bundled up way more than I should have been.  At about 100 miles into the ride I felt hot and noticed that I was completely drenched with sweat.  Crap.  So I stopped and shed my cold weather stuff, but I had waited entirely too long.  I also noticed that I still had an almost full 33 oz bottle of accelerade which meant that I had gone 100 miles on a 70 oz camelbak and on 33 oz bottle of water, that's not nearly enough.

I stopped at the store in Anton (at 126.5 miles), but food selection was really limited.  So I had an ice cream bar and bought some water and a bag of ice to refill my bottles and camelbak.  I was still feeling ok and making great time.  There was a bit of a head/cross wind, but it really wasn't that bad, just kind of tedious.  After Anton Val and Robin Phelps, who ride a bunch of the Casa Grande brevets, came by with Vernon Smith and Paul Foley.  Val invited me to join their pace line, so I jumped on the back.  Somewhere along the way we also picked up Tom Knoblauch and Russell Seaton.  We had a great group going and we traded pulls until we got close to the stop in Atwood (at 251.3 miles).  A few miles out Val was starting to cramp a bit, so he dropped back and group kind of split up, so Russell and I rode in together.  I was just starting to get some cramp twinges myself, so I was glad to get there.  It took us 14 hours 36 minutes from the start.

Dan Shields was running the checkpoint / rest stop and assigned me a room.  Russell just checked in, then said he was going to rest a few minutes and continue, but  I took a shower and changed into more comfortable clothes.  Val and Robin were talking to Dan when I came out of my room.  Dan had ordered some pizzas so I had a few slices.  He said the wind the next day was being forecasted at 20-30 mph out of the South -- a strong cross wind.  It was only around 6pm, so I decided I would stay until 1:30 am, then head out again to try to beat some of that wind.  Val, Robin, Vernon and Paul decided to wait until 3am before leaving.

It took quite a while for me to get to sleep.  But I did manage to get a few hours rest before heading out again.  It wasn't as cold as Wednesday morning, so I didn't put on a base layer and took glove liners instead of full finger gloves.  I did take a jacket since that's easy to take off.  I started much slower this time and the wind had already arrived, so there was a strong cross wind.  I was making decent time, but noticed that I was sweating quite a bit.  More than I should have for my effort.  Outside of Norton (at 313 miles) I started to have some cramps in my legs, so I decided to stop and spend a few more hours at a hotel.  It took just over 4 hours to go 62 miles.  I checked into the Longhorn hotel and immediately fell asleep.  In hindsight, I should have stayed in Atwood longer and I should have left with Val's group.  I got up around 8:30am and was out of Norton by 9am.

I stopped again in Philipsburg and should have bought ice for my bottles and camelbak, but I didn't.  I know better.  I know that when my drinks get hot I don't drink enough.  They got hot, I didn't drink.  By the time I got to Kensington (at mile 360) I was starting to cramp again.  I pulled up to the post office checkpoint just before noon, Kansas time.  Val, Robin, Vernon and Paul were just finishing with lunch at the store across the street, so I decided to leave with them.  I should have stopped to recover more and had some lunch, but I thought it would be nice to ride with a group.  Shortly after leaving Kensington I realized that I couldn't keep their pace without cramping, so I dropped off.

Back in Philipsburg (at mile 377) there was a Subway, so I stopped for a sandwich and to rest.  I definitely wasn't feeling good at this point.  I took my time eating and called Annette to let her know where I was and how I felt.  I took inventory of my mistakes.  Started too hard.  Didn't take off my cold weather clothes when I should have.  Didn't stay at Atwood long enough.  Didn't fill my bottles with ice and wasn't drinking enough.  The mistakes just kept adding up.  This wasn't how I wanted to do this ride and I was disappointed in myself.

When I got back on my bike, my thigh immediately cramped, but it went away pretty quick and I rolled slowly out of town.  There are a series of really long rolling hills between Phillipsburg and Norton.  Going up one hill my leg cramped again, so I stopped and started walking to the top hoping that the walk would help relax that muscle a bit like it did at the Son of Death Ride.  A couple riders past while I was walking up, but I just told them I was walking off a cramp.  I remounted without a problem and went down the other side and started climbing the next roller.  A bit over halfway up that cramp came back, so I got off again to walk to the top. 

But this time when I went to remount, the muscle in my thigh went into a spasm.  There is a huge, huge difference in pain between a cramp and a muscle spasm.  A cramp hurts, a muscle spasm is sheer agony.  When a muscle spasms it very prominently protrudes and the pain makes even breathing difficult.  I couldn't remount my bike.  When the spasm went away I took stock again.  I've ridden through muscle spasms before and it's not fun at all.  After the 2003 Cochise Classic (my first Cochise), I had a lot of muscle spasms and couldn't get off the ground at the finish for almost an hour, just in an incredible amount of pain.  The next year at Cochise I knew what I had done wrong in terms of preparation and what I did wrong during the ride and I was able to finish in 2d place without any pain at all.

This was similar.  It was my first attempt at a 1200k.  Son of Death Ride was a mistake.  It was too much intensity and not enough distance.  I may have been recovered from it, but maybe not.  So, going into the 1200k I wasn't sure I was properly prepared.  Just about everything I had done during this ride led to a mistake, the end result was the beginning of muscle spasms.  I was 10 miles from Norton.  I could have rested some, then suffered my way into Norton to rest.  I probably could have slept and rested for 24 hours and still finished within the time limit.  But being in pain and suffering during this ride is not how I wanted it to go.  So I decided I was done and I called Dan and asked him to come and get me.  I wasn't about to go through the kind of agony I went through after the 2003 Cochise Classic.  When Dan got there I walked over and started taking stuff off my bike but I just about doubled over from a sudden onset of stomach cramps.  I still had some lingering cramping the next day.

There is a reason that the brevet series is a progressively longer series of rides with shorter breaks between events.  Having a 3 month break from long rides between my Arizona Record ride and the 1200k was too much.  When I stopped outside of Norton I just couldn't envision riding another 350 miles, but I know if I ride without making the mistakes I had made on this ride that distance is within my ability.  So I'll try again, maybe next year or in 2008 with a little more knowledge and experience.  But one thing I won't be doing is Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) in 2007.  I want to be able to COMFORTABLY finish a 1200k in the United States before investing the time and money to go to France to do one.  PBP occurs every four years, so the new goal is PBP in 2011.  That should give me plenty of time to develop a bit more and gain some more long distance experience.  This is the second ride I've not finished, but in both cases I believe stopping was the right decision.  There will always be another ride, but continuing when you are in pain isn't fun and could prevent you from doing that next ride. 

For me, that next ride is the 157 mile Cochise Classic on October 14th, an event I finished 2d at for the past two years.  I'd like to get a PBAA "Platinum" time, finishing in under 7 hours 45 minutes.  Last year I had four flats that prevented making that goal.  This year I think I'll be ready, but when it comes right down to the bottom line, what I really want is to just have a nice long fun ride!  Had I continued the Last Chance, I don't think I would have been able to recover enough to do Cochise.  Sometimes the wisest course of action is no action at all.