The morning started out with the typical Sunshine Cycling Shop Hour of Power ride. However, that ride was colored by the thought I planned to do a second ride during the day with some of my teammates. That ride turned out to be something a little different. The day ended with me completely on empty.
The HOP was a little different since I decided that I wasn’t going to go very hard. I moved to the back and watched how other riders would move to take control. I might as well, on Meece Bridge I didn’t have a chance anyway.
When I replaced my chain last week, I didn’t replace my rear cassette. Several of the gears in the cassette were worn to the old chain. As we headed up toward the straight on Meece Bridge, my chain kept popping when I went under load. I dropped to the rear of the field as I tried to find the cog that wouldn’t drop my chain.
It was a bit of a handicap for the rest of the ride, but at least I was up there to see some of the action as we continued. Tyler was a happy man as he took Meece Bridge and then the quarry road. I’ll take a little credit for that last one as I paced him on my wheel up much of the climb.
My biggest effort of the morning came leading out on the State Park Road sprint. It took a long time to get organized, but I was able to pull the field for quite a while. Unfortunately, I think I dropped the leaders off just a little too soon. It was kind of fun to watch the sprint to the top from a distance.
Back at the shop John switched out my cassette and I was now good to go for the afternoon’s ride. I went by the house to get down an egg salad sandwich before getting back on the bike to head over to Furman University where I planned to meet Reece Jackson (who had issued the invitation) and some of the other teammates on the POA Cycling Team. It was a beautiful day and I was looking forward to spending some time with the guys.
I didn’t time things very well so I was really having to put some effort out to make sure I made it before they left. Thankfully, I made it into the parking lot just as they were mounting their bikes to start the ride. No opportunity to catch my breath – it was time to roll.
Hmmmm, I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Reece wasn’t there nor were a number of the other teammates. The only rider in the group that was on my level was my teammate Billy White.
The three other guys on the ride were Eric Christopherson, Rodney Dender, and Darin Marhanka. Then there was Billy White and me. I kept telling myself, “It’s okay. You can ride with these guys.” Fact is, I know I could ride with these guys, only several things conspired to make this one of my worst days on the bike.
The three seasoned riders set a pretty fast pace in the beginning. Billy and I were just trying to sit in and get used to the speed. Then it came my time to pull through and take the front. I was there with my teammate, Darin. He was moving along enjoying the ride and asking me some questions about my son. I was trying to stay with him and trying to control my breathe so I could answer him.
I’m not sure when it happened, but we were more than an hour and a half into the ride (for me it was about two hours from the time I left the house) when I started to feel bad feelings. I had been sucking water and sports drink. Still, I was feeling the power go out of my legs. I needed something more, but all had was some blocs. I had planned on this being a two hour ride – and it was looking like we were headed for four.
Breakfast was an egg muffin sandwich. That was probably about 300 calories. Lunch was that egg salad sandwich. It was around 400 calories. Hmmmm, 1000 calories plus the calories stored in my body don’t quite equal 6000. However, that was where I was headed.
I decided I had to get something more in there, so I pulled out my package of blocs. I had a bear of a time getting them open and finally had to take my hands off the bar to try to get into the thing. Finally, I got one in my mouth as we were going downhill. The problem is that opened a pretty large gap between the other guys and me. I had to work to catch back on and that signified the end of my day.
From that point on I could stay with them – even at speed – as long as we were on the flats or a slight climb. Any climb that required an extra effort left me pushing my legs to respond and causing me to drop off the back. I would then ride at my own pace until I caught the others at a stop sign.
I kept telling them to go on without me. I could find my way home from here. We were near Caesars Head by this time. They kept waiting for me anyway. At least once I was glad.
Once we crossed over Highway 11, I started to hear an odd rattle coming from my bike. I didn’t have too much time to worry about it because I was chasing. However, now that I was alone, I noticed it even more. It even kept getting worse. Then I heard a “twang” and knew one of my rear spokes was broken.
Thankfully, it was easy for me get off and after catching my breathe, I got back on and continued. The problem was that I wasn’t sure which way the others had taken. About the time I thought I would have to pull out the GPS on my Garmin, Rodney came back for me. They had taken a right turn I’m sure I would have missed, but with Rodney leading me I was back on track.
Once again I managed to stay in and keep up until we reached a significant hill. By this time every stroke where I had to put out power I neared a cramp. By the time I reached the top of this hill I was cramping.
The others rode on without me and I didn’t see them again. I was glad! The pain of the embarrassment of making them wait for me was worse than the pain in my body! I would much rather suffer alone.
Finally, I made it to Marietta. I stopped once more to refill with water and started off for Travelers Rest. I kept envisioning the road ahead. However, I had to stop that because there wasn’t much encouragement in that process. I still had close to 20 miles to go!
Rolling through TR I looked down at my kit. It had several lines of white all over. It was the salt from my sweat. My feet hurt. My legs were cramping. I fingers were getting tingly. My rear wheel was wobbling and rubbing the brake pads even with the levers open. I felt like if I drank another swallow of water or sports drink I was going to get sick.
I reached Old Buncombe Road and reached the point where I had to decide between two roads to home. One way was a little longer and the other way was shorter but had more traffic. I NEVER take the route with more traffic. This time I would. Traffic be hanged, I needed to get off this bike!
It wasn’t that far to home, but a couple times I almost stopped to call my wife to come pick me up. “Hello, dear, I think I’m going to die. Could you come pick me up?” Of course, by this time I was talking in a hoarse whisper.
Finally I pulled into home. Turns out a ride I thought might be 40 miles ended up being over 70. Add that to the 30 plus miles I did in the morning and I had over 100 miles. Even that isn’t so bad except I had put out a good amount of energy in the morning and then to turn around and ride with those guys was more than I have done in months. I definitely didn’t eat expecting that kind of ride. I ended up losing almost 8 pounds!
For the rest of the day I lay on the couch drinking and eating. I felt like I had a fever and any movement of my legs could cause a cramp. I have not felt this bad since Mount Mitchell. In some ways, it was even worse than that ride.
From now on before I go on a ride, I’m going to want to know who is on it, where they plan to go, and how fast they plan to ride. Maybe I can be better prepared. At the same time, I think I’ve learned that I can have a major bonk, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to die.
